Our team is building and installing pollinator houses in the Lemon Creek Wildflower Preserve Butterfly Habitat in observation of National Pollinator Week June 19 -25 this year. Pollinator homes support solitary bees, providing a cozy nesting site.The US has around 4,000 species of native bees. Ninety percent of them are solitary nesters using reeds, hollow logs or underground burrows as homes.
These solitary bees do not make honey, are non-aggressive, and they do not swarm. Wild bees go dormant and hibernate in Southwest Florida during the winter. Most solitary bee species will overwinter in a birth cell, either as new, fully developed adults not yet emerged from their cells, or as pupae, waiting to complete their development and seek sheltered spaces such as our newly constructed pollinator houses. Bee populations continue to decline, so these houses will help our very important pollinators to survive. Over 85% of U.S. households have an outdoor living space. If every one of those households created much needed habitat in their yard or garden, together we could have a big impact.