To bee, or not to bee?

  To bee, or not to bee?  Well, that is sort of the question at hand.  Mark has taken on the job of "de-termiting" the house once again.  It seems that there are a lot more than he wanted to believe.  (I had a hunch that we were quite infested when the Red-headed Woodpecker started rap, rap, rapping on our walls.  That rascal was hunting for something!) Mark's first course of action is to pull off a section of the siding off of the Little Bayou House.  From there, he inspects the inner workings of the building, pulls out any dubious looking boards, replaces those and then I give it a good dousing with termite spray.  Once that is finished, he proceeds with installing new siding.  The entire house has to be done but with him being away so much, we do a section at a time. Hopefully, the critters will steer clear of the new stuff that is soaked in termite-killing poison.  As much as I hate to use toxic chemicals, sometimes it is absolutely necessary.  This is one of those times.  I figure that I would rather spray for the nasties than have my upstairs become the new downstairs.  With the rate the termites eat wood, that is not too far-fetched.

  While the siding was removed, I had a chance to explore behind the walls.  It is not often that one gets to see what is crawling around in there!  Believe me, if you knew, it might just give you the heebie-jeebies!  It has been a great while since any sort of chemical deterrent was poured into the area so I found a myriad of creepy crawlies!  There was evidence of a goodly amount of spiders which made me happy in a way.  Those, I figure, were probably dining upon any other bug that made its way through our walls.  A few centipedes and a beetle or two pretty much rounded out the bug infestation beside the termites.  I did, however, find evidence that at least one bee found an entry point.  

  Between the outer siding and the inner storm planking, I found something that looked a lot like a cigar. Hmmm?  Have my termites taken to smoking?  I pried the thing from between two planks.  It was about four inches long and probably a half inch in diameter.  Ponder, ponder!  What is this?  I inspected my grand find.  Anyone else would have brushed the thing aside if they would have touched it at all. Me? I was spellbound!  As looked closer, I realized that this was none other than a Leaf Cutter Bee's nest.  Obviously the little ones had already hatched and made their way to the outside world before I came marauding their territory.  The end of the tube had been eaten away as an escape hatch.  

  The Leaf Cutter Bee is a small, solitary bee.  Solitary means it does not live in a communal hive.  It is so called because of its habit of cutting leaves to form a nice, snug home for its eggs.  The female takes sole responsibility for the building of the chamber.  Once she has finished, she will lay an egg in the end and fill it with "bee bread".  This is a mixture of pollen and nectar that the female creates for the larva to munch while it grows. The chamber is filled then sealed.  If there is enough room, the female will then add on more chambers until the tube is four to eight inches in length. 


  The Leaf Cutter Bee is not a bad bee to have about the place.  Yes, they do have a habit of cutting holes in leaves but they rarely sting and are great pollinators!  I am contemplating making suitable nesting holes for them and placing them about the garden.  A board drilled with long holes would make a perfect place for the Leaf Cutter to call home.  The bees can pollinate to their hearts' content and build their tube nests in convenient bee houses instead of my house!  Ahh, yes!  To BEE!