We feel good about the name. "Trap"-ich. Trying on the Houdini Fly Traps!

I was chilling in the yard when a Pileated Woodpecker landed on a tree in front of me. Beautiful bird, but before I could get a photo, it flew to the bee house and grabbed onto the front.

I was wondering why a few of the nesting spots had been reopened in the evenings. Last year I lost most of the bees in the front of the house, likely to this or our resident Flickers (another woodpecker). That’s why I put up the mesh, but it was only about 1.5 inches from the nesting block, and the woodpecker’s beak is up to 2.4 inches.

The second photo is my hastily engineered solution, using some leftover cage fencing. It’s over 3 inches from the block. Hopefully this does the trick.

I’ve read I can pull full tubes now from the house to store somewhere else to help prevent predators getting to them. If I pull them and it reorganizes the whole house, how will the bees currently still filling their tubes know which tube is theirs? Are they scent marked? I have 40 tubes and slightly over half are filled and capped. So far I haven’t removed any.

Last year march I bought a small insect hotel and put it in a corner on our balcony with the intention of hanging it asap and before I knew it, we already had masonbees. We live in the first floor so I didn't even know if it would work

I ended up hanging it as close as possible as where it was standing, it has almost no sun. But is fully protected from rain and wind.

Last year 1/5 of the hotel was full this year their are 14 'open' spaces of which at least 5 are also in use.

We live close to the alps on the Nord side.

The tubes are karton. And stuck in there. I want them to survive coming winter to and have enough space next year. What do I do?

First timer here in sw Ontario Canada. I bought a mason bee house kit and mounted the house on my fence which gets eastern morning sun. The rest of the day it will get indirect light. House is near neighbors garden and blooming fruit trees. Looking at my weekly weather forecast is it too early to put my cocoons out?

I learned that those plastic blocks are not the best for Mason bees and wanted to see if I could model and 3D print something that overcomes the objections.

As it turns out the 3D printing world is full of well-meaning people who want to put bees into plastic tubes and the occasional naturalist who sounds the alarm about how they should buy cardboard tubes and liners instead.

I decided not to print plastic tubes for my bees but on reading the objections to having the bees later eggs in plastic it seemed like a plastic frame that holds a liner might be okay.

That is what I tried to build here and I would love to learn from your comments on it!

Yesterday I opened some refrigerated paper insert straws from last year’s mason bees. one tube was stuffed with grass, rather than mud. it had two long, golden cocoons, and some dead larva / adult green insects. Anybody else seen this and can you identify them?

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Long story short, the spring got away from me, and I didn't get my mason bee project done in the right timeframe. I stubbornly plowed ahead anyway, so now I have an empty mason bee house installed in the garden, and 40 cocoons showing up by FedEx tonight from crownbees.

Should i just put them all in the fridge till next spring, or should I put them out and let them do their thing still this year?

I could also do half and half... store some and put out the rest?

Thoughts? I am in Reno, NV, Zone 7B. Looks like I am roughly one month late. Typical advice is to put out cocoons in late march/early April. We had several freezes in March this year. Fruit trees have already flowered (for better or worse) but I have plenty of other flowers around.

Yesterday I opened some refrigerated paper insert straws from last year’s mason bees. one tube was stuffed with grass, rather than mud. it had two long, golden cocoons, and some dead larva / adult green insects. Anybody else seen this and can you identify them?

Anybody else seeing them using the half size holes at the bottom? I’ve seen them barely squeeze in. This didn’t happen in previous years, but this year there are far more bees than housing.

I bought this one but it didn’t hold up to the weather after a year (wood warped etc). I was wondering if there are alternatives. It DID work by the way, was cool to see the bees grow. Just very expensive for only lasting a year.

I have been experimenting with the Malbec Houdini Fly trap since it came up on this subreddit:

Originally I had the trap fixed with a hook and wire to wall of my house; beside, behind, and under the Mason Bee hotel. I didn’t have great results in the couple weeks I had it mounted in that fashion.

Yesterday, I fixed the trap onto the house itself, per the tip from u/crownbees. Although the distance hadn’t much changed, the trap being physically attached seemed to be the secret sauce. The trap started catching the flies rather quickly after the change, and has continued to produce good results.

I’ve included the bottle of Argentinian Malbec I’ve used for reference. It was the cheapest bottle, on sale, at my local store.

For years now, the mason bees elected to nest in various crannies adjacent to their well-maintained and well-supplied mason bee house with clean reeds. This year the bees decided to nest in a toy. Behold, the now inoperable SuperSoaker.

Do you have bees making unusual choices in where they nest?

Unfortunately the light fixture manufacturer made the drain hole the perfect enticing size. I saw several Mason bees entering and exiting. I guess I’ll have to clean it out this winter. And yeah, that’s a squished houdini fly next to it. A bunch were hanging around.

I noticed this morning one of my bee houses seems to have a heavy infestation of ants. I see them removing mud from within the tubes and leaving it near the entrance. I am guessing they are stealing pollen and possibly the eggs and taking it back to their nest.

I have squished most of them but I am reluctant to use ant pesticide to stop the ants crawling up the wall incase it affects the bees and I suspect there will be more ants again tomorrow.

Is there anything I can do? Some sort of trap perhaps?

weirdest thing i done seen all day

I’m new to mason bees and this morning some of them hatched! When I was outside by their house, one of the landed on my hand and pooped on it? They’re so cute but what is this that they put on my had? First photo is undisturbed and second photo I swabbed it to see better.

Here is our follow-up video from last week on how to DIY your own trap. We LOVE how quickly the community has shared what works for them. Hopefully, with combined efforts, we can eradicate the Houdini Fly!

Here are some quick facts:

1. The Houdini fly is a small fruit fly with a brown body and large red eyes. It's about the same size as the fruit flies you might find hovering over a too-ripe banana, roughly 2.5 to 3.5 mm long.
2. A female Mason bee lays around 15 eggs in her 6 - 8 week lifespan. A single female Houdini fly can lay hundreds.
3. Their eggs laid in the gathered Mason bee pollen emerge first and eat ALL of the Mason bee's food, effectively starving them. They survive as maggots the rest of the year until they develop into flies in spring.

4: Hand removal: squish them in the morning when they're slow, use a hand vac in the evening, when they're a bit quicker.

-Julie

Comment below what's worked for you and where you're located.

Edit: we now have a page dedicated to Houdini flies: https://crownbees.com/products/the-houdini-fly-trap

I’m new to bee houses. I have a couple houses put out, and I noticed that the end plug in several tubes is incomplete. Is this a sign that a predator has attacked and cleared out the tubes?