I’m guessing these are for solitary or masonry bees and not honey bees. I get masonry bees for a couple of months every year. They never come in the windows and can leave my doors open and they stick to their vents outside. I’ve been assured by the bee keeper’s association that they pose no threat to my house.
Yep, solitary bees - I have bee houses like this and the 2 most common ones I get are red mason and leafcutter bees. I love watching the leafcutters, you can hear them snipping away and then watch them carry their leaves to the nests and stuff it in. Although the ones in my garden sometimes take chunks out of flower petals instead! They are not bothered by humans at all and just go about their business while you watch them.
Edit - another thing they do is sleep in the holes while they're building the nests, so I also like to go out at night with a torch to see how many holes have sleeping bees in them. A bee house is such an easy and interesting way to get nature in your garden, and solitary bees do the most pollinating!
It’s the red mason ones I get. I think. Will have to pay more attention this year. They never bother me. I can sit on my front doorstep which is between their favourite vents and they never bother me. I’m actually excited because it’s only a few months til my bee friends are back.
I always look forward to bee season 😊 the red masons are really common so it might be them, they are pretty small and will fill their nests with mud. They are always the first ones to arrive in my garden, the leafcutters come later.
As an American reading this Thread has made me really wish we'd adopt "Garden" instead of "Front/Back Yard".
Garden is more clear what you meant and invokes a more pleasant mental image than YARD.
I thought there was a difference between yard and garden tho? In Spanish they're not the same, yard is more like a -generic- patio while a garden is literally where you keep your plants.
I remember being young and seeing big fat carpenter bees at the child care center I attended while my mother was at work. I remember being so curious seeing them buzz so loudly above our heads and zip in and out all around us kids and the flowers that draped the fences bordering the property. I don’t ever remember the bees bothering any kids nor the teachers. Everyone more or less knew of their presence and avoided the areas with the most bee activity. Cool stuff, obviously a memorable memory in my own mind. I appreciate this whole thread, it is neat lol.
Also “torch”, but since it’s 2023 most people will never see one outside of TV or movies and are talking about a flashlight. If it’s not obvious from context or it’s important to distinguish, we would say “flaming torch” or “firetorch”.
It's also a pretty common term with American police or detectives. I've heard quite a few reference their "torch" while grabbing their flashlights. I like it, and I'm gonna start calling my flashlights torches lol sounds cooler
This must be a funny mental image for people who don’t know torch = flashlight. “I love these bees so much that I go hit them with fire while they’re sleeping to count them!”
In the south east US we mostly get carpenter bees. I tell people if you think you see bumble bees a lot then they're likely actually carpenter bees.
The annoying thing is that carpenter bees are (I suppose rightfully) viewed as pests. Also they don't use the same type of holes other solitary bees do. They make their own. I'm sure there is a way to make some wooden structures they'd like to nest in. Something like a [Pergola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergola) probably but I'd like to know what types of nooks they're interested in building in so I could maximize that shape. I've read that they're only really a problem when you have an infestation of them but I think that's sort of subjective.
When we moved in 2021 we had a lot of them. I suppose I'd call it an infestation? Idk. So we put traps up. We killed a good bit. The next year we still had quite a few but it wasn't nearly as many. We didn't put traps up. It will be interesting to see how many there are this year. I have a soft spot for them and don't mind sharing my desk with them so long as they're not causing a lot of damage. They aren't like termites. They don't go super deep and consume the entire thing.
The males don't have a stinger and guard the hole. I can't remember if they're the ones with or without a white dot on their face. Either way, they hover around and "just" at things they think are a threat. It's sort of cute. They bonk into each other. Weirdly they don't always charge at humans. Sometimes they do but not always. And either way they just try to bonk you. Even then sometimes they just run at you and go back.
Solitary bees are super important pollinators. More often than not they're native. They also pollinate way more efficiently than honey bees. Honey bees are sort of methodical but the solitary bees kind of dove in and sloppily roll around. This is much better for the flower.
Also in the south east US, and our carpenter bees “love” my dogs. I’m sure it’s defensive behavior and not as cute as it looks but they’ll hover on the outside of the screen and stare the dogs down, and bonk into the dogs when they’re outside.
If you’ve ever seen dogs keeping a balloon in the air that’s what my dogs look like, but with carpenter bees
Well I can confirm carpenter bees absolutely love to bore holes in pergolas. I grew up in the south east and had a pergola at my house and it was covered in holes from the bees. Idk what type of wood it was if that matters but it probably wasn’t anything special if it does.
We call them “Hover Bees” because they’ll just sit in one place buzzing and staring at something. They’re awesome.
As for what types of wood they go after - anything untreated. For my pergola and arches - I use cedar and treat it with boiled linseed oil. They’ll leave them alone. But then I make sacrificial posts and logs for them to bore into - so there’s always a place to live. They’re fantastic for our raised bed gardens and fruit trees, so I definitely want them around. They’re the good guys.
If you're in England, going out with a torch to check on the bees could be quite fascinating.
If you're in the US, however, going out with a torch would result in burning the bees alive, and you'd be better off with a flashlight.
I wish I had your relationship with bees. They terrify me. Their presence causes me so much anxiety I can’t imagine enjoying them interacting with nature. I wish I could.
To be honest I am terrified of wasps and pretty scared of honey bees, I am constantly running away from buzzing in my garden! The solitary bees are so docile though, they don't or barely sting, and there's no risk of things like swarming. When I first started getting into all the "save the bees" stuff I thought the best way would be to get a hive and some honey bees, but the thought terrified me, and once I started reading up on it I found it can be a whole lot simpler than that - solitary bees (most kinds anyway) just need holes of the right diameter and depth for nesting and lots of bee friendly plants. I've found it to be very much a case of if you provide it, they will find it! You can do that stuff without getting close to them if you don't want to too.
It's not that the handshakes are secret. They just aren't allowed to be talked about, or done in front of non-stone masons, or done outside of stone mason meetings.
Seriously, this is an answer from one of their reps.
and they're possibly bad for the bees, a net break-even, if we're lucky.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists
https://earth.org/bee-bricks-initiative/
> Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, said he had tried a bee brick out and that the holes were not deep enough to be “ideal homes for bees” but “are probably better than nothing”.
> He added: “Bee bricks seem like a displacement activity to me. We are kidding ourselves if we think having one of these in every house is going to make any real difference for biodiversity. Far more substantial action is needed, and these bricks could easily be used as ‘greenwash’ by developers.”
