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Bees, Garden

The Gentle and Garden-Pollinating Leafcutting Bees

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The lucerne leafcutting  bee became a hero in New Zealand after being introduced from North America in 1971 to help pollinate the lucerne flowers for the production of seed.

Its gentle nature and efficient pollination make it ideal for late summer vegetables and flowers. The leafcutter bee is solitary and gregarious. This means the females will nest very close together, one of the main characteristics for managed pollinators. This busy, small bee is a great summer garden addition.

The leafcutter bee is a productive pollinator for summer gardens and flowers.

The female carries pollen on the underside of her hairy abdomen, and then scrapes the pollen off within her nesting hole. Because the pollen is carried dry on her hair, it falls off easily as she moves among flowers. This results in significantly more pollinated flowers than her cousin, the honey bee, who wets the pollen so it sticks to the legs during transport to the hive.

To Learn more about this important pollinator…                                               The lucerne leafcutting bee in New Zealand. By Barry Donovan (Donovan Scientific Insect Research)

 

 

Garden, Insects

WETA MOTELS

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Simulated Habitat Refuges – Weta Motels

Weta Motel CWC

Using these specially hollowed-out untreated pine blocks called ‘weta motels’ it is possible to simulate the cavities found in mature trees that are used by weta and other creepy crawlies.

It will take many years for the newly-planted trees to become old enough to develop these cavities, so by using these specially made weta motels available from Creative Woodcraft we are accelerating the successional process.

Cave or tree weta colonise the motels as well as other groups such as endemic spiders, leaf-vein slugs and pseudoscorpions, some of which breed in the refuges. They have a hole that is only just big enough to let weta in, but too small for its predators – mice, rats, possums, hedgehogs, etc.

Other insects and invertebrates also use motels including leaf-vein slugs, spiders and beetles.

Weta motels are great for kids, schools, community plantings, ecological restoration projects, etc. Motels can be monitored over time to watch how motel occupation changes.

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