First, it is not just bees (and more specifically, honey bees) that provide pollination services....so do virtually all other bee species, wasps, sawflies, flies, moths, butterflies, beetles, ants, hummingbirds and bats. To encourage pollinators to your garden you need to plant the sorts of flowering plants that attract them. Most flowering native plants are good choices but you can also select from this list. The more of these plants you have available and blooming throughout the growing season, the more pollinators you will attract to your garden.

Avoid any pesticides. If you have insect issues, use bee-frendly control methods, like diatomaceous earth (avoid getting on plant blossoms) or row covers. Or even hosing down the plants with water (will disturb lots of foraging insects) or hand picking. If you do need to spray, do so when the bees and other pollinators are inactive, typically at dawn and dusk.

Mason bees are rather specialized. Typically they have a very early and short season of activity, usually as soon as temps warm up in early spring. For this reason, they are often employed to pollinate fruit trees, which bloom early in the season (hence the name "orchard" bees). But once they've accomplished this activity and gathered up sufficient pollen to feed their young, they lay their eggs and die - it is unusual to find them active past May. They are unlikely to provide the pollinating activity you require later in the season.

And finally, it's important to understand how the plants you are growing are pollinated and much of that info can be found online if you search by specific plant. Lots of veggies do not require insects to achieve pollination but rely on wind to fertilize the flowers - corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc. And root or leaf crops (carrots, radishes, beets, lettuce, spinach, other greens) don't require flowering or pollination at all to realize a decent harvest. In fact, pollination is only required if you are harvesting fruits or seeds.

Cucurbits or members of the squash family (includes melon and cucumbers) can be difficult to achieve successful natural pollination. This is partly due to when the flowers are produced and their sex (males first, then the female blossoms) but also the frequency with which the flowers are visited by the pollinators. Female flowers are only open for a single day and need at least 15 visits to accomplish proper fertilization. Hand pollination/fertilization is often recommended for these types of plants.

Growing A Greener World had an interesting episode focused on mason bees. Lots of good info.

http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/solitary-bees-pollinators/

I'm going to be converting a wooden birdfeeder I have that's useless (too many outdoor cats hang around my house/neighborhood so birds have left) into a mason bee house.

Agree with gardengal that if you want year round pollinators then mason bees won't be effective for that. You'll need to make your yard pollinator friendly and encourage more than just mason bees for that to happen.

Rodney

I have lots of Carpenter bees that pollinate my plants along with honey bees, wasps and butterflies.

Ok, thanks for gotten one I went the site u gave me, gardengal, I am going to work on bee friendly. I was trying to get some work in garden done, found some bean leaves cut funny kinda looks like pictures of what a leaf cutter bee does, have not seen any grasshoppers in garden so maybe something is around. I have one (yep only one) spaghetti squash forming either a result of sticking my finger in or some little critter took pity on me. I have read at least a 1/2 dozen sites and am taking notes but this learning curve isn't going to be "curvy" enough just yet. I am barely able to discuss the topic, need more input. :)

seems I need to lookup carpenter bee also. Thank u zzackey.

Carpenter Bees

Economic Importance

While the damage to wood from the drilling activities of a single bee is slight, the subsequent year's broods will expand the tunnel through branching activities and may cause considerable structural damage. Additionally, they will commonly defecate on the wall or other item directly below the opening causing stains.

Carpenter bees do not eat wood. They excavate the tunnels for shelter and as chambers in which to rear their young. They usually attack unpainted objects such as doors, windowsills, roof eaves, shingles, railings, telephone poles, and sometimes wooden lawn furniture.

A carpenter bee begins her nest by drilling a nearly perfectly round entrance hole (about 1/2 inch diameter) into the wood. This hole is usually against the grain of the wood. When the tunnel is about 1 inch deep, the bee turns at right angles to the initial hole and tunnels with the grain of the wood. Bees prefer to attack wood that is greater than two inches thick.

