u/crownbees

Today's the heart of our bioblitz, which runs through Saturday, May 23. If you've spotted any bees this week (or are about to today), we'd love to see them. Drop a photo in the comments, share what you've found on iNaturalist, or just tell us what's flying in your part of the country.

If you haven't taken part yet and want to, get outside, photograph any bee or living thing you see, and post it to iNaturalist. Anything in the US between May 17 and Saturday counts.

https://crownbees.com/pages/world-bee-day-bioblitz

If you've got painting, pressure washing, or other work to do near your bee house but the Mason bees are actively nesting, you don't have to wait. Move at dusk when the females are tucked in. Carry the house 6-8 feet away, keep it facing the same direction so returning bees can reorient, do your work the next day, and move it back at nightfall.

In the grass seed section in the small hardware store I work at in Charleston, South Carolina, we have a display of clover seeds and a little sign promoting clover lawns.

We also sell it by the pound, and my boss orders the seed from a distributor that’s about an hour and a half away.

Downtown Charleston is a pretty formal-garden and turf-heavy area, so it was a nice surprise to see this!

Edited to add: so much helpful info here! The packing slip and receipt from the seed company differ. One says ‘crimson’ and the other says ‘red’ so we’re checking with them to see which it is.

Once we know, we’ll update the sign and bags with the correct info, and also add that red/crimson are not as lawn-y as white.

We do have a garden center with many native plants that does well (we do have petunias and roses and other popular plants to stay financially viable), and a staff member who has been taking university classes on local plants, so we’ll try pushing more people towards a combo if they still want a lawn.

If anyone knows of a local plant seed blend we could offer in our grass seed section, please let me know!

It's going to be okay. Just put the bee house back where it was and see why it fell over.

Summer Leaf Bees are arriving on doorsteps right now. If you've got yours (or are thinking about it), Dave put together a quick walkthrough on getting them set up.

He covers what to do when the FedEx box shows up, the 15-minute fridge rest to calm them down before you head outside, prepping your 6mm tubes or reeds, and placing the cocoon hatchery so the bees can emerge when they're ready.

Anyone else getting their leaf bees? How's your setup looking?

Tubes filled up, and Mason bees are gone? That means a successful Mason bee season. Now it's time to shift your bee house over for Summer Leaf Bees.

Dave walks through the whole thing in a quick video: storing your nesting materials mud-end-up in a BeeGuard bag, where to keep them through the season, swapping in the smaller hole sizes, and adding fresh bees for round two.

Anyone else already making the switch? How did your Mason bee season go this year?

Most bee houses on the market are built for looks, not bees: wrong hole sizes, materials that trap pests, and designs that can never be cleaned.

In nature, a Mason bee uses dead stems that disintegrate after the Mason bees have emerged, which results in fresh stems the following year. Not cleaning the bee house and adding fresh nesting materials only invites pests and parasites, such as the Houdini fly. Would you want to stay in a house that's never cleaned??

Healthy cavity-nesting bees depend on nesting materials that can be removed and opened, allowing the cocoons to be cared for at the end of each season.

tldr: Bamboo: bad. Drilled wood blocks (without liners): bad. Glued in nesting holes: bad. Fresh reeds or openable wood trays: good.

Here is our follow-up video from last week on how to DIY your own trap. We LOVE how quickly the community has shared what works for them. Hopefully, with combined efforts, we can eradicate the Houdini Fly!

Here are some quick facts:

1. The Houdini fly is a small fruit fly with a brown body and large red eyes. It's about the same size as the fruit flies you might find hovering over a too-ripe banana, roughly 2.5 to 3.5 mm long.

2. A female Mason bee lays around 15 eggs in her 6 - 8 week lifespan. A single female Houdini fly can lay hundreds.

3. Their eggs laid in the gathered Mason bee pollen emerge first and eat ALL of the Mason bee's food, effectively starving them. They survive as maggots the rest of the year until they develop into flies in spring.

4: Hand removal: squish them in the morning when they're slow, use a hand vac in the evening, when they're a bit quicker.

-Julie

Comment below what's worked for you and where you're located.

Community science is opening a new chapter in the fight against the European Houdini fly, a pest that has no predators, arrived in the Pacific Northwest about a decade ago, and has been quietly raiding Mason bee nests ever since. We see it spreading to the eastern US states as well.

Nicole Kenney of Portland, OR has been on the front lines, systematically testing what attracts this elusive pest. After numerous trials, a low-cost Malbec wine from Argentina has emerged as the top lure. The good news: Mason bees show no interest in it whatsoever.

Posting this because it's the kind of thing that's easy to get wrong the first time.

When you set out Mason bee cocoons, placement matters more than most people realize. Direct sun can overheat them before the bees ever get a chance to emerge. Shade only.

Dave learned this one firsthand years ago. Hopefully, it saves someone here a frustrating season.

Any questions about cocoon placement or timing, I'm happy to answer.

-Julie

Order Mason bee sets for April 20 or April 27 shipping and save 25%. The season is short and these bees are ready. April 26 is the cutoff.

Open to folks in the lower 48 states in the US only, due to shipping rules.

Link: https://crownbees.com/products/buy-mason-bees-40-count-oba-free-shipping

🌿 Save the Date! 🌿

Wild Ones members are invited to the 2026 Annual Member Meeting on Wednesday, April 15 at 7:00 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. MT / 4 p.m. PT).

The 2026 Wild Ones National Member Meeting will be held virtually, and all active members are invited to attend. This event allows members to meet face-to-face with the Wild Ones board and staff and hear about all the incredible progress the organization has made over the last year.

Not a member yet? Join Wild Ones to participate and connect with a growing community working to restore native plants and natural landscapes: https://wildones.org/join/

📸 by Kevin O'Brien from the Wild Ones Greater Cleveland Chapter