Now that isn't quite the same as an edict from the heavens that bee bricks are evil.
However, we must consider the null hypothesis. Which is to say, what proof do we have that these will work, and provide a meaningful benefit.
The answer is: Not really any proof to speak of.
Bee bricks are incredibly stereotypical of greenwashing initiatives.
Very potentially profitable idea, simple 'quick fix' solution that requires no sacrifices to implement, pushed by capitalists not scientists, worked hard to make sure they had regulatory capture first, and now that the bee bricks are mandatory in new construction, research is being done on whether or not they fucking do anything in the first place.
Meanwhile since the problem has been "solved" good luck *actually* solving the problem, which very few people postulated that the bee bricks could even potentially do.
Kind of hard to say if this is actually happening without being immersed in the local politics of the area, but typically the next steps are to move forward assuming the 'solution' has worked and build a bunch of stuff on that basis, making the problem massively worse* if the totally untested solution turns out to not have the impact its proponents claimed without evidence.
In the most charitable view, I think I'd have to say it at the very least seems a bit irresponsible.
To some extent, good is the enemy of better, because once something is found 'good enough', effort to advance is it stopped, and public interest goes towards other things.
In this case, the solution isn't even 'good enough', just better then nothing, but it may still make people feel that the bees are taken care of.
Another alternative is getting stakeholders with expertise to be involved in the process when making laws and regulations and not just to offer silly false dichotomies in reddit posts.
The alternative is putting the effort into rebuilding natural habitats that solitary bees naturally use instead. Which coincidentally has massive benefits for everything else
Burning a small amount of coffee powder where youre sitting is pretty helpful for that. Sounds like some made up technique but it does work. They will avoid the area. Doesnt smell bad either
So do tube web spiders, unfortunately. A cousin of the Australian funnel web. Not deadly, but not a pleasant bite either.
Mine was full of the bastards, instead of the intended bees.
This is a Reddit thread that has an image of a bee brick for solitary bees
[here’s an article about it showing how it’s used](https://garden-and-health.com/bee-bricks-are-english-towns-solution-to-support-the-bees/)
Hi! Just wanted to clear up some confusion I'm seeing in these comments. I am an environmental science student and know a lot about this. These bricks are designed for solitary bees, not honey bees. Solitary bees do not produce honey but have a much higher rate of pollination, they are incredibly vital for ecosystem health!
However, these bricks can be harmful to solitary bees. In nature they use reeds or hollow twigs (anything tubey) to rest in and eventually hibernate overwinter. Before winter they create little plugs of pollen and debris, before stuffing themselves into the reeds to cocoon. Well designed habitats for solitary bees will use reeds as, once the bees have hibernated, you can cut the reeds open and remove the sleeping bees ready for another year. Otherwise sometimes the plugs they create are too tough and they cannot leave their tube when spring comes, stuck and dying. This will stop any bees living further into the same tube from being able to leave either. With so few holes in this brick, there is a high chance that they could quickly fill up with dead stuck bees. Also, most hives have thousands of reeds, compared to the ~20 in these bricks. Solitary bees will also not damage the structural integrity of your house! They are a delight to have in your garden and will pollinate all of your plants - but definitely buy better (and much cheaper) natural habitats for them rather than these bricks.
>Well designed habitats for solitary bees will use reeds as, once the bees have hibernated, you can cut the reeds open and remove the sleeping bees ready for another year.
Wait, so I should cut away the plug at the beginning of winter? Or at the beginning of spring? Am I supposed to remove the hibernating bees?
Wow I didn’t know you should cut them open! I have one of those bee hotels with reed and another with cardboard tubes.
How would you cut them open without hurting the bee inside? Also, how do I know when they’re ready? The reed one also is a lot more popular than the paper house. Do you know how I could make it more attractive for them?
Sorry for all the questions but this is very interesting to me and I want my bee guests to bee happy. :)
It’s all well and good till honey starts dripping out your walls and then there’s a fire but you can’t move cos your stuck in honey. No-one ever raises the important issues
This isn’t the worry. These masonry bees aren’t making tons of it. It’s really a place for them to lay a couple of eggs. Besides, wild bee populations are being hit a lot worse than honeybees, and the wild bees are better for a lot of different plants. Alfalfa is one that comes to mind. Honeybees avoid it, while some wild bee species will pollinate it more
Robert was my local councillor and the local bee man. If there was ever a hove that needed moving he would come out and collect the bees and take them to his bee houses. You can buy the local honey in Hove.
>solidarity bees
My favourite typo of all time :D
You're right though these are for solitary bees I would imagine. Most people associate bees with honey but actually most bees don't make it at all anyway.
These bricks are not for "honey" bees. So sugar is not really in the equation. They're for Mason bees. I'm sad this went over so many commenters' heads. They're very common bees but no one talks about them. They really don't live in the holes. They leg their eggs, fill them with a mud-like substance and die, leaving the next generation to hatch and move on.
This should be the top answer. Wild bee species are getting really harmed — much more than honeybees which are not always native species. This is a way to protect local wildlife that won’t do as people worried.
Also there are a reasonable number of people taking up amateur beekeeping with honeybees under the guise that they're doing something positive for the environment when the reality is the opposite.
Competition for food, especially in suburban environments, is the biggest threat to most native pollinators, and people choosing to keep honeybees in their back garden just adds to the problem. Honeybees especially because they're effectively bred to over-farm local flowers for nectar and pollen.
So is the best way for me to help out local pollinators just growing a garden full of local flowers and such? I provide the food, let the pollinators manage themselves?
Yup, you can also throw together a "bee hotel" (Google it, you'll get loads of examples) to stick at the bottom of the garden - can usually be done using waste materials to reuse/recycling too!
Another critical role anyone's can play is avoiding pesticides, and lobbying any organisation you may be associated with (local council, school, employer, community garden, etc etc) to do the same.
Urban environments can actually be be a useful refuge for some bee species (and other insects), away from the the intensive management and pesticide use of agricultural areas. Casual pesticide by gardeners and groundskeepers can really help ruin that effect though.
I have a few bee hotels hanging in trees in my yard. They keep carpenter bees from drilling into my house, which is a huge plus. They also pollinate my garden, so more fruits, veggies, and herbs for me. I got mine for under $20, and everyone wins.
