Creating an Insectary

On the day after my 18th Birthday, my mother has given me a nice new book about attracting pollinators. Name of the book is The Xerces Society Guide to Attracting Native Pollinators. On the first night of skimming the book, I learn many new things about attracting native bees, wasps and flies as well as honeybees, butterflies and other beneficial insects. I have been in to bees and wasps since I was four year old, but I was also scared of them. My backyard habitat and vegetable garden is filled with bamboo mason bee houses, an carpenter bee fence, paper wasp shelves and even patches of soil for ground nesting bees. I also took a local beekeeping class in 2011 and plan to keep honeybees on my yard.

 A good bee farm or insectary should have:

• Variety of native and ornamental plants, trees and shrubs
• A good water source
• Bee, wasp housing, butterfly host plants and proper natural breeding habitat

If your yard or farm is short on bees or butterflies and your crops or pasture plants are not being pollinated there are some simple solutions to add bees to your area.

Set up an Bee Pasture.

A Bee Pasture is a patch of land filled wildflowers and flowering shrubs for bees and other pollinators. The best bee pastures should have several species of native wildflowers that bloom throughout the seasons, at least one specie of grass of sedge to out compete weeds and trees and proper nest sites. Bee pastures should be within 200 yards of the farm field, pasture, garden or orchard to ensure that the bees can reach the crops. Many species of bees don't travel more than a few hundred feet from the nest, while other bees like carpenter bees, bumble bees and honeybees can travel miles from their nests.

List of plants for a bee pasture

 Native Plants

Southern Crabapple

Parsley Leaved Hawthorn

American Plum

Carolina Rose

Eastern Redbud

Eastern Flowering Dogwood

Pink Azalea

Tulip Tree

Southern Magnolia
Red Bay

Sassafras

Blueberries (Especially Highbush blueberries and box huckleberries)  

Blackberries (native species like Black, Common, Allegheny, Apache blackberries and Dewberry)

Fox Grape

Herbaceous Plants

Asters including New England, Old Field, Common, Wood, Calico asters and Ironweeds

Thistles: including Yellow Thistle and Wild Lettuce

Goldenrods and Dogfennel especially for wasps and beetles

Blazing Stars 

Coneflowers (particularly Purple Coneflower, Prairie Coneflower and Black Eyed Susans)  

Blanket Flowers

Sunflowers (particularly Common, Prairie, Narrowleaf Sunflowers and Compass Flower

Salvias and Sages including Lyre Leaved Sage, Black and Blue Sage, Blue Sage, and Scarlet Sage 

Giant Hyssop

Blue Verbain

Rose Verbena

Field Mint and Bee Balms

Indigos

Milkweeds and dogbanes

Phloxes

Fennel and Golden Alexander

 Good Nonnative Plants for Bee Pastures 

Trees

Crape Myrtle

Pear

Figs

Apple

Indian Hawthorn

Asian Azaleas

Camellias

Plants

Assyliums

Common Yarrow

Dandelion

Bull Thistle

Canada Thistle

Prickly Sow Thistle

Hawkweed

French Marigolds

Mexican Marigolds

Cosmos

Mexican Sunflowers

Jerusalem Artichoke

Peppermint

Catnip

Cat Mint

Oregano

Russian Sage

Borage

Dill

Parsley

White Clover

Yellow Clover

Good Bee Houses

Bamboo rods or Hollow plant stalks  secured in a plastic container and mounted to a wall will attract nesting mason wasps, mason bees, leaf bees, and carder bees

Logs, Untreated Posts and old wooden fences make good Carpenter bee colonies, Mason, Resin, bees, mason wasps will move in to old Carpenter bee nests

Shelves provide nest sites for paper wasps and mudaubers that prey or garden pests

Plastic cans, coffee tins lined with cardboard and filled with cotton, moss or grass will attract bumble bees to nest. Place this and wasp platforms in wooded areas away from people or towards the back of your yard.