15 ways to create habitat for native bees in your garden
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In this article, you’ll find out why native bees are important and how to turn your yard or garden into a bee-friendly habitat that can also feed your family!
How many species of native bees are there in the United States?
There are over 4,000 species of native bees in the United States. The diversity of sizes, shapes, and colors across these bee species is extraordinary.
For instance, the smallest bee in North America (and perhaps the world) is Perdita minima, a roughly 2 millimeter long, sand-colored solitary bee native to the southwest. The largest native bees are bumble bees (Bombus spp.) and carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.). (Carpenter bees are not very popular with homeowners since they often bore into wood on decks and siding in order to lay their eggs.)
Are honeybees native to the US?
Many people don’t realize that honeybees (Apis mellifera) are actually a non-native bee species from Europe. Perhaps that misconception is because European honeybees are often the charismatic poster child for various “save the bees” promotional campaigns, but that’s akin to putting a chicken on the poster for a “save the birds” campaign.
Nevertheless, honeybees are not an endangered species since their populations are artificially controlled by humans. Even if they experience high rates of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in a given year, people can artificially create as many new queens and colonies as desired.
However, native bee populations are not artificially controlled by humans. Thus, novel environmental pressures such as habitat loss, pesticide use, foreign pathogens, and weather extremes are taking a heavy toll on these species, with many already extinct or experiencing severe population declines.
The good news? You can do something about this problem starting today, as we’ll detail below!
What are some important differences between native bees and honeybees?
Honeybees are highly social, hive-forming bees that are generalist foragers. This means they form large above-ground colonies and can forage nectar and pollen from a wide range of flowering plant species.
Escaped naturalized honeybees will build hives in anything from a hollowed out tree to an opening in the side of a home, but they’ll never form a colony under the ground. Each honeybee colony contains one queen, hundreds of male drones, and up to 80,000 female workers (all sisters).
The traits of native bees are much different than honeybees. For example:
- 90% of native bee species are solitary, meaning they don’t form colonies or congregate with others of their species.
- 70% of solitary bees are ground-dwelling and ground-nesting bees; the remaining 30% nest in cavities and holes on twigs, branches, logs, and stumps.
- 20-45% of native bee species are so specialized that they only pollinate one species or genus of plants.
3 reasons to care about native bees
Why should you want native bees around? Why care if they live or go extinct?
Here are three reasons:
1. Human food crop productivity is dependent on native bees.
Having affordable food and profitable farms requires native bees. That’s because native bees are the primary pollinator of nearly every pollinator-dependent crop in the US. The same rule applies for home gardeners: if you want to grow food, you’ll want as many native bees around as possible.
2. Native plant species’ survival is dependent on native bees’ survival.
About 25% of native plants in North America are wind-pollinated. However, the other 75% are dependent on native pollinators (primarily bees) for their survival.
Native bees and native plants have developed complex, mutualistic relationships over many millennia. From large native trees like tulip poplars to small annual flowering plants like black-eyed Susans, there are native bee species who play a vital role in pollinating them.
3. It’s our ethical duty.
Regardless of your political or religious beliefs, you probably have a strong ethical code that includes a sense of treating other people and life forms with thoughtful respect. Perhaps you believe that God’s creation is good and we are its stewards. Or perhaps you believe that this is our one and only precious planet and we should tend it well for ourselves and for the sake of future generations.
Regardless of the philosophical underpinnings, most people can agree that we have an ethical responsibility to save another beneficial species that shares the earth with us if we have the ability to do so. Thankfully, when it comes to native bees and other important pollinators, we do!
15 ways to create habitat for native bees in your garden or yard
Here are 15 ways you can help native bees starting right now, or as soon as you’re done reading this article:
1. Don’t use synthetic pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc).
Don’t use synthetic pesticides. If you have to use pesticides, only use OMRI-listed pesticides, aka those approved for organic production.
Why? Numerous studies have found that various types of synthetic pesticides (such as neonicotinoids) used even at recommended field-realistic levels are extremely damaging to native bees. The bees might not be immediately killed by the pesticide exposure, but researchers have found that these chemicals impair their reproductive ability, colony development, and foraging performance.
This rule doesn’t just apply to insecticides. Other biocides, such as herbicides and fungicides, also take a severe toll on native pollinators and vertebrate species alike. See recent research on that topic here.
2. Use no-till or minimal-till methods in your vegetable garden.
Since most native bees are ground-dwelling bees, guess what happens when you till your garden soil? Not only does tillage kill any adult and developing bees that happen to be underground at the time, it also disrupts your entire soil ecosystem, aka soil food web.
You can learn more about no-till organic gardening here.
3. Plant a wide range of flowering plant species with different bloom cycles (include some native plants!).
Different species of native bees will be out foraging at different times of the year, from spring through first frost. So it’s important that you select plants for your garden so as to always have at least a few plants in bloom at any one time.
You can also deadhead some types of flowering plants to extend their bloom cycle. (“Deadhead” means pruning off wilted flowers so your plants put energy into new flower production rather than seed development.)
