Country diary: the mason bee builds individual rooms for her eggs

Langstone, Hampshire: This industrious little insect collects mud to partition off cells in the garden box I put up for her

A few weeks ago, my neighbours had cavity wall insulation installed and the resulting drill holes in their gable-end wall were soon being prospected by red mason bees (Osmia bicornis).

People often assume that the common name of these gingery, spring-flying solitary bees refers to a tendency to nest in crumbling mortar, but it’s more likely to derive from their habit of using mud as a mortar-like material to line and partition their brood cells. While females do make use of crevices between old brickwork, they also nest in hollow plant stems and beetle boreholes in dead wood, and will readily occupy manmade bee hotels.

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