Another houdini fly bites the dust May 14, 2021

 I was checking on the mason bees and found a Houdini fly hovering around condo #3.

I squished it.

Bees are still very active. 15 tubes full in condo #3.  Only about 7 full in condo #4.

May 13, 2021

 Killed another Houdini bee today.  Hip hip, hurrah.

Well, condo #1 is totally filled. Yet I still see die hard bees searching for an open tube. They love condo #1.  Finally, bees are

making the obvious move to condo #3.  While there are only a few filled tubes, many tubes have bees coming and going.  The same is true for condo#2 and condo#4.

As condo#2 fills up, they are aggressively moving to condo#4.

Glad I built condos 3 and 4 or there would be no tubes available.

I dont know what flowers are most attractive to the mason bees. The large stand of blueberry bushes are very near the bee condos. Yet the bees I see working on the blueberry bushes are mostly bumblebees. I see very few honey bees.  The most common bees is a small bumblebee. I do see a huge bumblebee occasionally.

But the mason bees are missing from the blueberries.  Since the blueberries are almost all of the flowers in my yard, I don't know where the mason bees are working.

One behavior which interests me is that these mason bees which are supposed to be solitary, certainly seem to have some communal behaviors.  I notice that many bees arrive at the condos at the same time. It would appear the bees are visiting flowers together and returning to the condos together.  I also notice that some bees know exactly which tube is their own.  Yet, some bees cannot seem to figure out which tube belongs to them.  Maybe some bees are just stupid.

  

May 12, 2021

 I killed 3 Houdini flies today. I killed every one I saw.

A Houdini fly looks like a fruit fly. It hangs around the tubes

waiting for an unsuspecting mason bee to leave a cache of pollen.

Sooo, I hang around the condo waiting for a Houdini fly to land

in a vulnerable place. Then whap ! No more Houdini fly.

Condo #1 is totally full. Condo #2 is about 90% full.

Bees are taking full advantage of the two new condos.

I estimate I will harvest about 1,000 cocoons in October.

I usually figure the average number of cocoons per tube is

roughly 3.  Some tubes have as many as 6 cocoons and some are

loaded with parasites.  But the average is about 3.

May 11, 2021

 Activity on the new Condo#3 is very high. Activity on condo#4 continues to be low.  

Bees continue to work on filling up Condo#2. 

Saw one Houdini fly. I killed it.

May 7, 2021 I do not know what happened

 I had a post on May 7 but it got erased. I wonder what happened?

It sure would help to know what causes a post to get erased.

So , it is gone.  Wonder what wonderful thing I said?

May 9, 2021 Condo#1 99% full; Condo#2 90% full

 This being May 9, it is reasonable to see both of the main condos almost full.  

The condo#3 does have a few finished tubes (all of the bamboo). The bees are working on many paper tubes but no paper tube is yet complete.

Condo#4 is totally comprised of paper tubes and while there is some activity, no tube is yet complete.

Once again, I saw no Houdini flies. I guess my killing off of adults over the past several weeks plus squishing maggots in October has lead to a scarcity of adults this spring.