North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["seth jones" <setjon@gmail.com>]

Del
I don't think these bees are going to survive -41 0r anywhere like it. I had been bringing mine in to a basement under my garage which only got down to 30F. I had success overwintering until my own sequel to "The Birds" ended the colony. The little holes you are seeing are very likely from parasitic wasps which lay eggs inside the cocoons. What the sources I've found recommend is moving the tubes inside as soon as the bees have reentered the tubes and gone dormant. (Around mid June here in zone5 in NY state.) Placing them inside a box with a screen or something like that can be effective. As to the tubes inside the blocks- sounds like a lot of work. You can place the tubes inside a pvc  pipe and make a colony that way. But with winters that cold I don't know how much success you will have with wild bees.
Good Luck
seth
zone5

On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 12:04 PM, D Stubbs <dsmndel@gmail.com> wrote:

I too have had limited success so far with osmias. First year I paid a whopping $1 each to get 20 bees from Utah, but then had little re-populating into new tubes. Next 2 years I put out copious bunches of various sized native reed tubes, only a few had mud on the end by fall. One day however I noticed a tiny wasp bringing in a tinier caterpillar  into a tube and mudding it over, so now I wonder when I have 'mudded over' tube ends just which animal has laid eggs!
I too have many with tiny  holes in the end by mid summer.
A parasite?
Last year I took a number of 2x6 blcks, drilled 5+" long holes cross grain in them and hung them on various corner posts in our orchard at various heights. The best height seemed to be about 4' off the ground. 2' up had no mudded ends.
So this winter I will work up a few dozen more blocks and scatter them in even more disparite places to learn the preference.
Does anyone know how to examine the 'mudded end' and know it is actually osmias or not?
Anyone feel it is worth it to buy paper tube inserts to put in my wood blocks - versus just drilled holes?
thanks, Del
Z 2/3 ...  still undecieded -  lowest this year so far is -41F

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