lack of bees

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by bower

Well that is an interesting idea... what about using some precision drill bits to make them a nest site - away from the house!

You cant drill a precision hole with a drill bit I would have to drill first and then use reamers.
They fly around with little micrometers measuring holes you know.

No seriously I read it and observed it.
Had a bee nest wife bought with wood bamboo tubes.
The bees ignored the larger holes.
They like the connecting tubes on my Texas tomato cages the 1/4 rods go in big time.

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by SueCT

The problem with filling the holes with anything is that they will just drill new holes...

Yep, they'll drill in anything, including poles with pea fencing tied to them.

[SueCT]

My problem with all the remidies is that I have no way of knowing when the bee is in the hole and if I stick stuff up there, am i just trapping her in there and if so, will she cause more damage and won't she just die anyway? I can't see up into the holes. And if eggs have already been laid there and pollen deposited for the larvae to eat, even if I block the hole, won't they still hatch and cause more damage? This is really upsetting me because I really don't want to kill them but I have to stop them and do it soon.

[slugworth]

grease will just leave her with a skid mark and she will avoid that area again.

[slugworth]

for less calories you can use crisco shortening.

[slugworth]

Now that the sun is out again I saw bees around,but they go to the honeysuckle
on the border of my yard instead of the tomato plants.
It's like steak vs hamburg.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by slugworth

Now that the sun is out again I saw bees around,but they go to the honeysuckle
on the border of my yard instead of the tomato plants.
It's like steak vs hamburg.

You dont need bees for tomato plants.
Bees at least honey bees aren't native to the Americas anyway.
Tomatoes are.

[friedgreen51]

Although honeybees are not needed for tomatoes, they are great pollinators of cucumbers, and squash. I try to plant some plants they like. We have one hive.
Caught this one on the 'Mountain Mint' this afternoon.

[bower]

Originally Posted by slugworth

Now that the sun is out again I saw bees around,but they go to the honeysuckle
on the border of my yard instead of the tomato plants.
It's like steak vs hamburg.

The bumblebee queens that are first out here will not go to tomatoes either. That's because they need both nectar (for their own energy needs) and pollen (to feed the brood), and while tomatoes have lots of pollen they have no nectar. Peppers have both, that's why the bees are all over them the minute you bring them outside.
When the worker bees are out, it's a whole different story. They will visit every tomato flower, and patrol daily for the next ones to open, to collect the pollen bounty for brood #2.

[slugworth]

I still think tomatoes pollinated by bees are physically bigger.
In winter I have to attempt myself and the veggies are always smaller.

[GrowingCoastal]

The bees in my garden don't usually bother with tomato flowers but there is always one little bumble bee who will have a taste for them and visit as many as it can find. This year, when the 1st flowers bloomed, I saw no pollinators around but now there is one little bumble bee, again.
I'm thinking that the seeds from the first fruits ought to be true?

[ramapojoe]

No more honeybees around here, mostly bumbles and nasty yellow jackets. Still it's better than nothing.

[Nematode]

Plant tomatillo,
Bees will come, they might sniff the tomato blossomson the way in.
I wonder if you saw so many earlier because commercial pollinators were in the area for apples or some other crop.

[slugworth]

I saw some tomatillo plants when I was buying plants, but didn't know.
Some days the humidity was 94% so just wind may not be enough to pollinate
with sticky pollen?

[Worth1]

You can lead a bee to a flowers but you cant make it stay there.
They are picky.
The Crape Myrtles are in full bloom here and that is where they are at.
I have one over 30 feet tall in the back in full bloom.