Mason bees all the buzz at garden club meeting

Barbara Longstaff of Eliot, Maine, lecturing at SMGC on the importance of adding pollinators to your garden. (Courtesy photo SMGC)

Southern Maine Garden Club met on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at the Springvale Library for a fascinating lecture on mason bees from Barbara Longstaff, GCFM Horticulture Chair, member of Eliot, Maine, Garden Club as well as a member of the BeeGAP (Gardeners Adding Pollinators) Speakers Bureau.

For the uninitiated, mason bees are so called because of their propensity to build their nests with tiny bits of mud that they carry to small cavities like hollowed-out branches, abandoned woodpecker holes or the little bamboo or cardboard tubes you can purchase at garden shops or from www.crownbees.com - a website where you can learn much about these "busy bees."

The mason bees industriously pack the cavities (or brood chambers) with mud and their tiny eggs that look like navy beans. They are solitary pollinators (not the social bees like honeybees that live in hives and work for the queen and produce honey). They are native to North America and their lifespan is 5-6 weeks; they adhere to a radius of about an acre of land and produce no honey. The females are in charge of all the work - the role of the males is strictly for reproduction. After building their nests and laying their eggs, they pollinate by carrying dry pollen that then drops on the shrubs, trees and flowers they pollinate.

In the last decade or so, the bee population has diminished as much as 50 percent. Barbara stressed that by doing two simple things - purchase one native plant and throw away one pesticide this will go a long way in reversing the downward spiral of the bees while improving your garden in particular and the environment in general. SMGC meets throughout the year at the Springvale Library on the third Wednesday of every month beginning at 6:45 p.m. (unless otherwise noted). The public is invited to attend to sample our meetings to see if you would like to join us. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the library.

The presenter will be Hillary Krafp and her topic is "Kelp SOS!"; she is the founder of the Seaweed Festival and an instructor at SMCC. She will discuss the benefits of adding seaweed to your garden. For more info please contact in ME - Mary Stewart-Dore at 207-490-1833 or in NH - Donna Claveau at 603-332-4860.