Red mason bees, cuckoo wasps and parasitic flies

Red mason solitary bees are busy visiting the bee hotel in our garden. The female is creating cells in which she will deposit an egg, provision with pollen supplies and the seal up the cells which will provide next years generation.

However, beware of the parasitoid wasps and flies hoping to take advantage. While the female is away from the nest cell, they will sneak in and lay their own eggs.

The Cacoxenus fly will lay several eggs in the cell who's larvae will consume the store intended for the mason bee larva.

The five-spot club antennae wasp also invades red mason bee nests.

A couple of wasps were lurking around near the bee hotel by the bay window

There appear to be more in my garden this year. Bee hotels are great but large ones can attract a large proportion of your local solitary bee population in one place and if there are parasitic wasps and flies around this can be a big problem as this can increase the number of broods that get affected. In recent years I have changed to using only small bee hotels and placed them far apart in my garden, front and back, to reduce this problem