When do insects normally hatch from insect houses?
I have a bug house and it looks as if several insects have laid in the house over the spring/summer. All of the bamboo seems to be clogged up and has been for a couple of months.
Are there still insects in there to hatch?
Would insects dig this out next year to lay again?
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1 answer
Likely these are solitary bees.
You might notice bees buzzing around your house and on wet days during the flying season check inside the holes and might see them sheltering from the rain.
The only certain sign of nesting is seeing the ends of the tubes capped with either mud, leaves or fine hairs. The type of capping indicates the type of bee and it’s possible you might have more than more one type at the same time.
They will stay in the tubes for a few months, and come out in the spring. From the look of your photo there's a lot of mud on the end of the tubes and one clearly stands out in green for leaves. So this could then be:
Red mason bee, Osmia bicornis (Osmia rufa) – red/gingery hair, females have small horns on their heads = use mud to cap tubes
Leaf cutter bee, Megachile willughbiella – broad head, large mandibles for cutting leaves and an upturned abdomen = use leaves (May–September)
The tubes should clear out in the spring and the new bees will go off to find new mates/homes. The tubes should be replaced, or cleaned, once the bees have gone, to prevent spread of disease.
Take a crash course in solitary bees
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/22931. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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