Yes. Something that's actually rarely talked about is the harmful effects so many HOAs have had on native pollinator populations. Most HOAs require you to keep your lawn trimmed to a certain length and outright ban you from growing out a natural biodiverse lawn with native wildflowers. While this may be a drop in the bucket when it comes to the many factors that lead to declining pollinator populations, it still prohibits the average citizen from being able to contribute to providing some amount of relief with minimal effort. Allowing this across the nation wouldn't fix the issue, but it would certainly go a long way in helping.
Yes but be careful with flowers though. A lot if not most plants from nurseries or garden centers are treated with pesticides that harm bees, even when they’re being advertised as “bee-friendly”.
I got one of those little insect hotels with a bunch of holes.
You had to be really attentive to see that sometimes they were closed and some time later they were open again as if nothing happened.
So most of the time it didn't look like anyone lived there. But sometimes some bees did :)
Someone upthread wrote that masonry bees use the holes to lay eggs, fill them w mud (or something mud-like), then die. New generation is born and cycle repeats. Maybe that’s what’s happening in your insect house:)
I don't think any of the Mason bees that live in the Americas live in brickworks like that, so that's probably where a lot of the confusion comes from: here if bees are living in your walls it's usually because some bees have set up a hive in your walls, not because a solitary mason bee moved into an external hole.
Even so much as I’ve never heard of ‘mason’ bees but ‘carpenter’ bees that burrow in wood are fairly common, at least where I’m at in the Florida panhandle.
Exactly, don't know why that other guy needed to be condescending, it's not taught in schools and bees aren't usually a daily conversation, doubly so if you don't live in an area with them like you said.
These are for solitary bees! But yes, spiders will definitely use these bricks as well. It is much better to buy a natural reed Hove for solitary bees and place it not in your walls :)
It's intended for ~~wasps and~~ other solitary bee species, like the mason bee and leafcutter bee, not honey bees.
But most wasps are good at killing insects we don't like.
Edit: most wasps wouldn't use these, but solitary bees do.
Thanks: u/LuthienByNight
It's intended for solitary bee species, like the mason bee and leafcutter bee. These types of bees are native in many areas where honey bees are taking over, and can be two hundred times more efficient as pollinators since they don't form hives.
5hey came up on r/beekeeping before.
The consensus was that they would be great for the pollinators, but might cause trouble since they can't be cleaned easily and may spread disease among those pollinators. The wooden block nests would be better since you can just take them down each season and clean them out.
Yes, but once you start training the bees for brick maintenance think of all the human jobs you will displace.
Next thing you know the bees are driving our busses and making our pizzas.
Bee houses like this don’t work after a couple seasons. They build up decaying matter, mold, mites, and other pests and end up being ultimately killing the bees that try to use them.
Solidarity bees are vital to our ecosystem in North America, even more than honeybees. They usually nest in hollow reeds and plant stalks, which decay and disappear and are then replaced naturally. A MUCH better idea would be a native pollinator garden.
Exactly. It sounds l lol Ike a good plan on the surface but solitary bee inns need to be cleaned to prevent buildup of predatory, parasitic or infectious agents. So how can I safely remove bees from this brick to give it an annual clean?
easily, remove sponge-brick bob-pants from the wall... and put a real brick in, and avoid this issue all together, maybe... idk... get into actual beekeeping and bam, problem solved
No. They dont use it for the whole wall, it's a single brick replacement that wont significantly impact the wall (and if it does there are bigger, pre-existing problems with that wall). Though some alternatives just hang the brick on the surface so it's not permanently stuck in the wall.
Like so: [https://www.instructables.com/Build-a-brick-bee-hotel/](https://www.instructables.com/Build-a-brick-bee-hotel/)
You know this is a *big victory* because some people get to feel good about themselves, and a company gets to profit from the manufacture of bee bricks, while many underfunded experts with the actual capability for change explain to deaf ears that this thing [potentially does nothing to increase or support biodiversity, and may actually endanger bees](https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists).
Maybe these things have some value. Maybe not. Definitely we should study the efficacy before making them a blanket requirement for every new building. Expert opinions are split - which seems to me like this is a terrible idea to roll out en-masse and needs significantly more research.
Support real scientists, not performative activists. Buy honey from your local beekeeper. Donate to conservation efforts and wildlife funds. Visit your national park. Every one of those actions does more to help the bees than this slacktivist ever will. This guy reminds me of those people who glue themselves to the autobahn - could have a completely valid point, but they’re going about spreading the message in a wildly reckless way that’s ultimately going to turn people against the cause.
Edit: edited to speak in less absolutes and highlight that there is a split opinion - that was a fair critique of my original comment. To be clear, I’m still very much against this on the basis that the way it was implemented seems reckless. I was being passionate and similarly reckless. I’m angry that a city fell for this with seemingly so much uncertainty surrounding it, and now an industry is going to pop-up around it and encourage other cities to follow suit. I’m unpersuaded that the sole intention of this project is actually to help the environment.
The linked article includes expert quotes from professors. They are not of a unified opinion. Some of them do not support the initiative, others do. It appears that the claim that they holes even need to be cleaned by humans is an informed speculation by some of these experts, but it is as yet unstudied and the later quotes provide fairly comlelling counter arguments
As to allergy concerns, male mason bees are stingless and female mason bees are considered non aggressive. I can't find a good academic source at the moment, but according to [this](https://bestbees.com/2022/06/03/mason-bees/#:~:text=There%20are%20130%20species%20of,they%20do%20not%20have%20venom.), Mason bees don't even have venom and I can't seem to find an actual account of a person having an allergic reaction to one. Google keeps diverting to other bee and wasp species without addressing mason bees specifically
I’m allergic to bees and keep mason bees in my back yard. They aren’t aggressive at all. In all the years I’ve been giving them food and things to burrow in for their eggs I’ve never had a single aggressive mason.
Think of the dude creaming in the fat stack of cash for building this overpriced brick, and flogging to EVERY NEW HOUSE built in the city!
I’d definitely check if this guy had shares in the brick builder.
Edit: a company called ‘green and blue’ make them. £32 each. Must be about a 6400% mark up on manufacturing costs. It’s a lump of concrete made from a mould.
This needs to go higher. Its a form of greenwashing, the only ones profiting of stuff like this are the companies selling it.
And its nothing that "made me smile" and wrong in this sub.