Life Cycle

Young adult male and female bees hibernate in the tunnels during the winter. They mate in the spring and set about to clean out and enlarge the old tunnels or to excavate new ones as brood chambers for their young. Each chamber is provisioned with a portion of "bee bread", a mixture of pollen and regurgitated nectar, which serves as food for the larvae. An egg is deposited on the food supply and each chamber is sealed off. There are typically 6 to 8 chambers created by the female. The larvae that hatch from the eggs complete their development and pupate. Newly developed adult carpenter bees emerge in August, feed on nectar and return to the tunnels to over-winter. Zzackey where are ur carpenter bees nesting?

You may want to talk with the people at your local office of the University of Florida's Cooperative Extension Service about bee keeping.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_beekeeping

kimmq is kimmsr

Ok part of my ploy to be a better organic gardener. This is more countrified where I live and neighbors or strangers tend to abandon or not truly keep up with their cats. I had a cat show up in yard yesterday and I observed him (from a distance- he/she wildesh) obviously hunting lizards (a native species) MY Organic Bug control, right, so I raided frig. for leftovers. He/she is back, my daughter just came in and asked for leftovers for the "poor little kitty", jeeze I am not really a cat lover either oh well life in the boonies.

Thanks Kimmq, still reading that site. BTW how do u get this thing to hi light the web site instead of Copy and Paste thingy :)

You attach it as a link, per the icons at the base of each post. That way, you are able to label it as you wish as well as click on it for direct, linked connection.

Thank u gardengal. Why do my post's still have edit or delete at top and urs don't ?

floridasnativebees.com. Ah ha got it

"Why do my post's still have edit or delete at top and urs don't ?"

Because I don't have the ability (or permission) to edit or delete YOUR posts :-) After posting, the edit and delete buttons are only visible and accessible to that poster, no one else. And even that feature is not permanent to that poster - there is a time limit as to how long those features remain functional.

Ok, delivered oldest daughter to airport, she is back in Az. but I am currently across town babysitting youngest daughter's dog/house while she and hubby on road trip to New York for weekend. Bored. Thursday I weeded, plucked leaves off any garden plant that had "squiggly" lines in leaf, Leaf Miners-looked up on net, then sprayed with Epson Salt solution, looked on net-not harmful to bees. Found a few more leaves that had similar cut out portions like pictures of Leaf Cutter Mason Bee. I am wondering where they are nesting. According to info they are not restricted to 300ft. from garden. If I provided one of those Mason Bee houses do u think they might decide to move in? Maybe I can then add the kind of mason bee that works during spring months, supposedly the two get along. Also planning on repurposing a couple raised beds in garden with some flowers that were suggested as their favorites. Maybe then I can get veggies plants that absolutely require a pollinator, i.e. cucumbers, squash, melons, pumpkin, etc. :)

jwag, going to send you back to do some more research :-) Your leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.) are not mason bees (Osmia spp), just sort of related to them. Leafcutters build their own nests and housing and have a different period of activity than do the early rising mason bees. I doubt they will be interested in living in a mason bee house

Also despite what you have found onlne (there's as much BAD info out there as good!), Epsom salts is NOT an insecticide. Especially against something like leafminers. In fact, magnesium sulfate - Epsom salts - has minimal usage in the garden with the possible exception of addressing a magnesium deficiency.

The Myth of Epsom salts.

Leafminers, because they reside inside plant tissue, do not respond to topical insecticides, so spraying anything is pointless. But they also do no significant damage and do not adversely harm the plant, so no control is necessary. They just produce some aesthetic damage. If anything, just removing and destroying affected foliage (which will include the insect culprit as well) is all that is required.

Just plant a lot of pollen producing flowers and the bees and other pollinators will come. And be aware that even with lots of pollinators, you may still need to do some hand work with with squashes and melons, etc.

http://www.floridasnativebees.com/leaf-cutter-bees.html, http://crownbees.com/learn-mason-bees. http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/solitary-bees-pollinators/. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in619.

4. Green Up Foliage

Plants that aren’t getting enough magnesium can be identified by their yellowing leaves. This is because magnesium is an essential component in the production of chlorophyll. Try sprinkling Epsom salt around your plants to achieve healthier foliage. About 1 tablespoon per 12 inches of height once a month will benefit the plants in your vegetable garden, as well as any trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses you want to green up.

