Bee Hotels are great for providing extra habitat for certain species of native bees, but, there can be misunderstanding or misinformation in advertising about bee hotels so it’s important to do some research before buying or making one.
Most native bees are ground nesting and will not use bee hotels. It’s best to first research and work out which species of native bees are in your area, then build suitable habitat to support them. Cheap bee hotels available from major shops and hardware stores are not designed for Australian native bees.
- You will most likely attract different Resin Bee species, Masked Bees, Leaf Cutters and some Wasp species.
- Native Bees do sting! There’s only 11 described species of stingless bees in Australia in a total of around 1700 species.
- You will not get native stingless bees in a bamboo bee hotel. Stingless bees are social and live in colonies of thousands with a Queen.
- You will not get Blue Banded Bees or Teddy Bear Bees in your bamboo and wooden bee/insect hotel. Blue Banded Bees dig burrows in the ground for their nests. You can however build hotels for them using a compacted sand/dirt/clay material.
