There’s a new hotel in Batavia’s Pattison Park — but the guests at this one are bees.
The Clermont Park District installed the structure in the shape of its logo last month, after volunteer Jack Moermond spent several weeks constructing it.
“If we don't support bees — especially native bees — we might have a hard time surviving,” Moermond said. “So, it's just some way, I think, to give back.”
Moermond said most people think of honeybees, which nest in hives, when they picture the insect. But many of Ohio’s 500 bee species are solitary tunnel nesters that don’t make their way to a hive after a long day of pollinating.
Moermond’s structure contains more than 500 holes for those bees to make homes and reproduce.
“With habitat fragmentation and landscape development, they've lost a lot of access to that habitat,” said Paige Zumaita, the park district’s program and volunteer coordinator. “So, by [giving] them a bee home, you're providing safe cavities for them to nest in that they would naturally seek out.”
Zumaita said the bee hotel in Pattison Park is targeted toward mason and leafcutter bees, which nest during different times of the year.
“It's very, very cute,” Zumaita said. “Those two are both able to live and share that bee home by alternating seasons.”
Moermond said he learned about bee hotels when Zumaita approached him with the project and it led to a “great interest” in the insect.
“It's amazing how such a little critter can do so much,” Moermond said, noting that solitary bees rarely sting, and they are more effective pollinators than honeybees.
Sparking interest in people like Moermond is exactly why bee hotels are important for more than just conservation reasons, said Andy Dickerson, the executive director of Cardinal Land Conservancy, which services Clermont County.
“This group of creatures exists and is worth paying attention to,” Dickerson said. “For people who enjoy wildflowers, nature or people who enjoy eating food — Right? Pollinators ensure that we get food — it's a very satisfying experience to build a bee hotel.”
Building your own bee hotel
The Cardinal Land Conservancy previously hosted a workshop to help people in Clermont County build bee hotels, and Dickerson said he hopes to plan more.
But he said it’s also an activity people can do from home.
“It is very satisfying to build a mess of sticks and rocks and mud, and then drill some holes to encourage some bees, and then other bees,” Dickerson said.
People can use bamboo, plants and other household materials, Zumaita said.
Moermond said he inserts paper straws into the Pattison Park hotel that can easily be replaced, but other designs open so people can clean the cocoons out each winter.
Those cocoons can be safely stored to hatch bees in the spring, he added.
Though anyone can make a bee hotel, Moermond said there are important things to know. For one, he said, the structures require upkeep.
“You just don't let them sit there because they'll get pathogens and different predators and so forth,” Moermond said. “It’s not a put it up, forget about it thing.”
Also key is the hotel’s placement. It should be near a mud pit because female mason bees need the mud to seal the chambers with their eggs.
“The direction that it faces is important,” Zumaita said. “You're gonna want sun to warm those cavities, [and] native plants close by would be ideal.”
Dickerson and Moermond both said it’s important to avoid constructing the hotels with treated lumber, because the chemicals will deter bees. Many bee hotels available online have this problem, Moermond added.
For his part, Moermond said he’s thinking about constructing more bee hotels for other Clermont County parks. But don’t expect them to measure up to the Pattison Park structure.
“That's the Biltmore Estate of bee hotels,” Moermond joked.
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