Rain in Gilbert!

We placed 7,500 leaf cutter bee cocoons at the residential lot in Gilbert. We are monitoring the status regularly. We visually inspect the site, monitor the temperature and humidity and observe the coming and going of the bees after they emerge into and out of the habitats.

We've had weeks of temperature over 110F. Finally on Wednesday the 23rd we some rain.

We have been monitoring the bee activity in Gilbert regularly. Here is the report from 20 - 24 June 2021:

Michelle did see a leaf cutter bee on the rose leaf. The bee cut out a portion of the leaf and flew away in a matter of seconds. Here's a really good video of a leaf cutter bee cutting out sections from yellow flower petals and bringing to her nest. She is even threatened by spiders!

The temperature finally came down when we had the rainstorm (above) on Wednesday. You can see the drastic temperature decrease and humidity increase on the right hand side of the graph.

Site1a2greenhouse Temperature and Humidity Since Placement

Here's an excellent video on the life cycle of the leaf cutter bee:

Here's some slo-mo of leaf cutter bee activities courtesy of Crown Bees:

We're still not able to get to the Master Garden in Flowing Springs to check on the bees we placed there on June 11.

The road is still closed due to the "Backbone" fire.

“You’re going to hear that’s probably going to be a minimum of a week before we can start opening things up, and that’s a minimum. And I know that that’s a long time,” Amy Tinderholt, a Cocon ino National Forest ranger, said during a community meeting livestreamed Wednesday night.

“You all have been out of your homes a long time, you’ve been living with this incident for a long time, but it’s what’s necessary for us to do this safely, and to get it done well for you.”

The Backbone Fire grew to 40,591 acres overnight with 1% containment, according to Thursday morning’s incident management update, up from 38,328 acres with the same containment a day earlier.