bee & bug house (page 03)

a bee (& bug) house for solitary bees. built sept2011. inhabited summer 2012.

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Floating grass

In the late August afternoons a piece of grass would sometimes come floating over the wall and head toward the bee house. On closer inspection it became clear that the grass was being hauled along by an elegant little wasp (appropriately, Isodontia elegans, the grass-carrying wasp).

These wasps are not aggressive and feed primarily on nectar. The females line nesting cavities with grass then go looking for unsuspecting critters to sting into a long snooze. They provision each chamber with an insect, lay an egg upon it, and then seal it with grass and repeat the process. Upon hatching, the larvae feed on the insects, pupate over the winter, and then fly out as adults when the weather warms in late spring/early summer.

Eventually there were nine holes in the bee house filled with grass. I'm not sure if it was one female working here or several. I did see quite a bit of grass flying around but never did see any stunned insects being hauled in, despite long periods of careful observation. I was, however, fortunate to see the very intricate process of coiling a long blade of grass into a nesting hole (pictured above). The use of forelegs for leverage and the hind legs as manipulators and spinners of the grass was an amazingly delicate performance.

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bee house - page 2

bee house - page 4

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© jamie newton