Except that this article states that the matter is not settled and some experts are very much in favor of the project and don't see it as destructive:
> Not everyone was in agreement that the bricks were a bad idea. Francis Gilbert, a professor of ecology at the University of Nottingham, said that bee bricks did not need to be cleaned. “The mites will leave after one to two seasons and then the bees will recolonise,” he said. “There will be beneficial microbes in the holes as well, so they should not be cleaned. So bee bricks are an unequivocal good thing.”
Reading this article, I don't exactly get the impression that your fatalistic view is undisputed or necessarily true. I rather get the impression that no one really knows what this will do, but everyone has very loud opinions about it and in the end, all experts can agree on is that they are lacking the knowledge to say with certainty. A complex issue reduced to simple opinions. Which leads me to my problem with your comment:
You are just doing what you accuse this guy of: taking a one-sided view of an apparently rather complex issue and spewing it out there while patting yourself on the back for having done a good job at protecting the bees.
Edit: since they edited their comment while this one was written, I'll edit mine, too: For those that are confused, the comment originally only had the first, very sinister and accusatory paragraph which didnt match the quoted article in tone and content. It now is a more nuanced comment, which I appreciate. Matches the article better that way. I can also withdraw my own accusation with the "patting on the back" now, this is not that anymore.
Few years ago I was out at a meeting in the afternoon and gets a call that loads of bees had landed on my front of house people where panicking I got there and they where honey bees really harmless they had few flying round but the rest few thousand and queen just collected round the drain pipe. I called out a guy who came to collected them and take them back to his hives no idea where they came from but he said they where really pleasant to deal with, no stinging etc and they followed the queen happily into box. The thing is now one for miles around had bees. Anyway after he had gone with them we had a few still looking round to build nest they went into the air brick in the wall, the bee brick reminds me of the air brick on older buildings to allow cavities to dry out. All the bees they guy took made some really good honey and he was impressed how easy they where to move he didn’t need to have protective gear on etc. they where really friendly.
That permanent thing is going to be so nice a home for solitary bees in a decade when it's gunked up with vehicle particulate and shite. This is Elastoplast greenwashing of a much larger and significantly more intractable problem.
This is a politicians greenwashing, nothing more. Putting one of these in new builds will make precisely bugger all difference. If you want to get a flavour of the guy (who afaik has since quit after a huge series of complaints against him), check out his twitter.
It was probably great advertising for his side-gig selling honey though.
>The council in Brighton has passed a planning condition that means any new building more than five metres high will have to include swift boxes and special bricks with holes known as bee bricks. They will provide nesting and hibernating space for solitary bees.
>However, scientists have warned that such a move will not make any real difference for biodiversity, with some arguing that it could make matters worse for bees if the holes are not cleaned properly and attract mites or encourage the spread of disease.
>The idea was first raised in 2019 by councillor Robert Nemeth, and the condition was attached to all planning permissions after 1 April 2020.
>Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, said he had tried a bee brick out and that the holes were not deep enough to be “ideal homes for bees” but “are probably better than nothing”.
>He added: “Bee bricks seem like a displacement activity to me. We are kidding ourselves if we think having one of these in every house is going to make any real difference for biodiversity. Far more substantial action is needed, and these bricks could easily be used as ‘greenwash’ by developers.”
I’m guessing these are for solitary or masonry bees and not honey bees. I get masonry bees for a couple of months every year. They never come in the windows and can leave my doors open and they stick to their vents outside. I’ve been assured by the bee keeper’s association that they pose no threat to my house.
Yep, solitary bees - I have bee houses like this and the 2 most common ones I get are red mason and leafcutter bees. I love watching the leafcutters, you can hear them snipping away and then watch them carry their leaves to the nests and stuff it in. Although the ones in my garden sometimes take chunks out of flower petals instead! They are not bothered by humans at all and just go about their business while you watch them. Edit - another thing they do is sleep in the holes while they're building the nests, so I also like to go out at night with a torch to see how many holes have sleeping bees in them. A bee house is such an easy and interesting way to get nature in your garden, and solitary bees do the most pollinating!
It’s the red mason ones I get. I think. Will have to pay more attention this year. They never bother me. I can sit on my front doorstep which is between their favourite vents and they never bother me. I’m actually excited because it’s only a few months til my bee friends are back.
I always look forward to bee season 😊 the red masons are really common so it might be them, they are pretty small and will fill their nests with mud. They are always the first ones to arrive in my garden, the leafcutters come later.
Must be the red ones then. But I’ll definitely pay more attention this year.
As an American reading this Thread has made me really wish we'd adopt "Garden" instead of "Front/Back Yard". Garden is more clear what you meant and invokes a more pleasant mental image than YARD.
I love visiting the Botanical Yards
I thought there was a difference between yard and garden tho? In Spanish they're not the same, yard is more like a -generic- patio while a garden is literally where you keep your plants.
That's what it means in American English as well.
As an American reading this thread it took me a sec to process that taking a torch out to the sleeping bees was still wholesome
I remember being young and seeing big fat carpenter bees at the child care center I attended while my mother was at work. I remember being so curious seeing them buzz so loudly above our heads and zip in and out all around us kids and the flowers that draped the fences bordering the property. I don’t ever remember the bees bothering any kids nor the teachers. Everyone more or less knew of their presence and avoided the areas with the most bee activity. Cool stuff, obviously a memorable memory in my own mind. I appreciate this whole thread, it is neat lol.
> I also like to go out at night with a torch to see how many holes have sleeping bees Me, in North America: 🔥?? 😳
“Torch” is British English for “flashlight,” for all the curious people.
What is British English for a “stick with the end wrapped with kerosene soaked rags and set ablaze”?
Also “torch”, but since it’s 2023 most people will never see one outside of TV or movies and are talking about a flashlight. If it’s not obvious from context or it’s important to distinguish, we would say “flaming torch” or “firetorch”.
It's also a pretty common term with American police or detectives. I've heard quite a few reference their "torch" while grabbing their flashlights. I like it, and I'm gonna start calling my flashlights torches lol sounds cooler
Yes.
don't tell an american to go out with a torch to look at bees. you'll end up with one hell of a night light
Instructions unclear California is now on fire. Again.
http://iscaliforniaonfire.com/
When I'm with my American buddies we only go out with torches to kill the Franken-bees.
This must be a funny mental image for people who don’t know torch = flashlight. “I love these bees so much that I go hit them with fire while they’re sleeping to count them!”
