Don't Throw Away Old Soup Cans, Use Them To Attract More Bees

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Solitary bees are not as well-known as their social counterparts like honey bees and bumble bees, but they make up more than 75% of the bee population. These hardworking pollinators don't live in hives and they don't make honey but they do offer a lot of benefits to your garden and yard when it comes to pollination and do a lot more of the pollination work. Some common solitary bee types are mason bee, carpenter bees, miner bees, and sweat bees. If you want to have the bees come buzzing to your garden, don't throw away your old soup cans — use them to make bee hotels. A bee hotel — also called a bee house or condo — is a house or nesting spot for solitary bees. 

Solitary bees normally nest in hollow logs, holes in dead wood, and hollow plants stems. Create a place for them to nest with your old soup cans by filling them with hollow stems and reeds, and placing them in trees or on posts around the yard. If you don't have hollow stems or reeds available, you can find assorted sizes of bee-safe bamboos sticks for your soup cans such as these IA Crafts bamboo tubes for mason bees that work perfectly.

Creating bee hotels to place around your yard attracts solitary bees and provides a place for them to rest, hide, and lay larvae. They are such hard working little bees and have very different lives than social bees do, since they do everything themselves. Honey bees aren't the only bee that is in danger: Solitary bees are also facing reductions in numbers with one in four species facing extinction. The good news is there are many things you can do to help right in your own backyard. 

Your old (clean) soup or coffee cans work perfectly as bee hotels but there are some important things to know when assembling them to ensure the safety and health of the bees. Hollow reeds or straws should have holes at least 1/8" to 1/2" in diameter. Make sure the straws or hollow reeds lengths are 3-5" deep for the narrower straws and 6" in length for wider holes. Place your finished bee hotels in sunny spots facing south or southeast, clear of obstructing vegetation, so they can utilize the sun's warmth. The best height is 3-6 feet off the ground and can be on posts, logs, or in trees. 

You can't save all the bees with your soup can bee hotels. What you can do is place some around your garden to provide more shelter, and do other things that attract pollinators like planting this easy to grow flower that the pollinators will love. Solitary bees have a shorter foraging range than social species, just under 1,000 feet, so if food and shelter are not within that range, they will be in trouble. 

The more bee-friendly you make your garden or yard, the more bees you help. Among other touches, you can plant other pollinator-friendly flower in amongst your vegetable garden, add small bare mud patches with a high-clay content within 10-20 feet of bee hotels, and ensure there are safe puddling areas for bees to drink water. Especially during hot summer days, you will be helping support these hardworking and crucial eco-boosting little bees have a safer, happier life. 

In early fall after most bee activity slows way down, clean your bee hotel and replace the cells every two years or each year as needed (watch for active cocoons). This reduces the chances of fungus or mold forming inside the cells or parasites showing up. Once clean,make sure to place it in a warm place it can thoroughly dry (bring it inside for the winter if needed), and you — and the bees — are ready for the next season.