What's so great about Orchard Mason Bees?

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Our native Orchard Mason Bees are so fascinating. Did you know that they . . . ?

  • are called Orchard Mason Bees because they are excellent pollinators of orchard fruits, and use mud like mortar to partition their nesting spaces.
  • are shiny, dark blue and smaller than honey bees (about 1/2” long).
  • have a fuzzy, white face patch and long curved antennae if they're male, and are all black with short, pointed antennae if they're female.
  • are not capable of burrowing their own holes, so they nest in cavities that they find in plant stems and dead wood, or old tree holes created by woodpeckers, beetles or carpenter bees.
  • have a laid-back personality and are classified as solitary (they work alone) but gregarious (they like to nest near each other).
  • are not aggressive at all since they don't have a Queen or honey to defend. Only the females have stingers and they almost never sting.
  • don't make honey. They gather nectar and pollen only as a food source for themselves and their offspring.
  • are very efficient pollinators of spring fruits and plants because they tend to visit all the blossoms on the tree before they move on.
  • have a symbiotic relationship with native plants, which means that they have evolved so their movements actually trigger a plant’s pollination.
  • are such efficient pollinators that it would take as many as ten honey bees to match one female OMB's productivity.

White-faced male OMBWhite-faced male OMB

Female OMB with anthersFemale OMB with antennae