#voldemortswifetessi

[asgardian--angels]

Hey there! What type of wood, straw or Bamboo did you use for the “pipes” for your bees? I’ve tried finding such nice rolls for my insect hotel but can hardly find something as nice as what you used.

Hi there! I also considered trying to make my own bee hotel that way, but I had issues finding those tubes. I think they are bamboo, but the hotel I used was store-bought from Home Depot. 

They were only like $12.  I did end up making one of my own, but it was the kind that was a bunch of holes drilled into some logs, which attracted potter wasps instead of bees (fine by me! that was probably what we had living in the area already).  I don’t have a good answer on where to get those tubes, I’ve heard they’re out there online but I looked and they’re not quite the same and not cheap. I looked in craft stores and couldn’t find them either - the bamboo tubes they had were long, and more fragile. 

I was just talking about this to my research advisor so I’ll mention it here - these sorts of bee hotels, that have a bunch of tightly packed tubes, probably aren’t the best because they likely encourage higher rates of parasitism. Having that many of the same kind of bee all nesting next to each other allows for more disease transmission and for parasites to hop from one to the other. The most effective thing to do is to just try and create more natural bee habitat, like dead plant stems, logs, snags, rocks, and bare patches of sandy or loose ground.  One study also showed that these kinds of bee hotels tend to host more non-native species, and admittedly, my hornfaced bees are not native to North America. There are more complex bee hotels out there, I think I’ve even seen them for sale for not too much at Tractor Supply, that have multiple types of nesting substrate, different size holes, stuff like that. This will attract different genera of bees, which would probably reduce parasitism, at least by social parasites which are host-specific. Spreading out the tubes/holes will be better. Unfortunately there’s not much hard science on how effective different kinds of bee hotel are. But right now, they’re still better than nothing if you aren’t able to make some habitat in your yard or if you don’t have a yard. 

This was probably tmi but I hope this answers your question. 

[dildoreo]

Thank you for following me :)

No problemo, I really like your blog :)

[coveryoureyesthedevilisinside]

voldemortswifetessi replied to your photo: Finally ! It’s just amazing how one person can...

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG !!!!! JARED KNOWS YOU!!! OMG I CANT THINK!!!! This is soo big!!!

I still can't recover... I just sit here with the biggest smile on my face like an idiot :)) I just cannot...

[asyourshadowfalls]

voldemortswifetessi reblogged your photoset: starangeandunusual: everydayigetstronger: ...

Oh wow rainbow cake. Like that has never been done before

not about the rainbowness it's about the batman shape. must be a superman fan

[shortforlizzard]

voldemortswifetessi replied to your photoset: So I faked the haircut I’d get, if I choose to do...

I really like your long hair, why don’t you make it edgier in a way? Than it’s still long but different.

Edgy is a dangerous word where I work. I have to keep it pretty "traditional".

[gidgetpony]

voldemortswifetessi started following you

[disneyinfo-blog]

Hollywood Tower Hotel - Tower of Terror

http://disneyinfo.tumblr.com/post/8751821481/tower-of-terror