Backyard Buddies is a free program run by Australia’s Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife. Each month, you get a Backyard Buddies email (B-mail) with tips to make your backyard inviting and safe for native animals. Solitary Bees feature in the March B-mail. Sign up for B-mail and free fact-sheets at www.backyardbuddies.net.au.

“When most of us think of bees, we imagine the European Honey Bee, with its distinctive yellow and black stripes,” said Ms Susanna Bradshaw, CEO of the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife. “But did you know there are over 1,500 native bees across Australia? And most of these bees look nothing like their European cousins.”

There are two types of bees in Harden, solitary and social bees. Social bees live in hives and work cooperatively. Solitary bees like to keep to themselves and usually only get together to mate. It’s these solitary bees that need your help in autumn.

“Right now solitary bees are looking for little holes to lay their eggs in before it gets cold. You can easily help these useful pollinators by providing them with their very own house or apartments to keep their babies safe over winter.”

“If you keep your eyes out, you may discover some of these solitary bees in your own backyard. I was delighted to discover Green Carpenter Bees living in my NSW Central Coast backyard,” said Ms Bradshaw. “The Green Carpenter Bee is very distinctive, which helped me identify it, it is around 2 cm long and is a brilliant blue-green iridescent colour.”

Some solitary bees to look out for in Harden are the Leafcutter Bee, resin bees and reed bees.

Making solitary bee homes for your garden is super easy.

Bee homes you can make:

·         The Shack - very popular with reed bees. Gather some dried sticks with pithy or hollow centers like hydrangeas, sugar cane or bamboo. Simply tie them together and hang them from a tree.

·         The House - resin bees love these homes. Using different sized drills, make several holes in a hardwood block about 10cm deep. Keep undercover or give it a roof and wait to see the tell-tale plugs where an egg has been laid.

·         The Apartment - Blue-banded Bees love to nest near their friends in a bee apartment. Using a few concrete besser blocks from your local hardware store, fill them with a light clay and make a few small holes with your fingers before leaving the clay to dry. Try to make at least three blocks and stack them to make your bee apartment.

It doesn’t take long for bees to find their new home and if you set it up in the next few weeks, you should have some residents before winter. You will know that the babies have moved in when you see the ends of the holes filled in with mud or leaves.

“Native bees are very important for pollination in our natural environment and for agriculture. Without them, many plants would no longer be able to reproduce.”

“The introduced European Honey Bee is very common in Australia but only accounts for around 5% of pollination. Our Aussie bees are just as important for pollination especially in remote areas like deserts where introduced honey bees don’t venture,” said Ms Bradshaw.

“If you’re having trouble getting your tomato plant to fruit, it’s probably because you haven’t had a Blue-banded Bee or Teddy Bear Bee come and “buzz pollinate” it! Buzz pollination involves the bee vigorously shaking the pollen free from the flower. Making some clay brick bee homes will attrack these types of bees to your garden.”

Despite being so important to pollination across Australia, there is still very little research into Australian solitary bees as they can be hard to find and difficult to keep and study. More research could shed light on the full potential of our solitary bees.

Share your best bee photo on www.facebook.com/backyardbuddies for a chance to win a Backyard Buddies prize pack.