Q.What Type Of Bee Makes A Cigar Shaped Home With Leaves?
I saw the most amazing thing a few years back in the summer, and was so captivated I couldn’t get up to get my phone. How I regret that! It was a small bee that made a house out of small leaves from the backyard. As I sat on the front porch, it kept coming back with more tiny leaves and eventually made a small (ring finger width and maybe an inch and half long, cigar shaped home). At the end, it brought its last leaf and closed itself in. It was jaw dropping. The place where he made it was on a small end table on the front porch by the front door. It was an unsafe place because it’d be blown by the wind or crushed. I ended up moving it and lost track of it. I often wonder about my decision to not film it and my decision to move it.. it was a true blessing to watch. The leaves were not cut.. they were detached at the stem. The leaves were whole with curly edges from a weed. Anyway.. if anyone has seen or knows of this experience, please share!
Certified GKH Gardening Expert
The photo will be Henbit. A very common weed.
The bee that you describe sounds like the Leafcutter bee! It is using these nests for their eggs. Here is an article that will help:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insects/leaf-cutter-bees.htm
This article will go over more types of bees that we have, here, in The States:
Thank you for your reply. I read the article on leaf cutter bees and it describes the cigar shaped nursery and pollen, however my bee didn’t ‘cut’ the leaf. It brought the smallest leaves from the Henbit weed, only detaching it at the stem (closest to the leaf end). All I can guess is that she was a very clever bee who knew how to cut hours off her ‘labor’, by using an already ‘cut’ leaf lol. Thanks again!
