08/25/2023
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👋 MEET THE BEES 👋
Oh my gourd! Where has the summer gone?! I spent most of it zipping between squash blossoms because, well, that's what we squash bees do. 🐝😊 When you're carving those pumpkins and eating pumpkin pie later this fall, be sure to thank us! 🙏🎃
FAVE FORAGE: I only collect pollen from plants in the Curcurbita genus (pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, melons and other squashes), because that's all our larvae will eat. Some might call it picky, but the official term is "specialists." 😋 So help feed us with squash plants, and we'll return the favor by pollinating them!
IDENTIFYING FEATURES: Sometimes people confuse us for honeybees, but there are a few ways you can tell the difference. We're a little fuzzier, with longer antennae. Female squash bees also have fuzzy hind legs (for collecting the pollen), and we're often up by dawn to start foraging as soon as those blossoms open. ⏰
LIFESTYLE: We're a solitary species. Each female is responsible for gathering food, making her own nest cells, laying eggs and making a "pollen loaf" for our young to eat when they hatch. 💛
ACTIVE SEASON: Early summer into fall. The eggs that are laid this season will emerge as adults from their nest cells next year. 📆
IDEAL NEST SITE: We dig our tunnels in the ground, usually right beneath the squash plants we pollinate! So please leave plenty of patches of bare soil in your garden, and don't dig or till too much 'cuz that could destroy our nests. 🙏
FUN FACT: While us gals are hard at work gathering food, the male squash bees are usually sound asleep inside the closed squash blossoms by noon. 😴 They spend most of their adult life inside the flowers, waiting for the chance to mate with a female! 💘
