Support Your Local Mason ... Bee, That Is.

Orchard Mason Bees (Osmia lignaria), are solitary but companionable, 
attractive, gentle and industrious. This may sound a lot like an ad in 
the personals, but it’s not. If you garden and you find these attributes
 appealing, you may be in the market for some native solitary bees.

In the midst of the mysterious and devastating Colony Collapse Disorder plaguing 
the European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) people are once again recognizing 
the vital importance of solitary bees, which, like honey bees, collect flower pollen 
as a protein source for their young and get their energy from flower nectar. 
In shopping for their daily "groceries," they carry pollen from flower to flower, 
thus achieving pollination, which is necessary for healthy ecosystems and human food production. Solitary bees can outperform honey bees, by far, in their sheer ability to pollinate.

Incredibly effective, cold-tolerant Spring pollinators, they will be out
 and about in a cold drizzle while communal bees are torpid in the hive. The Orchard Mason Bee is just one of the approximately 4,000 types of native — mostly solitary — bees pollinating in North America.

Native bees need our help to maintain habitats and ensure their survival, which in turn ensures our survival. 

Bees are a keystone species, and therefore it works in everyone’s 
favor to help provide them with habitat. I’m not talking big investment
 here. We get to be heroes for the price of some old wood with holes 
drilled in it, a water source like a birdbath or small pond, a weedy,
 wild margin and our garden or
 flowering trees. Not to much to ask for helping to save the world, 
huh?

Another thing that all pollinators require of us is that we lay
 off the herbicides and pesticides, which is also a good thing for us, 
our children, our pets, the crops in our food chain, and our water 
table. Pesticides and herbicides are being linked to some very serious
 diseases in humans, such as Parkinson's disease, cancer and certain 
reproductive disorders.

These insects are not newbies, but old bees with a lot of appeal. 

This particular North American native bee, which is about 1.3 cm 
(0.5 in.) long, is a beautiful insect, sporting an attractive blue-black 
metallic sheen. To the uneducated eye, Orchard Mason Bees are often 
mistaken for large flies, even though they have two sets of wings 
and are definitely not into refuse. Yet another great attribute of these 
beauties is that, like most solitary bees, they are feeble stingers that 
will not swarm or “gang up” on you if you inadvertently disturb them.

So if we befriend a new species of bee today, we reap a 
righteous bounty for our tables, our planet and our self-esteem. 
There simply is no downside. Mason bees can be easily ordered online through many sources.

Photo Credit: We For Animals