Interesting to see this again. It's an environment planted up with low maintenance and bees/wildlife in mind - very low fertility, loved by alkali / sand-loving plants - spaces made up of crushed concrete, crushed toilets, sinks, glass, builders' sharp sand.. Great media for ground nesting wild bees. Experimenting with moving away from planting in top soil and towards poor ex-industrial substrates for low budget public spaces. This area was planted fairly recently (and was shown on the forum a few years ago).
Started unwrapping some of the cardboard nesting tubes today, quite fascinating seeing inside the first time. Some are plugged with mud, sp probably mason bees, others occupied by leaf cutters.
However one tube just contained grubs, are these likely to be bee grubs as I thought it was too late for that stage? Or what else could they be? The end of the tube was bunged up with mud just like the mason bee tubes..
Odd. I have no idea. Maybe wrap them back up and put them outside in April. Do the grubs seem aliver @LeadFarmer ?
No, there's no sign of movement, they appear dead, but if so then they would have decomposed. Also there wasn't really any stacks of pollen in-between them, it was just very different from the other tubes.
There was also a tube that contained these tiny chrysalis, I have no idea what these are. Obviously the maggots have changed into chrysalis, but what will they become? Maybe flies?
I'm no expert but they could be parasitic wasp larvae. Not a bad thing as such, all part of the ecosystem of bee nests. I'd isolate them and see how they morph. Very cool to see these things.
I'm no expert but they could be parasitic wasp larvae. Not a bad thing as such, all part of the ecosystem of bee nests. I'd isolate them and see how they morph. Very cool to see these things.
The end of the tube was bunged up with mud, so it must be something that mimics the mason bees besting behaviour
The mason bee still makes the nest and lays its own eggs but the wasp sneaks in and lays its own eggs in the bee's brood chambers. The wasp larvae hatch first and eat the bee egg and the cache of food that the bee left there. Or similar depending on the type of wasp. These may turn out to be the ruby tailed wasps you see hanging around the hotels. If you keep them in a container with air holes and let them morph into wasps then we'll know for sure.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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There was also a tube that contained these tiny chrysalis, I have no idea what these are. Obviously the maggots have changed into chrysalis, but what will they become? Maybe flies?
From your link it does seem that the grubs I have may be parasitic wasp larve..