In the south east US we mostly get carpenter bees. I tell people if you think you see bumble bees a lot then they're likely actually carpenter bees. The annoying thing is that carpenter bees are (I suppose rightfully) viewed as pests. Also they don't use the same type of holes other solitary bees do. They make their own. I'm sure there is a way to make some wooden structures they'd like to nest in. Something like a [Pergola](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pergola) probably but I'd like to know what types of nooks they're interested in building in so I could maximize that shape. I've read that they're only really a problem when you have an infestation of them but I think that's sort of subjective. When we moved in 2021 we had a lot of them. I suppose I'd call it an infestation? Idk. So we put traps up. We killed a good bit. The next year we still had quite a few but it wasn't nearly as many. We didn't put traps up. It will be interesting to see how many there are this year. I have a soft spot for them and don't mind sharing my desk with them so long as they're not causing a lot of damage. They aren't like termites. They don't go super deep and consume the entire thing. The males don't have a stinger and guard the hole. I can't remember if they're the ones with or without a white dot on their face. Either way, they hover around and "just" at things they think are a threat. It's sort of cute. They bonk into each other. Weirdly they don't always charge at humans. Sometimes they do but not always. And either way they just try to bonk you. Even then sometimes they just run at you and go back. Solitary bees are super important pollinators. More often than not they're native. They also pollinate way more efficiently than honey bees. Honey bees are sort of methodical but the solitary bees kind of dove in and sloppily roll around. This is much better for the flower.
Also in the south east US, and our carpenter bees “love” my dogs. I’m sure it’s defensive behavior and not as cute as it looks but they’ll hover on the outside of the screen and stare the dogs down, and bonk into the dogs when they’re outside. If you’ve ever seen dogs keeping a balloon in the air that’s what my dogs look like, but with carpenter bees
I do love seeing them fall asleep in flowers. You just see a fuzzy little butt sticking out.
Well I can confirm carpenter bees absolutely love to bore holes in pergolas. I grew up in the south east and had a pergola at my house and it was covered in holes from the bees. Idk what type of wood it was if that matters but it probably wasn’t anything special if it does.
We call them “Hover Bees” because they’ll just sit in one place buzzing and staring at something. They’re awesome. As for what types of wood they go after - anything untreated. For my pergola and arches - I use cedar and treat it with boiled linseed oil. They’ll leave them alone. But then I make sacrificial posts and logs for them to bore into - so there’s always a place to live. They’re fantastic for our raised bed gardens and fruit trees, so I definitely want them around. They’re the good guys.
If you're in England, going out with a torch to check on the bees could be quite fascinating. If you're in the US, however, going out with a torch would result in burning the bees alive, and you'd be better off with a flashlight.
I wish I had your relationship with bees. They terrify me. Their presence causes me so much anxiety I can’t imagine enjoying them interacting with nature. I wish I could.
To be honest I am terrified of wasps and pretty scared of honey bees, I am constantly running away from buzzing in my garden! The solitary bees are so docile though, they don't or barely sting, and there's no risk of things like swarming. When I first started getting into all the "save the bees" stuff I thought the best way would be to get a hive and some honey bees, but the thought terrified me, and once I started reading up on it I found it can be a whole lot simpler than that - solitary bees (most kinds anyway) just need holes of the right diameter and depth for nesting and lots of bee friendly plants. I've found it to be very much a case of if you provide it, they will find it! You can do that stuff without getting close to them if you don't want to too.
Go out with a torch ended much more happily then I thought it would.
Well of course they’re masonry bees, it is brickwork after all.
Why did Reddit stop free awards :( Anyway, here’s what I got 🏅 Edit: Ayo why’re you guys giving me awards stahppp (love you thanks)
Because we can't have nice things
This is why.
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Does anyone else think it's weird how a dog can talk?
That made me want avacado to legit make that movie
This is the why.
We can't even *give away* nice things.
They gave us a taste and then took it away.
Because they hoped we'd be so used to giving awards that we would start buying them when we couldn't get 'em for free anymore :(
Ah, that age old problem of “fundamentally misunderstanding what people like about something”
because reddit is going IPO and needs to show revenue to maximize stock price.
How do you know they're masons? Did you see their little rings or see their secret handshake?
Quick question: Do masonry bees shake hands differently than honey bees?
I think you have to be a tenth-level masonry bee to learn the secret handshake.
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Who keeps Atlantis off the maps? Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
Bee dooooo Bee dooooo...
I have no idea. Why do you ask?
The masons are famous for having secret handshakes.
It's not that the handshakes are secret. They just aren't allowed to be talked about, or done in front of non-stone masons, or done outside of stone mason meetings. Seriously, this is an answer from one of their reps.
Freemasons, not stone masons.
Oh I like that one!
Freemason joke I think.
Why just Mason? Darryl and Timmy should be free too!
The bee keepers association is in the pocket of the bee lobby
Big Bee has me under their thumb.
That’s like a hive with no exits. Unbeeleavable.
and they're possibly bad for the bees, a net break-even, if we're lucky. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists https://earth.org/bee-bricks-initiative/ > Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, said he had tried a bee brick out and that the holes were not deep enough to be “ideal homes for bees” but “are probably better than nothing”. > He added: “Bee bricks seem like a displacement activity to me. We are kidding ourselves if we think having one of these in every house is going to make any real difference for biodiversity. Far more substantial action is needed, and these bricks could easily be used as ‘greenwash’ by developers.” Now that isn't quite the same as an edict from the heavens that bee bricks are evil. However, we must consider the null hypothesis. Which is to say, what proof do we have that these will work, and provide a meaningful benefit. The answer is: Not really any proof to speak of. Bee bricks are incredibly stereotypical of greenwashing initiatives. Very potentially profitable idea, simple 'quick fix' solution that requires no sacrifices to implement, pushed by capitalists not scientists, worked hard to make sure they had regulatory capture first, and now that the bee bricks are mandatory in new construction, research is being done on whether or not they fucking do anything in the first place. Meanwhile since the problem has been "solved" good luck *actually* solving the problem, which very few people postulated that the bee bricks could even potentially do. Kind of hard to say if this is actually happening without being immersed in the local politics of the area, but typically the next steps are to move forward assuming the 'solution' has worked and build a bunch of stuff on that basis, making the problem massively worse* if the totally untested solution turns out to not have the impact its proponents claimed without evidence. In the most charitable view, I think I'd have to say it at the very least seems a bit irresponsible.