I diluted 1tblsp/gal. Epsom for Tx of yellow leaves, sorry my blog wasn't clear on that point.

I picked the leaves with "squiggly" so I would not, in time, have an infestation possibly. I then promptly burned those leaves.

the above sites are just some I read so far and saved to bookmark. Most sites list the different species and among other info there is usually info about their nesting preferences. Reeds, hollow stems, beetle bore holes, ground, under rocks, etc. are listed and some of the info led me to believe that Leaf Cutters Megachili and Osmia have similar nesting habits, the "houses" would be acceptable to both, Osmia for spring and Megachili for summer & fall.

According to Crown Bees (an excellent authority!) masons aren't happy in Florida or other gulf states: http://crownbees.com/shop/bees/mason-bees. A lot of masons for sale are grown in Utah, Washington, and Oregon and wouldn't be suitable for your climate. (Sorry.)

Like you're already doing, your effort is probably best put towards improving habitat and learning about native bees from local resources. Also check out local listings on craigslist or maybe even eBay. If people are raising local bees and selling them for profit, that's where you'll find the ones that will be happiest in Florida. Just make sure they tell you where their bees were raised and harvested. Good luck!

There ARE mason bee species (Osmia spp.) that are native to Florida - the link I attached to early on discuss them in bare detail but Osmia chalybea, O. calaminthae and O. sandhouseae are all native to the southeastern US including the Gulf states. Utilizing native pollinators is always of more benefit than importing them in from mail order so I'd encourage you to look for masons locally. As they are active so early in the season, they may be helpful for those very early pollination duties - like fruit trees - when other pollinators may still be in their winter slumber.

While the article linked below does not specifically address pollinators in Florida it does give some pretty general information usable by most anyone. There is also a book out by Jessica Walliser, "Attracting beneficial bugs to your garden:.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/attracting-beneficial-insects-to-your-garden.aspx

kimmq is kimmsr

Hey everyone, Happy New Year. I think I have a native bee. I an outside plug that has the usual plug with that round hole for the grounding part of a plug and guess what I spotted a "bee" that looked similar to a yellow jacket but was black with stripes (couldn't tell stripe color) and it was verrry interested in that round hole. After the little feller left I checked and sure enough the hole was plugged up. I guess I will have some baby natives when they hatch huh. Whatever species of native this critter is it must like tube type places for its nest and the plug it used is on the east side of my house which gets the morning sun and is shaded some what around 11:30a.m. According to the literature on natives that would be the location for one of those little houses with all the tubes in it for natives that like that kind of shape for their nest. What do u all think? Should I hang a house in same area? Will the spring type maybe show up and make themselves at home ( the one in the plug I think is a summer kind)? Will the spring and summer types get along or should I hang 2 houses? I remember the info on spring types mentioned they like clay type dirt/mud near nest but not under nest and they don't travel far for pollen and the garden is close (30-40 ft at most). Yes/No/Maybe this plan will work? :)

Hey everyone hope everyone is having good day and good gardens.

Pollinators still a problem but a new discovery has me going 'ahah' Parthenocarpic. I'm surprised nobody mentioned this possible solution. Will be growing Parthenocarpic zucchini from now on, and any other veggy I find that is Parthenocarpic. :)

Here is an update on pollinator problem. Planted some sunflowers in another location was amazed at how many native bees they attracted (small as a house fly black with gray stripes) so I planted 6 pots with sunflowers and placed near a water melon plant in garden just waiting for them to start flowering along with a squash plant that is not Parthenocarpic. That is the other interesting find Parthenocarpic plants. I never knew that type of plant existed and only found two kinds in a seed catolog, cucumber and zucchini. I already see baby cukes forming and have harvested four zucchinis. Ah ha pollinators need not apply.

Pollinators problem solved! I now have a honey bee swarm that took up residence on my property,see photo. The pot contains hive, have researched info on raising honey bees and I am going use this swarm to increase amount of hives. Have equipment for bee keeping on the way so I can transfer them into a Langstroth medium brood box then I will, in the spring, move box to area that will eventually become the home of all bee hives. Closer to garden of course. YES, I have pollinators!!!