We have them in Israel we well and last summer they seemed to prefer my Systane-sprayed Iceberg over my non-sprayed Garden Director. Iceberg was lacy for a while. I happened upon one of the bees while she was at it. Fascinating. I didn't even mind Iceberg getting shredded in front of my very eyes. Iceberg got over it pretty quick. It seems to get over just about anything.

I just noticed some of those circles the other day and wondered if they were from leaf cutter bees, how cool! I would love to see one at work, I'm always thrilled when I realize a new bug I've never seen before is a kind of bee. Recently I was dead heading my Gold Medal and while deciding whether a somewhat faded bloom should be clipped a little bee came to visit. At first I thought it was a wasp because it was smaller than a honeybee and had a thinner body, but then I saw the furriness and small pollen sacks on the legs and I realized it must be some kind of little bee. I left the bloom alone.

I know a little from having had them visit us in Texas, but I haven't seen them very much here. They actually tunnel in pithy wood, so sometimes you can see sawdust on the ground near wherever they are building their nests (often in older rose canes). Those little leaf circles they cut are used inside the tunneled-out area to build the cells of their nest. They are very solitary so you don't see a lot of them at one time. And, as you have noticed, they like certain plants more than others, so they keep coming back to their favorites and ignoring other plants. They never did enough damage to a plant that it suffered, at least not that I could tell. New foliage always came out to replace the damaged leaves, but if they completely stripped a branch or twig, I always pruned it off (after they were done) to stimulate new growth. As far as I know, they have very few natural predators, and the ones I know of (parisitic wasps and flies) are predators you don't want to encourage, because they also go after butterfly cats. If it really, really bothers you and you fear for the life of your plants (smaller plants would find it harder to rebound from the destruction of their foliage), you can keep the bees off by covering them with floating row covers/sheer curtains/something similar. In general, though, they cut enough leaves to build the cells in their nests, and then they're gone. And, their population is not at all consistent....very heavy some years and almost nonexistent other years, so you may not see them again any time soon. Dawn

I'll have to see if I can get them out of the trash tomorrow for a picture. We have a teak patio table and teak chairs that are small slats laid in a board on board pattern. The had layered tubes attached to the small slats. They kind of looked like mini cigars. In one place there were about 8 attached side to side in the cavity between boards, then in another about 15 while the third only had 3 together. He had to look real hard to find them because we weren't looking for something that looked like that. They can hang out and build nests and pollinate all they want I just can't have them nesting on and around the patio table or chairs. After some research we may have to look at building them some nesting locations and hang them from the eaves of the house.