Masonry Bees

Who would have believed that a humble masonry bee would be capable of this.

Ever since we moved here 26 years ago we have had masonry bees excavating the mortar on our stone built house. My husband has repaired the pointing on the garage which was particularly bad, but really the damage they do is trivial and they are in any case a protected species so we have no intention in trying to get rid of them, but prefer to roll with the punches and enjoy their company.

Yesterday I was visiting my old mum and left OH behind to carry on with the patio he is building in our back garden. It was a lovely hot sunny day and he had the doors open wide on our conservatory. He noticed out of the corner of his eye a masonry bee showing intense interest in the security "keyhole" located at the bottom of the door. This is in addition to the a normal mortice key hole in the middle of the door, to give extra security. He didn't want her to lay her eggs in there as as soon as we inserted the key, we would have squashed her, so he closed the door and shooed her away to find somewhere else to nest. She came back all through the afternoon, desperately trying to get in, and eventually gave up ... or so we thought! She was back again this morning, so we stuck a label over the hole to stop her getting in, having checked that there were no eggs or grubs in there, which there weren't. She buzzed around the white label for a bit, trying to penetrate it and then flew off ... so far, never to be seen again! Isn't nature interesting, I find this level of behaviour from such a tiny insect fascinating. I really hope she has found some nice area of mortar to burrow into and lay her eggs.

I know they can bee persistent

nice one Meg

Yep we have had this, we had little teeny tiny vent holes at the bottom of our windows that I have had to tape over to stop the bee's from going in them, and also on our plastic chairs, one year they took a liking for them too!

Like you said, it is fascinating - I am sure she has found somewhere more suitable

I had these in Berks. Told by exterminators they are harmless and you mustn't kill them and that they don't damage brickwork the go in where holes already exist or pointing is crumbling.

I found it quite unnerving as their entrance was right by the back door at face height. But have say no one got stung.

Not if you tell em to BUZZZZZZZZ off

I can see this degenerating rapidly into farce if all and sundry keep DRONING on about it!

Anyway I am sure they are all settled in nicely at this time of night listening to their favourite music by STING and the BEE Gees!

Very drole everyone! I dont think masonry bees can sting and the damage they do is trivial. They are quite rare now so they should be left unharmed to go about their daily lives