Cob: Mud Borers

[Darin Lang]

> Penelope,
>    consider you local area.   Do you have so called wood boring bees?
> If not don't, which is most likely, then don't worry.   IF such a bee
> exists, where do they live?
Carpenter bees are common to most if not all of the US, as are the smaller
mud and wood boring Orchard Mason Bees. Bumblebees, a superior pollinator,
like to nest in old mouseholes. They can be distinguished from carpenter
bees by the fuzziness. Carpenter bees are hairless and shiny. Mason Bees are
excellent pollinators, the best  actually for orchards, so I wouldn't
begrudge sharing my home with them. Carpenter bees serve little ecological
purpose. Traps are available to lure them into nesting in a piece of
firewood, by means of which you can turn carpenter bees into BTU's. If you
do the same with Orchard Mason Bees, you can get a good price for the
firewood, far exceeding its BTU output. Regardless, the damage they inflict
is usually negligible. Ianto Evans has colonies of bees nesting in his
garden wall, and the nest holes are actually quite an attractive and
interesting feature, as they contribute greatly to the ecological wholeness
of the garden.
Darin

-- 
"Any close and worthwhile contact with the earth tends to make one original
or at least detached in one's judgments and independent of group control."
--L.H. Bailey