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GET TO KNOW NATIVE BEES.

Not all bees live together in hives and make honey. An astounding bee diversity exists worldwide, with about 4,000 species living in North America! About 70% of them nest in the ground, and most are solitary. These native pollinators play an essential role in the health of our natural ecosystems and food supply — but many of their populations face risk of extinction. Keep reading to learn about a few familiar native bees and ways you can help them.

BUMBLEBEES

Big, fuzzy and buzzy — bumblebees are the most well-known native bees to visit our gardens. They’re also the only bees native to North America that are truly social, living in a colony of 50-400 that consists of a queen and workers. Bumblebees’ insulating coat of hair helps them tolerate cooler weather, which is why they’re among the first bees we see foraging in spring and the last bees we see in fall.

Sadly, more than one quarter of North American bumblebees are facing some degree of extinction risk.[1] In 2017, the rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) was the first bee species in the continental U.S. to be listed as federally endangered. In 2021, Franklin’s bumblebee (Bombus franklini) received an endangered listing. Other species, including the American bumblebee and Southern Plains bumblebee, have also experienced similar drastic declines and may be next to receive endangered species protections.[2,3]

Family: Apidae
Genus: Bombus
Species in North America: 50
Species Worldwide: 250

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Hefty bodies with yellow on the head, thorax and abdomen; females collect pollen on their hind legs as well as their hairy bodies.

Nesting Habit
Ground-nesting, often in abandoned rodent holes or other existing cavities.

Lifestyle
Social

Floral Diet
Generalist — they’ll forage a variety of plants for pollen and nectar.

Pollination Specialty
Tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries, watermelons, potatoes and many wildflowers.

Unique Skill
Buzz pollination — bumblebees can unhinge their wings from their flight muscles and vibrate their bodies. For certain plants, this powerful vibrating action is the most effective way to release tightly-packed pollen.

Buzzworthy Fact
Only the new queens born at the end of the season hibernate underground through winter, after mating. In spring, they emerge to search for a new nest site and start a new colony.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
Availability of early-season pollen and nectar is critical to support colony growth in the spring, but the new queens born at the end of the season also need late-blooming flowers (like aster and goldenrod) so they can gather food in the fall for stored energy during hibernation.

MASON BEES

The blooming of redbuds and the appearance of mason bees — both exciting signs of springtime! Got fruit trees or berry plants? You’ll definitely want these hard-working pollinators around!

Family: Megachilidae
Genus: Osmia
Species in North America: 140
Species Worldwide: 500

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Round bodies, often with a metallic sheen (blue, purple, green or copper); females carry pollen on their hairy bellies.

Nesting Habit
Cavity-nesting in existing holes in wood or hollow stems.

Lifestyle
Solitary

Floral Diet
Most species are generalists.

Pollination Specialty
Apples, cherries, plums, peaches and almonds.

Unique Skill
Gathering mud with their jaws and using it to sculpt their nests.

Buzzworthy Fact
Their speedy work and pollen-collecting hairs on their belly make mason bees very efficient pollinators, especially when visiting early-blooming fruit trees. The blue orchard bee in particular is known for its superior pollination of orchard crops.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
Mason bees need mud or clay for nesting material, as well as early-blooming sources of food nearby. Good options include flowering fruit trees (ornamental or edible), redbuds, berry shrubs, pussy willow and single-petal rose varieties. Dandelions also provide nutrition when other flowers haven’t yet bloomed.

LEAFCUTTER BEES

Leaf-surfing, fuzzy-bellied and gentle-natured. That’s a leafcutter bee! This productive pollinator emerges in the summertime to visit our flowers and gardens. Megachile actually means “large lipped” and refers to their big jaws which come in handy for cutting out leaf segments for their nests. Let them use some of your leaves, and they’ll pollinate your garden in return.

Family: Megachilidae
Genus: Megachile
Species in North America: 240
Species Worldwide: 1,400

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Usually dark-colored and furry bodies, with pale stripes on abdomen; females have hairy bellies that collect pollen.

