Leaf Cutter Bees

We were very lucky today to have Allan from Mt Maunganui New World come and deliver an amazing leaf cutter bee hive and a little bottle of leaf cutter bee cocoons to put inside it.

Leaf cutter bees are a solitary bee species, meaning they don’t live co-operatively in a hive, instead they each go about their business independently. They don’t make honey, so they don’t have anything to protect, which means they are very unlikely to sting. AND they are far more efficient pollinators than honey bees – apparently one leaf cutter bee can do the pollination work of 30 honey bees! All this is great news for our gardens (and our neighbour’s gardens).

Leaf cutter bees also have a fascinating way of reproducing. The female bees cut circles out of leaves or flowers and carry them back to their nest. Then they roll the leaf circle up into a tube, put some pollen inside, lay an egg beside it, then seal up the ends with more little circles of leaves. When the egg hatches the larvae will feed on the pollen. When the larva is big enough it will pupate (transform from a grub into a bee), and the new bee will eat its way out of the leaf cocoon and emerge into the world to pollinate more flowers and make more bees.

Clare has set the hive up in a sunny spot beside the greenhouse. We really hope our leaf cutters hatch safely in summer and we get the chance to observe these amazing little guys going about their work.

Here is more information about leaf cutter bees in New Zealand, and a cool video of a leaf cutter bee in action. And this website has more info and a clip at the bottom of the page of a bee making a cocoon. 

Thank you very much Mt Maunganui New World, for such a generous and environmentally positive gift to our school!

A row of leaf cutter bee cocoons made of rolled up leaves. We put these into the holes in the hive, and they will stay in there to pupate and hopefully emerge in summer.