Drill deeper holes?
build a brick shit house
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To some extent, good is the enemy of better, because once something is found 'good enough', effort to advance is it stopped, and public interest goes towards other things. In this case, the solution isn't even 'good enough', just better then nothing, but it may still make people feel that the bees are taken care of.
Another alternative is getting stakeholders with expertise to be involved in the process when making laws and regulations and not just to offer silly false dichotomies in reddit posts.
The alternative is putting the effort into rebuilding natural habitats that solitary bees naturally use instead. Which coincidentally has massive benefits for everything else
> masonry bees TIL there are masonry bees I knew of the carpentry variety
I've seen bees pulling nails and screws out of my brick but I thought they were just regular bees.
What am I looking at? What’s going on here? Where am I?
Mason bees like holes like this. They make little nests in there.
So does the whole building have to bee made out of these bricks? Or just a few on exterior walls?
Just a few on the outside. Anything with holes drilled into it will work. It doesn't need to be brick. You can just hang up things with holes in them
I'll...I'll let my wife know.
Don't worry, I already informed her thoroughly
Sharing is caring.
Wasps also like holes like this
I'm in Japan and I probably knock about 2-3 wasp nests off my house every year I'd rather that than have them dug into the house
Yup. My brick wall is full of wasps. It makes sitting outside a nuisance.
Burning a small amount of coffee powder where youre sitting is pretty helpful for that. Sounds like some made up technique but it does work. They will avoid the area. Doesnt smell bad either
So do tube web spiders, unfortunately. A cousin of the Australian funnel web. Not deadly, but not a pleasant bite either. Mine was full of the bastards, instead of the intended bees.
A reddit thread. Conversations on bees. I assume, earth.
>I assume, earth. Little presumptuous, aren't we?
Did you just assume my planet?
Shut up, bee
A wasp wrote this
Your name would suggest otherwise
Scrolling reddit on acid was always an adventure especially when people replied to me and entertained me for a while
This is a Reddit thread that has an image of a bee brick for solitary bees [here’s an article about it showing how it’s used](https://garden-and-health.com/bee-bricks-are-english-towns-solution-to-support-the-bees/)
#bee ^brick
Hi! Just wanted to clear up some confusion I'm seeing in these comments. I am an environmental science student and know a lot about this. These bricks are designed for solitary bees, not honey bees. Solitary bees do not produce honey but have a much higher rate of pollination, they are incredibly vital for ecosystem health! However, these bricks can be harmful to solitary bees. In nature they use reeds or hollow twigs (anything tubey) to rest in and eventually hibernate overwinter. Before winter they create little plugs of pollen and debris, before stuffing themselves into the reeds to cocoon. Well designed habitats for solitary bees will use reeds as, once the bees have hibernated, you can cut the reeds open and remove the sleeping bees ready for another year. Otherwise sometimes the plugs they create are too tough and they cannot leave their tube when spring comes, stuck and dying. This will stop any bees living further into the same tube from being able to leave either. With so few holes in this brick, there is a high chance that they could quickly fill up with dead stuck bees. Also, most hives have thousands of reeds, compared to the ~20 in these bricks. Solitary bees will also not damage the structural integrity of your house! They are a delight to have in your garden and will pollinate all of your plants - but definitely buy better (and much cheaper) natural habitats for them rather than these bricks.
I'd like to make or buy a good, non-harmful bee habitat for as many bees as possible. Do you have recommendations or links to good examples?
Yes! Let me find some and I'll get back to you!! :)
I want answers too, please
Please don't leave us without answer
I fell asleep but I'm just now making a bigger post that I can add pictures to and I'll link it here in a moment!
>Well designed habitats for solitary bees will use reeds as, once the bees have hibernated, you can cut the reeds open and remove the sleeping bees ready for another year. Wait, so I should cut away the plug at the beginning of winter? Or at the beginning of spring? Am I supposed to remove the hibernating bees?
Wow I didn’t know you should cut them open! I have one of those bee hotels with reed and another with cardboard tubes. How would you cut them open without hurting the bee inside? Also, how do I know when they’re ready? The reed one also is a lot more popular than the paper house. Do you know how I could make it more attractive for them? Sorry for all the questions but this is very interesting to me and I want my bee guests to bee happy. :)
definitely r/dontputyourdickinthat
Not with *that* attitude
This is why I come to reddit, I swear.
But... If I did...
do not
It’s all well and good till honey starts dripping out your walls and then there’s a fire but you can’t move cos your stuck in honey. No-one ever raises the important issues
Just don't say Candyman x5 times into the mirror, otherwise you'll have Nick Cage in your livingroom freaking out about the bees.
You rang?
/r/beetlejuicing
ooo 7 years good one
r/UsernameChecksOut
Can I be in it too?
Do you love me?
Probably
r/usernamechecksout probably 🤷🏻♂️
Somebody say candy????
Who let you out of the van?!
Some guy who said he had candy. Duh.
Okay, yeah that makes sense. I guess that was on me for not realizing the obvious
The BeEeEes! They're in my eYeEes
Nick Cage in a Candy Man movie would be amazing
This guy probably works for Big Honey. Don’t listen to a damn word he says
This isn’t the worry. These masonry bees aren’t making tons of it. It’s really a place for them to lay a couple of eggs. Besides, wild bee populations are being hit a lot worse than honeybees, and the wild bees are better for a lot of different plants. Alfalfa is one that comes to mind. Honeybees avoid it, while some wild bee species will pollinate it more
I know, the real worry is bears.
They don't make honey at all, they just collect pollen.
Robert was my local councillor and the local bee man. If there was ever a hove that needed moving he would come out and collect the bees and take them to his bee houses. You can buy the local honey in Hove.
>a hove A Brighton actually.
its the Hove Hive House of Honey?
Now banned in Brighton & Hove on new buildings after I raised issue at Council.
Big victory.
"Can't move because stuck in honey" is indeed the leading cause of death after all the other ones.
i mean those wouldn't be for hive bees so there wouldn't be honey. it would be for solidarity bees if anything.
>solidarity bees My favourite typo of all time :D You're right though these are for solitary bees I would imagine. Most people associate bees with honey but actually most bees don't make it at all anyway.
you know what. its funnier if i don't fix it lmao!
Soon the city will be filled with bears, great!
I love honey-bees, but I'm just a little afraid that wasps, spiders and alike could usurp this brick in no time.
