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Bee Hotels

August 22nd, 2019

There’s been a lot of talk of insect/bee hotels lately. I’ve been seeing them in most of the botanical gardens that I’ve visted over the past few years. This one was featured at one of the arboretums in Paris.

It’s very cute and looks lovely in the garden. While I’ve always thought about building one, I’ve never gotten around to it. Lately, studies have shown that they’re not as beneficial as once thought. It’s much more effective to produce more natural habitats for them. We have a few large brush piles in the woods where lots of these types of bees and other insects can live. We leave dead trees standing if they’re not a hazzard to us or the house. There are lots of things you can do to help native bees without providing apartment complexes for them. Now I don’t feel so bad about never making one.

Have you spotted any native bee hotels in local gardens?

4 Comments to “Bee Hotels”
  1. Grannie M on August 22, 2019 at 8:24 am

    We just lost an evergreen tree to a wind storm/tornado. As they were taking the branches from the trunk we found several places on the trunk where there were what appeared to be rings of holes around the trunk. I am guessing these were from mason bees. Sometimes I’m not sure that one would want to encourage this type of bee to “live” too close and so yes natural brush piles far enough away and yet near enough for the bees to visit are a good thing.

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  2. Misti on August 22, 2019 at 9:29 am

    I mostly see them at botanic gardens or at state parks with a wildflower habitat demonstration area. But yes, I too have seen the studies that they aren’t very good to have!

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  3. Margie on August 22, 2019 at 10:18 am

    I think that the bug hotels, like many things, are just one way of looking at the environment. What I think they are excellent for is encouraging kids to look at the world with eyes that say, “It’s not just about me.” We have a very small bug hotel in our suburban backyard, and my young kids are fascinated by it. With the amount of land you manage and have to plant, that amount of effort seems more like Insta-bait than the best use of your resources. Different right answers for different situations.

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  4. Chris on August 22, 2019 at 11:53 am

    I agree with Margie in that they are a good way for children and adults as well, to observe miniature wildlife that they wouldn’t necessarily see as most people don’t live in areas that are inhabited by different kinds of bees, insects, etc. We can’t save, help or protect what we don’t see!
    Yes, offering areas of more natural habitat is certainly preferred but again, most people living in urban areas or in the city don’t have access to large amounts of brush, etc. And I’m sure most folks think brush piles are unsightly and may also provide homes to other more undesirable creatures.
    Again, it all goes back to education regarding our natural world which we are sorely in need of more everyday.

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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