You can also choose flowering plants with long bloom cycles (like zinnias and echinacea). Of course, be sure to include at least a few region-specific native flowering plants in your garden since these have long-established relationships with your native local bees.
4. Strategically use tree stumps and logs to provide nesting habitat.
As detailed earlier, not all native bees nest in the ground. Many will nest in logs and tree stumps within holes made by other insects (often abandoned beetle tunnels).
We like to inoculate hardwood logs with edible mushrooms, then use those logs to make steps or bed borders in our gardens. These logs then produce edible fungi for us while slowly becoming habitat for a wide range of organisms, including native bees. After a few years, these logs are decomposed enough to be replaced and used in compost or to make new hugelkultur beds.
5. Don’t cut back dead or dormant plants – or if you have to, do so thoughtfully.
Instead of cutting back every plant in your yard or garden in the fall, consider leaving them as-is until after you start seeing lots of bees/pollinators around in the spring. That’s because lots of native bee species will make brood cells inside the hollow stems or holes in these plants.
If you have a pesky neighborhood Home Owner Association that doesn’t like the aesthetics or you just can’t stand the sight of these plants, carefully cut them at ground level then make a hidden brush pile with these plant materials somewhere on your property so that any native bees developing inside have a chance of survival. (More on that below.)
6. Create a brush pile or piles (hidden from neighbors if necessary).
Brush piles create ideal habitat for a wide range of creatures, including bees. Instead of wasting all that precious organic matter your yard produces (fall leaves, pruned fruit tree branches, bush trimmings, etc) by sending it to your local landfill, use it to create a brush pile (or piles) somewhere on your property where it doesn’t create an eyesore.
7. Don’t mulch too deeply – and keep some areas un-mulched.
We’re organic no-till gardeners so we love using mulch in our garden beds to build and protect our soil. We typically top-dress our growing areas with a few inches of mulch 1-2 times per year during seasonal bed transitions.
Since these beds are always mulched, native ground-dwelling bees don’t tend to use them. However, other areas outside of our garden beds are not mulched and those become key habitat for ground-dwelling bees.
Note that anything more than about 1″ of mulch will either prevent native ground-dwelling bees from nesting there OR block newly matured bees from emerging in the spring. Using lighter materials for mulch (like chopped leaves, pine needles, and straw) can help too.
8. Utilize plants that attract endangered native specialist bees in your area.
Try to find out what species of native bees are at highest risk in your area. If there are specialist bees on the list, perhaps you can plant the species of native plant(s) that those bees utilize. Xerces Society has a helpful tool that lets you search for at-risk invertebrates (including bees) by state here: https://www.xerces.org/endangered-species/species-profiles.
There are plenty of specialist bees that pollinate popular native edible plants too, although they tend not to be endangered. For instance, in early spring we’re thrilled to see southeastern blueberry bees (Habropoda laboriosa) foraging our blueberry flowers given how effective they are at vibrating the pollen loose and spreading it from flower to flower, boosting fruit yields.
Squash bees (from genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa), are likely to be the first pollinators you’ll see on your summer squash, winter squash, and gourd flowers early in the morning long before other pollinators are awake. It’s worth noting that southeastern blueberries bees and squash bees are ground-dwelling.
9. Seed white clover into any grassy lawn areas.
If you have grass lawn areas, hopefully it goes without saying that you should avoid treating your lawn with pesticides. But you can also turn these otherwise pollinator-unfriendly areas into pollinator-friendly habitat by seeding your lawn with white clover (Trifolium repens).
White clover is a short-lived perennial legume that will produce loads of low-growing white flowers that bees love to forage. White clover is also a nitrogen-fixer thanks to its microbial symbionts, meaning it will pull nitrogen out of the air and convert it to plant-available nitrogen in the soil. Yes, this process will also help fertilize the grass in your lawn as well.
10. Only mow every two weeks — and consider using a non-mechanized mower.
Researchers at the USDA Forest Service found that urban landscapes / lawns mowed every two weeks (compared to every one week or three weeks) created the highest diversity of native bee species. So if you’ve been feeling pressured to mow your lawn every week in the summer, you now have a good excuse to wait longer!
Also, instead of using a mechanical mower (electric or gas-powered) consider using a human-powered reel mower instead (like people used before gas mowers came along). Using a reel mower can decrease bee injuries and fatalities during mowing, plus they’re quieter and won’t pollute your air and yard.
11. Avoid weed fabric and/or plastic fabric.
Weed blankets/cover (whether plastic or fiber) can keep native ground-dwelling bees from entering or exiting your soil. Use light mulch layers and hand-pull your weeds instead.
12. Embrace some weeds – and perhaps eat them, too.
It might be time to rethink our society’s war on weeds. Continuously spraying the areas where you, your family, and your pets live with carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in order to temporarily poison unwanted plants to death doesn’t seem very sensible. So why do it?
Weeds will always come back because weed seeds are ubiquitous in any environment and nature abhors a lack of biological diversity. Put down the spray bottle and declare a truce… Let some weeds live and just manually (rather than chemically) remove the ones that keep you up at night fretting.
