Previously we had placed leaf cutter bees in Gilbert (8 May 2020) and Payson (9 May 2020). The Gilbert leaf cutters started emerging at the end of the month and are still going. The Payson bees may have emerged; but we saw no activity at the habitat.
We decided to put a second batch of leaf cutter bee cocoons at the Master Garden in Flowing Springs, just north of Payson. The first time, there was a physical distance (5-10 feet) and no direct line of sight from the cocoons to the habitat. This time we will co-locate the cocoons and habitats in a shaded location.
Previously we reported our concern about ants that were all over the leaf cutter cocoons.
On the 7th of August we were fortunate to have a discussion with Wayne Mennie of JWMleafcutters. Wayne was generous with his time and gracious in answering all of our questions. We spoke for about an hour and a half. Note that JWMleafcutters sells leaf cutter bee cocoons and related products to farmers in Canada and the United State. One customer might buy 1 to 5 THOUSAND gallons. We bought one gallon. Thank you, Wayne.
Conversation with Wayne Mennie of JWMleafcutters, Cahit Ozturk of the ASU Honeybee Research Lab, and Gene DeBons and Jim Sarina of BlueOrchardBeesInArizonaProject click:
There is much valuable information in the discussion. What we learned of immediate value to out leaf cutter bee project was twofold:
The leaf cutter cocoons need to be 'preconditioned' by placing them in a 85 deg F or hotter environment for 17-21 days before they are placed in the field. Even better, wait until the males start emerging first.
The ants should not generally be a problem for leaf cutter bee cocoons. And if you follow #1 above, it definitely will not be an issue.
Also, #1 neatly explains our 'success' in Gilbert were we placed the cocoons out on 8 May and saw significant activity on 30 May; 22 days later. Gilbert temperatures from 8 May to 11 July 2020:
The 100% humidity spike on the 30th was our 'monsoon' storm.
We checked the leaf cutter cocoons in the Master Garden in Flowing Springs again on 14-15 August. We observed no activity. And the ants were also gone? We did see lots of honeybees on ground cover (weeds?) and hummingbirds attracted by Joanne's feeders.
And, finally, here's an interesting discussion of honeybees by Cahit:
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