Enjoy Native Bees in your Garden.
Last year North Arm cove Community Garden hosted a workshop lead by Megan Halcroft on native bees and how to encourage them into your garden. Many people from the cove made a native bee nest with reeds and bamboo to create a place for solitary bees to nest. Now is the time that bees are again active and people with nests may see some of the offspring in their garden.
Last year in the Community Garden we identified a wide range of the 16,000 species in Australia. My favourite is the Teddy Bear bee (Amegilla (Asaropoda) bombiformis) which looks like a furry bumble bee and is fussy around flowers often hovering for a long period and then changing its mind about collecting pollen. These bees like many other Aussie bees are solitary and usually nest in the ground under the house, retaining walls and creek banks.
The Blue banded bee (Amegilla (Zonamegilla) cingulata) was a regular visitor with its darting busy flight, and is stalked by the Chequered Cuckoo bees (Thyreus caeruleopunctatus) noted for its pattern of spots which look white however are in fact pale blue which lays its egg in the blue banded bee burrow. Reed bees were common, they are small to very small 5mm-8mm and has a shiny black head. Another favourite is the Golden Green Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa (Lestis) aeratus) a metallic blue/green bee that flies around from spring through to autumn making a great sight in the sun with its reflective armour.
Keep an eye out when you are out an about and see which bees you can identify. Help with simple nest building can be found on Megan’s site http://www.beesbusiness.com.au/ and there is a link to her facebook page and group, which have great pics..