To further assist you in your transition away from impulsive weed-a-cidal tendencies, note that most weeds are short-lived annual plants that produce flowers that native bees and other pollinators love. Also, many weeds are edible to humans and quite delicious, so you might even consider them free food.
See: 16 common edible weeds growing in your yard.
13. If you have sloped areas, consider constructing dry-stacked rock walls.
The back portion of our property is a steep hill going down to a creek. When we first moved in, the hill was a mess. Not only was soil and water running off our property into the creek, but the slope was covered with poison ivy and kudzu. What to do?
Thankfully, a nearby construction site had a large pile of native rocks they’d scraped out of the construction zone that they intended to pay to haul away. Instead, we brought the rocks to our property and constructed dry-stacked walls. (After first manually removing the poison ivy and kudzu!)
This stopped the runoff of water and nutrients into the creek, and allowed us to utilize these now-horizontal beds for edible plants. But it also did something else delightful: created a huge amount of additional habitat for vertebrates and invertebrates alike (native bees, frogs, lizards, etc). From spring through fall, our rock walls are teeming with life and many native bees nest here.
14. Grow an edible garden that’s bee-friendly too!
Edible gardens and pollinator-friendly gardens are not mutually exclusive aims. Our yard is an edible organic landscape that produces loads of food for our family. It’s also a pollinator habitat.
That’s because most edible plants (herbs, fruits, nuts, and veggies) almost always produce flowers that generalist native bees and honeybees enjoy. We even see bees foraging pollen on our wind-pollinated edibles such as maize/corn and chestnuts.
15. Avoid buying pesticide-treated plants from nurseries.
Unfortunately, many plant nurseries sell “pollinator-friendly” plants that have been treated with pesticides that harm and/or kill pollinators. These are often systemic pesticides, aka they do not wash off, rather they are incorporated into the cells of the plants, including their pollen and nectar.
Though profitable, this practice makes as much sense as selling cigarettes to raise money for cancer awareness. If the nursery where you’re shopping can not guarantee that the plants you’re interested in buying have not been treated/sprayed with pesticides, don’t buy them.
Native bee FAQs:
Below are answers to a few common questions about native bees you may also be wondering:
Is it helpful or necessary to make bee watering holes?
Manmade bee watering holes are beneficial for honeybees, but they are seldom helpful for native bees. That’s because native bees tend to lick early morning dew off of plants to meet their water needs (or drink rain water off of plants).
Observational note: We have a small manmade pond in our backyard for our ducks that also creates an ideal spot for interested insects to come and enjoy a drink of water. On a hot summer day, the pond edges have hundreds of thirsty honeybees, but no native bees.
These honeybees aren’t drinking the water for themselves; they’re carrying it in their crops back to their hive. Honeybees have much higher water needs than native bees since they have to cool and maintain huge colonies, including keeping their stored honey at the ideal moisture levels throughout the year.
Are bee houses (aka native bee hotels) necessary or helpful?
Native bee houses/hotels are manmade structures with lots of plant material and holes intended to make nesting habitat for native bees. They look cool and became all the rage in gardening circles on social media a few years back.
While these structures might be able to provide some temporary habitat for native bees, there are more effective, longer-lasting, and easier ways to create bee-friendly habitat, which we’ve already detailed in this article. Also, unless you dispose of the old material in your bee hotel each spring after any bees have emerged, you risk the buildup of pathogens and parasites which could kill or sicken future bees.
Can native bees sting?
Some native bee species can sting, some can’t. In some species, females have stingers but males do not (this is true of bumblebees and carpenter bees). Other small native bee species may have stingers, but they’re too small to sting humans.
Even if they can sting, native bees are not aggressive. They only sting when they feel threatened. In a yard swarming with countless numbers and species of bees in the summer, I’ve only been stung once in 10 years when I accidentally stepped barefoot on a bee that was foraging clover in our lawn.
What’s the life cycle of ground-nesting and cavity-nesting native bees?
Female ground-nesting bees dig tunnels in the ground to create brood chambers/bee nurseries. Female cavity-nesting bees utilize existing holes and tunnels in the hollow stems of plants or in dead wood (tree stumps, logs, etc) to create brood chambers.
Once a brood chamber is made or identified, a female bee begins making a small ball of pollen and nectar which is brought to the back of the chamber. Next step: she deposits an egg on the pollen-nectar ball, then seals the chamber shut using various substances (mud, chewed leaves, etc) depending on the species. (Side note: Yes, this is why leafcutter bees cut leaves: to construct brood cells.) The female bee then repeats this process, creating new brood chambers within the same hole or in new spots.
Typically, the adult bees only forage and nest for a few weeks before dying. Their eggs over-winter and begin developing the following year. After the eggs hatch, the bee larvae eat the pollen-nectar balls, pupate, and eventually emerge from the brood cell as adults. And the cycle repeats!
We hope the information in this article helps you grow a bee-friendly garden that brings you abundant joy, food, and wonder. Remember: a food-producing, people-friendly garden can be a pollinator-friendly garden too!
