I'm having trouble with my mason bees -- either they didn't like the nesting material I put out or the location of the nesting shelter. I know they were out and about because I saw a lot of them by the nesting tubes but after a while...nothing. I figure they took up residence elsewhere. I've seen a lot of carpenter bees making holes in the log siding(time to call the exterminator again...sigh...) and the bumbles. Even a few swallowtail. So things looking pretty good here on that front so far.

It could have been the Sevin, but I don't really know enough about it -- wouldn't the bees have to have been exposed to the pesticide in some way? So if it were limited to the trees and there was little drift, only the bees in/around the trees would have been affected, right? But I'm not sure.

It could also be the wacko weather -- we got really cold last week, down into the 30s (!), now another stretch of heat wave, the insects might be sensitive to the crazy swings to at least some degree. Honeys and bumbles don't fly if it's too cold (which is why masons are better pollinators for spring fruit crops), not sure if they fly when it's above a certain temp -- would be interesting to find out, I should look it up.

mxk3

thanks for your thoughts, much appreciated! Good luck with mason bees :)) not familiar.

we have carpenter ants so best of luck with carpenter bees, maybe theyre headed our way to anchorage.

yes, i was told sevin wouldn't drift and only sprayed carefully on non windy day so maybe that‘s not the issue

its been in the mid 40s at night and 60s today so was expecting lots of bees:)) miss them

thanks again

Mine are late this year, I just started seeing them this week. Hope bees will come back to your garden!

is OP answering and posting under two different names???

if you included a big city location ... it would further this conversation ...

i agree .... in my MI.. along with mx .. the bees.. wasps.. etc .. are just coming on ...

and just saw my first swallowtail yesterday ....

ken

Thanks mazerolm, i had seen quite a few honey and bumble bees early in may on my crocus and other bulbs. The weather has been chilly and windy but with such a warm day I was expecting to see them come right back.

Ken, very astute about my 2 names... a bit of a story, i was 'lat62' and my account was 'hacked' where somebody added a profile pic of a young lady with lipstick, not me... so i called and deactivated that account. Then i started a new account under 'snow'

that one stopped working so i emailed and they reactivated lat62 but this post came in under snow. I don't know why and hope I haven't broken rules.

mostly I just lurk here. I live in Anchorage, grew up near Flint, Michigan.

Today is another sunny one, maybe the bees will show up, fingers crossed.

- Rhonda

My account is broken... I will try to make username a combo lat62snow