Saw a few Houdini flies today. Tried to kill them, unfortunately I was not successful.
The tubes at this point seem to be well over 50 percent complete.
For the tubes which are not complete, the bees were very busy entering and leaving tubes. In the case of Condo#1 I was amazed to see the center section paper tubes are nearly all full.
Wow the bees are really in full swing. Soooo many bees. The tubes are now filling up. It looks like it is possible that every tube will be soon filled.
Look carefully, it appears well over half of the tubes are filled.
Note the thick piece of Styrofoam on the left wall of the condo. This protects the condo from excess heat from late afternoon sun..
No Houdini flies today. Tubes are filling up. Even the paper tubes are becoming quite popular.
It is really impressive to see the virtual swarm of bees around the condos. At any one time I commonly see 5 or 6 bees coming and going.
When a bee exits a tube, they move very fast. The mason bee defense is speed and stealth since they have no stinging defense.
No Houdini files seen today. I will keep watching out for the
Houdinis. I did notice some dried mud on the front floor of condo#1.
I hope it is not Houdinis mining their way out of a tube.
I estimate more than half of bamboo tubes are filled. Many paper tubes are filled. I expect the large number of mason bees and the limited availability of bamboo tubes are causing this.
The condos are filling up. I saw a hideous Houdini (Cacoxenus indagator) fly snooping around condo#1 today. The fly was flying around then lit on the bottom I hit with my hand and killed it. Houdini flies resemble fruit flies in size.
So I found two more Houdini flies. They may be called Houdini but they are the stupidest flies. Just wait from them to land on a wall and swat them. Easy to kill. You must kill every single one you can find.
I suspect the Houdini fly has no local predators...except ME. That is why they do not expect the fly swatter. Where ever they come from the technology of "fly swatter" does not exist. You can also use the tip of your index finger,,, as long as you are quick.
Bamboo tubes continue to be favored over the paper tubes. None the less, as the bamboo tubes fill up, the bees do go for the paper tubes.
If the bees fill tubes with a high average number of cocoons , there could be over 500 cocoons. If that is the case, I will need to add one or two condos next spring.
The bamboo tubes are filling up. Bees are using paper tubes, but always seem to choose bamboo if there is a perfect size available.