We made it to the JWM Leafcutters facility in Nampa, Idaho. Previously we had packed up all of our materials including the foam, tapered tunnel habitat we obtained from JWM Leafcutters. The leaf cutter bees, obtained also from JWM Leafcutters, as cocoons hatched out and filled the tubes in the habitat.
In addition to the habitat we also packed some Blue Orchard Bee materials including wooden block habitats, some stored cocoons and release tubes with materials from the field.
Our objective for the trip was threefold:
observe the JWM Leafcutter operation,
'harvest' our existing foam, tapered tunnel habitat,
discuss and explore the Blue Orchard Bee life cycle.
We arrived at the facility and were met by Scott Earnest, Director of Operations for JWM Leafcutters in the USA. Gene had spoken extensively to Scott on the phone since he was the contact for our purchase of "one gallon" of leaf cutter bees and the foam, tapered tunnel habitat. Scott and his coworker Marco do all the processing work at the Nampa facility with the addition of some part time workers during the 'busy' season.
Scott gave us a tour of the facility and an overview of their operation. More on that later.
We did examine and take apart our filled habitat.
We started by Scott cutting the plastic straps that hold the two, back to back, habitats together. We noted the possible emergence of a second generation of bees during the same season although there is some question whether the holes we observed are large enough for leaf cutter bees. Might they be predators emerging? And we noted that some of the tube were filled with bougainvillea pink or magenta leaves, referred to as 'bracts':
The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4–13 cm long and 2–6 cm broad. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colours associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as "paper flower" because the bracts are thin and papery.
These make an interesting contrast to the typical greenish, gray leaf cutter cocoons.
The next day, after harvesting the two, separated habitats we used their bonding machine to replace the straps;
Next, we harvest our habitat using the amazing machine invented by a Canadian nuclear physicist!
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