Nesting Habit
Cavity-nesting in existing holes.

Lifestyle
Solitary

Floral Diet
Generalists

Pollination Specialty
Melons, peas, sunflowers, alfalfa, milkweed and other summertime flowers.

Unique Skill
Neatly snipping leaf segments, then carrying the leaves back to line their nests.

Buzzworthy Fact
Leafcutters are bivoltine insects, meaning they can produce multiple generations in the same season. This happens when some of the eggs develop and emerge as adults in the same season they were laid. These second-generation bees will continue to mate and fill nesting holes with next year’s bees.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
Don’t be alarmed (and don’t spray with pesticides) if you see small round holes in the leaves of your plants. This doesn’t harm the plants and just means gentle leafcutter bees are likely nearby — lucky you!

SWEAT BEES

Small but mighty, sweat bees are some of the most prolific summertime pollinators in our gardens, featuring a diversity of sizes and colors. They’ve earned their common name due to their curious attraction to human perspiration — it’s thought they may benefit from the added moisture and salt content. So if a sweat bee lands on your skin to take a sip, don’t swat! She might just need a little extra salt in her diet.

Family: Halictidae
Genus: Lasioglossum
Species in North America: 400
Species Worldwide: 1,700

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Small with slender bodies. Perhaps the most beautiful and easiest to identify is the metallic green sweat bee, Agapostemon.

Nesting Habit
Ground-nesting, or occasionally making their home in rotting wood.

Lifestyle
Some species are solitary, while others display semi-social or communal behaviors.

Floral Diet
Generalists

Pollination Specialty
Wildflowers and vegetable seed crops.

Unique Skill
Tunneling underground to make their nests.

Buzzworthy Fact
For some sweat bee species, the larvae develops into a second generation of adults in the same season.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
Sweat bees have a long active season, foraging as early as April and as late as October. They need a continuous succession of blooming flowers during this time, with easily accessible pollen and nectar.

CARPENTER BEES

Gentle giants with a commanding presence, the largest native bees in the U.S. don’t go unnoticed thanks to their burly bodies and loud buzzing. Often misunderstood and underappreciated, these beneficial pollinators deserve our respect too!

Family: Apidae
Genus: Xylocopa
Species in North America: 10
Species Worldwide: 500

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Shiny, hairless and usually black abdomens.

Nesting Habit
Cavity-nesting in tree trunks, branches and other soft wood structures.

Lifestyle
Solitary — but unlike other solitary bees, the mothers do meet their offspring. They hibernate in winter as fully formed adults, huddled together inside their tunnels.

Floral Diet
Generalists

Pollination Specialty
Eggplant, tomatoes and other vegetables and native flowers.

Unique Skill
Buzz pollination — they can unhinge their wings from their flight muscles and vibrate their bodies. For certain plants, this powerful vibrating action is the most effective way to release tightly-packed pollen from their anthers.

Buzzworthy Fact
Male carpenter bees often hover near the nest entrance of females to keep other males and flying predators away. This territorial behavior appears intimidating, but males are all buzz and no sting — similar to all male bees, they don’t even have a stinger! Females, while equipped with a stinger, are generally docile unless directly provoked.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
While the benefits of their pollination outweigh any effects of their industrious excavation skills, not everyone wants carpenter bees as neighbors. If you want to deter them from nesting in wood structures on your property, try painting any unfinished wood or sealing it with polyurethane. A nearby pile of wood or a dead tree may also draw them away. No pesticides or exterminators, please!

MINING BEES

Andrenidae is the largest of all bee families, representing a large diversity of sizes, shapes and colors. Commonly called mining bees, they’re known to take up residence in urban and suburban lawns — so if you see small holes in the ground surrounded by little mounds of dirt, let them be! These gentle pollinators make great neighbors.

Family: Andrenidae
Genus: Majority are Andrena and Perdita
Species in North America: 1,400
Species Worldwide: 4,500

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Most adults are black and fairly hairy, with pale stripes on their abdomen. Females collect pollen high on their hind legs.

