Creating Habitat
Mid-May today. My sunflowers are blooming and the honey bees are delighted. Then I looked closer. There there were also some native cactus bees in there!
Native cactus bees are solitary bees. No hives. No hives means no need to protect anything. This means cactus bees are a stingless bee.
Each solitary mama cactus bee digs a little hole in the soil and fills it with pollen and nectar for her tiny brood. Cactus bees do not fly very far to forage for food for their babies. All these details add up to the fact that I am indeed creating a slice of pollinator habitat in my garden. Yipee!
Sadly, after mama cactus bee makes a home for her children and lays her eggs, she goes off to sleep in a cactus flower and cross the rainbow bridge.
