A Place to Call Home.

making a solitary bees tubular nesting habitat

1. Gather pithy and hollow stems up to 6 inches in length.
2. Holes should be different diameters because different sizes will attract different
kinds of native bees.
3. Its best if you can smooth the rough edges with sand
paper but this is not always needed.
4. Bundle 6-8 stems with a rubber band for easier handling.
5. Cut a 24 inch piece of twine and tie it around the bundle, leaving a long string so
you can hang the bundle in a tree or shrub.
6. Find some way to seal the end of the tubes (wax or mud work great).
7. Open end of the tubes should face east or south to catch morning sun.
8. Hang in tree or shrub 4 to 8 feet above the ground.
The bundle will attract nesting bees from April-August.
Leave the bundle in the tree or shrub over winter as its the
over-wintering home for the growing bee.
Once the tube nest has been used one full season, remove it
and replace with new homes. This reduces the chance that
diseases are spread to the next generation of bees.
*Photo courtesy of Louise Lynch, UNL Entomology

PARENTS: These bees are high unlikely to sting because they are solitary insects that
dont have to defend their nest. This is a great way to observe their activity as close as
2 feet away.
Want to learn more about how solitary bees live and what they do for our world?

bumbleboosters.unl.edu
Source: Dr. Douglas Golick, UNL Entomology

finkegardens.com
402.466.1995
500 N 66 Street, Lincoln

Remember you can make a difference in the world of our native bees.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Leave small patches of open soil to benefit ground nesting native bees.
Provide a water source like bird baths, fountains, water gardens for native bees.
Plant a variety of flowers, shrubs and trees to provide food and larval habitat.
Limit the use of pesticide that might impact the native bee population. Use safe
spraying methods to limit the unintended targets. If you must spray pesticides or
herbicides, do so close to dusk when native bees are not actively foraging. This
limits their exposure to harmful chemicals.
5. Avoid using Neonicotinoid (clothianidin & imidaclorpid) chemicals in the landscape.
Here are some of the native flowers & grasses available at Finke Gardens
NATIVE GRASSES

NATIVE WILDFLOWERS

Side Oats Grama

Blonde Ambition Blue Grama
Shenandoah Switchgrass
Northwind Switchgrass
Cloud Nine Switchgrass
Blaze Little Bluestem
Smoke Signal Little Bluestem
Prairie Dropseed

Sunset Anise Hyssop

Lead Plant
Wild Columbine
Swamp Milkweed
Butterfly Milkweed
My Antonia Aster
October Skies Aster
Dwarf Blue False Indigo
Fremont's Clematis
Purple Prairie Clover
Rattlesnake Master
Prairie Smoke
Rough Gayfeather
Kobold Gayfeather
Missouri Primrose
Dark Towers Penstemon
Firecracker Penstemon
Pineleaf Penstemon
New Jersey Tea
War Axe Penstemon
Woodland Phlox
Pasque Flower
Virginia Mountain Mint
Prairie Petunia
Nekan Pitcher Sage
Wichita Mountain Goldenrod
Fireworks Goldenrod
Little Lemon Goldenrod
Meadow Parsnip

Rattlesnake Master

Penstemon

Side Oats Grama

finkegardens.com
402.466.1995
500 N 66 Street, Lincoln