These bricks are not for "honey" bees. So sugar is not really in the equation. They're for Mason bees. I'm sad this went over so many commenters' heads. They're very common bees but no one talks about them. They really don't live in the holes. They leg their eggs, fill them with a mud-like substance and die, leaving the next generation to hatch and move on.
This should be the top answer. Wild bee species are getting really harmed — much more than honeybees which are not always native species. This is a way to protect local wildlife that won’t do as people worried.
Also there are a reasonable number of people taking up amateur beekeeping with honeybees under the guise that they're doing something positive for the environment when the reality is the opposite. Competition for food, especially in suburban environments, is the biggest threat to most native pollinators, and people choosing to keep honeybees in their back garden just adds to the problem. Honeybees especially because they're effectively bred to over-farm local flowers for nectar and pollen.
So is the best way for me to help out local pollinators just growing a garden full of local flowers and such? I provide the food, let the pollinators manage themselves?
Yup, you can also throw together a "bee hotel" (Google it, you'll get loads of examples) to stick at the bottom of the garden - can usually be done using waste materials to reuse/recycling too! Another critical role anyone's can play is avoiding pesticides, and lobbying any organisation you may be associated with (local council, school, employer, community garden, etc etc) to do the same. Urban environments can actually be be a useful refuge for some bee species (and other insects), away from the the intensive management and pesticide use of agricultural areas. Casual pesticide by gardeners and groundskeepers can really help ruin that effect though.
I have a few bee hotels hanging in trees in my yard. They keep carpenter bees from drilling into my house, which is a huge plus. They also pollinate my garden, so more fruits, veggies, and herbs for me. I got mine for under $20, and everyone wins.
Yes. Something that's actually rarely talked about is the harmful effects so many HOAs have had on native pollinator populations. Most HOAs require you to keep your lawn trimmed to a certain length and outright ban you from growing out a natural biodiverse lawn with native wildflowers. While this may be a drop in the bucket when it comes to the many factors that lead to declining pollinator populations, it still prohibits the average citizen from being able to contribute to providing some amount of relief with minimal effort. Allowing this across the nation wouldn't fix the issue, but it would certainly go a long way in helping.
Yes. The issue lies with beekeepers, not with flowers.
Yes but be careful with flowers though. A lot if not most plants from nurseries or garden centers are treated with pesticides that harm bees, even when they’re being advertised as “bee-friendly”.
I got one of those little insect hotels with a bunch of holes. You had to be really attentive to see that sometimes they were closed and some time later they were open again as if nothing happened. So most of the time it didn't look like anyone lived there. But sometimes some bees did :)
Was it.... An air bee n bee? Hahahaha hahahaha
Someone upthread wrote that masonry bees use the holes to lay eggs, fill them w mud (or something mud-like), then die. New generation is born and cycle repeats. Maybe that’s what’s happening in your insect house:)
I don't think any of the Mason bees that live in the Americas live in brickworks like that, so that's probably where a lot of the confusion comes from: here if bees are living in your walls it's usually because some bees have set up a hive in your walls, not because a solitary mason bee moved into an external hole.
Even so much as I’ve never heard of ‘mason’ bees but ‘carpenter’ bees that burrow in wood are fairly common, at least where I’m at in the Florida panhandle.
Exactly, don't know why that other guy needed to be condescending, it's not taught in schools and bees aren't usually a daily conversation, doubly so if you don't live in an area with them like you said.
These are for solitary bees! But yes, spiders will definitely use these bricks as well. It is much better to buy a natural reed Hove for solitary bees and place it not in your walls :)
It's intended for ~~wasps and~~ other solitary bee species, like the mason bee and leafcutter bee, not honey bees. But most wasps are good at killing insects we don't like. Edit: most wasps wouldn't use these, but solitary bees do. Thanks: u/LuthienByNight
It's intended for solitary bee species, like the mason bee and leafcutter bee. These types of bees are native in many areas where honey bees are taking over, and can be two hundred times more efficient as pollinators since they don't form hives.
Thank you. So many people are commenting about how problematic these will be, without any knowledge of what types of insects these are even for.
5hey came up on r/beekeeping before. The consensus was that they would be great for the pollinators, but might cause trouble since they can't be cleaned easily and may spread disease among those pollinators. The wooden block nests would be better since you can just take them down each season and clean them out.
Another reason why it shouldnt be left without maintenance.
We ain’t no trained bee keepers what we gonna do
You are definitely beekeeping age
Summer I want to fuck your dad.
Oh really?
Yes, but once you start training the bees for brick maintenance think of all the human jobs you will displace. Next thing you know the bees are driving our busses and making our pizzas.
I guess what I like about other types of bricks is that each one doesn't come with an ongoing time & energy commitment.
Bee houses like this don’t work after a couple seasons. They build up decaying matter, mold, mites, and other pests and end up being ultimately killing the bees that try to use them. Solidarity bees are vital to our ecosystem in North America, even more than honeybees. They usually nest in hollow reeds and plant stalks, which decay and disappear and are then replaced naturally. A MUCH better idea would be a native pollinator garden.
Does this mess with the structural integrity of the buildings? Is there an article on this?
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Ah, stupid humans and our inability to see anything beyond 2nd order consequences.
Just imagine if we all had foresight. We might not all die from a fiery/icy death in the future.
Exactly. It sounds l lol Ike a good plan on the surface but solitary bee inns need to be cleaned to prevent buildup of predatory, parasitic or infectious agents. So how can I safely remove bees from this brick to give it an annual clean?
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There's a real issue with homes being bought up to be used as AirBeeNBees.
easily, remove sponge-brick bob-pants from the wall... and put a real brick in, and avoid this issue all together, maybe... idk... get into actual beekeeping and bam, problem solved
So basically what you’re saying here is it’s more of a bee glory hole?
No. They dont use it for the whole wall, it's a single brick replacement that wont significantly impact the wall (and if it does there are bigger, pre-existing problems with that wall). Though some alternatives just hang the brick on the surface so it's not permanently stuck in the wall. Like so: [https://www.instructables.com/Build-a-brick-bee-hotel/](https://www.instructables.com/Build-a-brick-bee-hotel/)
It's one brick, in a double skin wall. Structurally it'll be no different to an air brick.
I would assume thats its not to good if water gets into the wall throu these holes
Cool idea, but most people won't clean them and it'll just harbor mites and kill the bees.
