There are more than 500 wild bee species in Germany, many of which are threatened. In contrast to the honey bee, most of these hermit bees do not live in colonies, but alone. If you want to settle solitary bees, setting up an insect hotel is usually not enough. In the following article you will learn how to create a garden in which the bees are buzzing and buzzing.
Sand bees like to live in sandy soil
Habitats for wild bees
Many insect hotels remain empty because wild bees need housing that is precisely tailored to their needs:
- Sand bees live in loose soil.
- Mason bees use small cavities as nesting sites.
- Leafcutter bees collect pieces of plants and build a nest out of them.
- Snail shell mason bees look for empty snail shells and lay their eggs in them.
create retreats
It is not at all difficult to create a biotope for solitary bees, even in a small garden. This makes the garden design even more diverse and varied:
- Design part of the bed for drought-loving herbs in the shape of a sand hill. This offers earth bees an ideal habitat, while the fragrant plants also serve as a source of food.
- Stabilize one side of the hill with a natural stone wall, in the cracks of which the hermit bees find shelter.
- Classic rock gardens are also a paradise for wild bees. Wild bees like to use them as a habitat if they are planted in gaps. The plants mostly cultivated here are very bee-friendly due to their open flowers.
- Place a deadwood pile in a sunny spot. Many bees prefer rotten wood as a place for their nests. They use the feeding tunnels of other insects or gnaw a tunnel themselves.
- Some solitary bees lay their eggs in pithy stalks, such as those of elderberry, blackberry or mullein. Leave them in autumn and only cut back plants in spring.
Fragrant forage plants
If you want wild bees to settle in your garden, you should at least partially say goodbye to a well-kept golf course. Instead, turn a corner of the space into a fragrant wildflower meadow:
- Match the wildflower mix to the planned site.
- When sowing the forage plants, make sure that the mixture you use does not contain any exotic species that bloom beautifully but are of no value to the hermit bees. You can recognize this by imprints such as: "Indigenous seed mixture" or "Regional seed".
- It is also important when making your selection that something is always blooming, because this is the only way for the insects to find food consistently.
- The blooming green is mowed only once or twice a year. This ensures that the plants will self-seed and sprout again the following year.
tips
Water is the basis of all life. In the summers, which are becoming drier, insects often no longer find enough liquid. Therefore, offer your buzzing lodgers water in a drinking trough with an exit aid. It looks very pretty if you place a moss cushion in the bowl on which the animals can land and rest.