Nesting Habit
Ground-nesting

Lifestyle
Solitary, although they often nest in large aggregations.

Floral Diet
Many are specialists, only collecting pollen from certain plants.

Pollination Specialty
Woodland wildflowers and early-flowering native shrubs, as well as some commercial crops.

Unique Skill
Some species can dig tunnels a foot or more below ground.

Buzzworthy Fact
The Perdita minima of the Sonoran Desert is the smallest bee in North America, measuring under 2 millimeters long.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
Many mining bee species emerge early in the spring, so they need early-blooming food sources. Widespread native plants that support specialist foragers include maples, serviceberries, blueberries and willows.

SQUASH BEES

Squash bees belong to a very diverse tribe of bees called Eucerini (also collectively referred to as long-horned bees). Most of their life is spent underground, and the adults are only active for about four to six weeks in summer, when their preferred food source is in bloom.

Family: Apidae
Genus: Peponapis or Xenoglossa
Species in North America: 10+
Species Worldwide: 20

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Sometimes mistaken for honeybees, squash bees are fuzzier, with longer antennae and very defined stripes. The females also have stiff hairs all over their hind legs for collecting pollen (as opposed to the basket-like structures called corbiculae on a honeybee’s legs).

Nesting habit
Ground-nesting, usually in the soil right beneath the squash plants they forage.

Lifestyle
Solitary, although they often nest near each other in large aggregations.

Floral Diet
Specialists. They only collect pollen from plants in the Curcurbita genus (such as pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, melons and other squashes), which they feed to their offspring.

Pollination Specialty
Wild and cultivated squash crops.

Unique Skill
The females often wake up before dawn (and before other bee species), so they can begin foraging the squash blossoms as soon as they open. These flowers are only open for a few hours, so there’s no time to waste!

Buzzworthy Fact
Males often sleep inside the squash blossoms after they close — that’s where mating will take place when the females arrive the next day. Even though males don’t collect pollen, they do make good pollinators (as opposed to males of other bee species), simply because of the time they spend in squash flowers.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
To attract squash bees, plant their preferred food source, and they’ll return the favor with their pollination services. Be sure to leave bare, undisturbed soil beneath the plants for the females to dig their tunnels. Tilling can destroy their nests, but if you must till, then provide some other areas of bare ground nearby for safe nesting habitat.

SMALL CARPENTER BEES

Have you seen something flying around your flowers that looks like an ant with wings? It might have been a small carpenter bee! They belong to the same subfamily (Xylocopinae) as the much bigger, buzzier carpenter bees. Look closely for these itty-bitty pollinators foraging blooms like poppy mallow, fleabane, black-eyed Susan, Russian sage, wild roses, sunflowers, asters, milkweeds and goldenrod.

Family: Apidae
Genus: Ceratina
Species in North America: 20+
Species Worldwide: 350

BEE BIO

Identifying Features
Their bodies are only about half the size of a honeybee. They’re dark-colored and usually shiny, with less fuzz compared to other bees. Females have pollen-collecting hairs on their legs. The males often have a white mark on their face.

Nesting Habit
Cavity-nesting, usually in hollow or pithy stems (or occasionally an old tree stump).

Lifestyle
Solitary, although some of them exhibit certain social behaviors.

Floral Diet
Generalists. They’re not picky, although they do have an affinity for flowers in the aster family.

Pollination Specialty
A little bit of everything!

Unique Skill
While their jaws aren’t strong enough to chew through hard outer material of stems or branches, small carpenter bees can excavate stems that have a soft (pithy) center to make their nest cells.

Buzzworthy Fact
Unlike most other solitary bee species, female Ceratina will remain with their nest to guard the eggs until they’re completely developed and emerge as adults.

BEESPONSIBLE TIP
If you grow roses, elderberry, blackberry or raspberry bushes, leave a foot or more of the stems (canes) standing when you prune them back. This provides ideal habitat for small carpenter bees to make their nest cells and lay eggs.