Abstract
Society is increasingly concerned with declining wild bee populations. Although most bees nest in the ground, considerable effort has centered on installing ‘bee hotels’—also known as nest boxes or trap nests—which artificially aggregate nest sites of above ground nesting bees. Campaigns to ‘save the bees’ often promote these devices despite the absence of data indicating they have a positive effect. From a survey of almost 600 bee hotels set up over a period of three years in Toronto, Canada, introduced bees nested at 32.9% of sites and represented 24.6% of more than 27,000 total bees and wasps recorded (47.1% of all bees recorded). Native bees were parasitized more than introduced bees and females of introduced bee species provisioned nests with significantly more female larva each year. Native wasps were significantly more abundant than both native and introduced bees and occupied almost 3/4 of all bee hotels each year; further, introduced wasps were the only group to significantly increase in relative abundance year over year. More research is needed to elucidate the potential pitfalls and benefits of using bee hotels in the conservation and population dynamics of wild native bees.
Highlights
Bees and the pollination services they provide are in decline as a result of various anthropogenic activities that undermine bee foraging and nesting [1,2,3,4]
We found a total 27,275 individuals including 31 species of pollinating bees and an additional five cleptoparasitic bee species (36 bee species total) (Table 1)
We investigated the relative use of bee hotels by native and introduced bees and wasps to assess the potential of these novel habitat augmentation schemes for increasing populations of native bees
Summary
Bees and the pollination services they provide are in decline as a result of various anthropogenic activities that undermine bee foraging and nesting [1,2,3,4]. The marketing of bee hotels to promote pollination and wild pollinator conservation is widespread and expanding, at least in North America and Europe [9]. These structures, known as trap-nests or nest boxes [10], use some bee’s preferences for nesting in above-ground cavities as arise naturally in a variety of settings such as pithy stems and beetle burrows in wood [11,12]. Bee hotels are usually made from bundled plant stems, paper-based tubes, or holes drilled in wood or molded in plastic; in all cases they artificially aggregate nesting sites above densities naturally available for cavity-nesting bees [10] (Fig. 1A-C).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