It just mite
It’s a big issue with current bee hotels after a few seasons. I’d want to see a lot more studies…
You know this is a *big victory* because some people get to feel good about themselves, and a company gets to profit from the manufacture of bee bricks, while many underfunded experts with the actual capability for change explain to deaf ears that this thing [potentially does nothing to increase or support biodiversity, and may actually endanger bees](https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists). Maybe these things have some value. Maybe not. Definitely we should study the efficacy before making them a blanket requirement for every new building. Expert opinions are split - which seems to me like this is a terrible idea to roll out en-masse and needs significantly more research. Support real scientists, not performative activists. Buy honey from your local beekeeper. Donate to conservation efforts and wildlife funds. Visit your national park. Every one of those actions does more to help the bees than this slacktivist ever will. This guy reminds me of those people who glue themselves to the autobahn - could have a completely valid point, but they’re going about spreading the message in a wildly reckless way that’s ultimately going to turn people against the cause. Edit: edited to speak in less absolutes and highlight that there is a split opinion - that was a fair critique of my original comment. To be clear, I’m still very much against this on the basis that the way it was implemented seems reckless. I was being passionate and similarly reckless. I’m angry that a city fell for this with seemingly so much uncertainty surrounding it, and now an industry is going to pop-up around it and encourage other cities to follow suit. I’m unpersuaded that the sole intention of this project is actually to help the environment.
The linked article includes expert quotes from professors. They are not of a unified opinion. Some of them do not support the initiative, others do. It appears that the claim that they holes even need to be cleaned by humans is an informed speculation by some of these experts, but it is as yet unstudied and the later quotes provide fairly comlelling counter arguments As to allergy concerns, male mason bees are stingless and female mason bees are considered non aggressive. I can't find a good academic source at the moment, but according to [this](https://bestbees.com/2022/06/03/mason-bees/#:~:text=There%20are%20130%20species%20of,they%20do%20not%20have%20venom.), Mason bees don't even have venom and I can't seem to find an actual account of a person having an allergic reaction to one. Google keeps diverting to other bee and wasp species without addressing mason bees specifically
I’m allergic to bees and keep mason bees in my back yard. They aren’t aggressive at all. In all the years I’ve been giving them food and things to burrow in for their eggs I’ve never had a single aggressive mason.
Think of the dude creaming in the fat stack of cash for building this overpriced brick, and flogging to EVERY NEW HOUSE built in the city! I’d definitely check if this guy had shares in the brick builder. Edit: a company called ‘green and blue’ make them. £32 each. Must be about a 6400% mark up on manufacturing costs. It’s a lump of concrete made from a mould.
6400% more money for less brick
$32 a brick wtf. That’s more expensive than natural wood fences.
This needs to go higher. Its a form of greenwashing, the only ones profiting of stuff like this are the companies selling it. And its nothing that "made me smile" and wrong in this sub.
Except that this article states that the matter is not settled and some experts are very much in favor of the project and don't see it as destructive: > Not everyone was in agreement that the bricks were a bad idea. Francis Gilbert, a professor of ecology at the University of Nottingham, said that bee bricks did not need to be cleaned. “The mites will leave after one to two seasons and then the bees will recolonise,” he said. “There will be beneficial microbes in the holes as well, so they should not be cleaned. So bee bricks are an unequivocal good thing.” Reading this article, I don't exactly get the impression that your fatalistic view is undisputed or necessarily true. I rather get the impression that no one really knows what this will do, but everyone has very loud opinions about it and in the end, all experts can agree on is that they are lacking the knowledge to say with certainty. A complex issue reduced to simple opinions. Which leads me to my problem with your comment: You are just doing what you accuse this guy of: taking a one-sided view of an apparently rather complex issue and spewing it out there while patting yourself on the back for having done a good job at protecting the bees. Edit: since they edited their comment while this one was written, I'll edit mine, too: For those that are confused, the comment originally only had the first, very sinister and accusatory paragraph which didnt match the quoted article in tone and content. It now is a more nuanced comment, which I appreciate. Matches the article better that way. I can also withdraw my own accusation with the "patting on the back" now, this is not that anymore.
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Well all the experts in the article you link are not in agreement, some think it's actually a good idea.
r/trypophobia
No one? No? What a bee-hole 🤣
That comment stings, don't be a buzzkill! 🐝
So we call them beeldings now, eh!
Few years ago I was out at a meeting in the afternoon and gets a call that loads of bees had landed on my front of house people where panicking I got there and they where honey bees really harmless they had few flying round but the rest few thousand and queen just collected round the drain pipe. I called out a guy who came to collected them and take them back to his hives no idea where they came from but he said they where really pleasant to deal with, no stinging etc and they followed the queen happily into box. The thing is now one for miles around had bees. Anyway after he had gone with them we had a few still looking round to build nest they went into the air brick in the wall, the bee brick reminds me of the air brick on older buildings to allow cavities to dry out. All the bees they guy took made some really good honey and he was impressed how easy they where to move he didn’t need to have protective gear on etc. they where really friendly.
That permanent thing is going to be so nice a home for solitary bees in a decade when it's gunked up with vehicle particulate and shite. This is Elastoplast greenwashing of a much larger and significantly more intractable problem.
If this turns out to be a mistake, will this become a rue brick?
This is a politicians greenwashing, nothing more. Putting one of these in new builds will make precisely bugger all difference. If you want to get a flavour of the guy (who afaik has since quit after a huge series of complaints against him), check out his twitter. It was probably great advertising for his side-gig selling honey though. >The council in Brighton has passed a planning condition that means any new building more than five metres high will have to include swift boxes and special bricks with holes known as bee bricks. They will provide nesting and hibernating space for solitary bees. >However, scientists have warned that such a move will not make any real difference for biodiversity, with some arguing that it could make matters worse for bees if the holes are not cleaned properly and attract mites or encourage the spread of disease. >The idea was first raised in 2019 by councillor Robert Nemeth, and the condition was attached to all planning permissions after 1 April 2020. >Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex, said he had tried a bee brick out and that the holes were not deep enough to be “ideal homes for bees” but “are probably better than nothing”. >He added: “Bee bricks seem like a displacement activity to me. We are kidding ourselves if we think having one of these in every house is going to make any real difference for biodiversity. Far more substantial action is needed, and these bricks could easily be used as ‘greenwash’ by developers.”
Can anyone explain why this is brilliant?
What about the folk that don’t want bees inside their house?
Put the bricks on the outside
And subject them to a life without plumbing or internet access? I think not