Table 1 Country, place of installation, maximum occupation rate, type and number of attracted species, materials used in the construction, tube length (cm), diameter (mm), and key results of studies that have used hotels to attract or trap bees
From: How effective are artificial nests in attracting bees? A review
Reference | Country | Place | Occupation rate | Species | Material | Length | Diameter | Key results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(Bosch, 1994) | Spain | Farm | 29% | Osmia cornuta | Milk cartons | 12, 15, 18 | 8 | 12-cm straws were less accepted than longer straws. |
(Stubbs et al., 1997) | USA | Farm | 30% | Osmia | Wood | 14 | 8 | Osmia populations increased in two of the three fields that had trap-nest blocks provided. |
(Wilkaniec and Giejdasz, 2003) | Poland | Farm | 100% | Osmia rufa | Reed, Plastic | 8, 22 | 5,6,9 | All tubes made of straw and printer sheeting were occupied. |
(Oliveira and Schlindwein, 2009) | Brazil | Farm | 22% | Cenris. analis | Cardboard | 7.5, 8.5 | 5,6,7,8,12 | Females of Centris analis used only tubes with 6-, 7-, and 8-mm diameters. |
(Junqueira et al., 2012) | Brazil | Farm | 21% | Carpenter Bees | Bamboo | 25 | 14,24 | Supplying a bee shelter with a combination of suitably sized empty bamboo stalks can increase the population of actively nesting bees by 200%. |
(Fabian et al., 2014) | Switzerland | Farm | 13% | 13 bees and wasps | Plastic | 20 | 2,10 | The most abundant bee species was the Red Mason bee. |
(Artz et al., 2014) | USA | Farm | 31% | O. lignaria, Apis mellifera | Cardboard | 15 | 7.5 | The color of the nest box that surrounds the bee hotels affect its attractiveness. |
(McCallum et al., 2018) | Canada | Farm | 71% | 61 O. tersula, 34 Megachile, 10 wasps | Wood, milk carton | 8 | 7,9 | Bees nested more in tubes of milk cartons (71%) than wooden nests. |
(dos Santos et al., 2020) | Brazil | Farm | 20% | Megachile zaptlana | Wood | 7, 10 | 4,5,6,8,12 | Bees mostly occupied tubes having a 6-mm diameter. |
(MartÃnez-Núñez et al., 2020) | Spain | Farm | 33% | Solitary bees | Bamboo, Reed | 6, 12, 20 | 4,7,12 | Organic fields had higher colonization rates than their control farms. |
(Wilson et al., 2020a) | USA | Farm | 100% | Megachile rotundata | Plastic | 7.8 | 7 | Cavity temperature varied by the direction the cavity faced and by the position of the cavity within the nest box. |
(Graham et al., 2020) | Canada | Farm | 11% | Megachile pugnata, Osmia caerulescens | Reed | 8 | 6 | We found significantly greater nesting at farms with wildflower plantings. |
(Eeraerts, 2020) | Belgium | Farm | 71% | Mason bee | Wood, cardboard | 13, 12 | 8 | Cardboard tubes reduce the infestation rate of mites by 81.8%. |
(Barthell et al., 1998) | USA | Mixed natural | 42% | Bees, wasps, and exotic | Cardboard | 10 | 5,6.5,8 | Native species never accounted for >25% of all occupied nesting cavities of either monitoring period of the study. |
(Armbrust, 2004) | USA | Mountain | 56% | Megachilidae | Wood | 1.4 | 8 | The nesting rate changed significantly according to the season. |
(Jenkins and Matthews, 2004) | USA | Forest | 34.7% | Aculeate Hymenoptera | Wood | 8 | 6.4,9.5,12.7 | Bees (Osmia. albiventris and Megachile. frigida) nested early in the season (April–May). |
(Buschini, 2006) | Brazil | Forest, Swamp | 20% | Megachilidae, Apidae | Wood | 8 | 7,10,13 | Swamp habitat yielded the greatest abundance and diversity of bee species. |
(Kamke et al., 2008) | Brazil | Forest | 25% | Eufriesea smaragdina | Bamboo | 7, 9, 20 | 5,7,10,25 | The activity of Eufriesea smaragdina bees was seasonal. |
(Taki et al., 2008) | Canada | Forest | 35% | 12 wasps | Milk carton | 15 | 3,5,7,9 | The artificial covering on trap nests improves the colonization of trap-nesting wasps. |
(Guisse and Miller, 2011) | USA | Forest | 3.2% | Osmia lignaria | Cardboard | 14 | 7 | Nest number per site was positively correlated with proximity to water, but negatively with elevation |
(Dorado et al., 2011) | Argentina | Pasture | 42% | 7 solitary bees | Wood | 15 | 5,8 | Trap nest sampling was good for estimating rare species degree. |
(Torretta et al., 2014) | Argentina | Forest | 7% | Megachlie catamarcensis | Wood | - | - | Megachile catamarcensis uses petals and/or leaf pieces and mud as nest materials. |
(Westerfelt et al., 2015) | Sweden | Forest | 30% | Bees, Wasp | Wood | 4.5, 6.5, 8 | 3,5,7,10 | The hole diameter was the most important factor explaining the occupation of a certain aculeate species. |
(Peralta et al., 2017) | Argentina | Pasture | 14% | Wood-nesting bees | Wood | 15, 28 | 5,8,11 | Trap nests contained pollen from forty five plant species |
(Iantas et al., 2017) | Brazil | Forest and farm | 73% | 6 bees, 12 wasp (91%) | Wood | 8 | 5,7,10,13 | The grape organic fields presented the highest number of nests. |
(Rebouças et al., 2018) | Brazil | Forest | 28% | 5 bees | Cardboard; Bamboo | 5.8, 10.5, 22 | 6,8,16 | Large straws were significantly more occupied than small straws. |
(Guimaraes-Brasil et al., 2020) | Brazil | Forest | 18% | 6 Apidae, Megachilidae | Bamboo, Cardboard | 20 | 3,5 | Nesting preference was observed for certain types of substrates with bamboo internodes being preferred by bees to build their nests. |
(Araújo et al., 2020) | Brazil | Forest, Pasture | 16.7% | 14 Solitary bees, 26 wasps | Wood | 10 | 8,12,16,20 | All types of reforestation studied were successful in maintaining a greater diversity of bees and wasps. |
(Wilson et al., 2020b) | Australia | Forests and orchards | 36% | 13 bees; 28 wasps (74%) | Wood | 10,15 | 6,8 | More species of bees and wasps used hotels in the wet season (spring-summer). |
(Gaston et al., 2005) | UK | Urban | 45% | Solitary bees | Bamboo | 4, 9, 10, 11 | 4,6,8,10 | Bamboo sections and 4mm holes in the wooden blocks were used in more than half of the gardens. |
(Loyola and Martins, 2011) | Brazil | Urban forest | 16% | 7 bees (25%); 4 wasps (75%) | Wood | 11 | 6,9,12 | Increase in wasp, but not bee species richness following an increase in sampling unit size (25, 100, and 400 m2). |
(Alvarez et al., 2012) | Argentina | Urban | 37% | Megachlie concinna | Wood | 6 | 4,5,6 | Megachlie concinna showed a marked preference for cavities of 6 and 5-mm diameter with 88.2 % compared with only 11.8% of 4 mm. |
(MacIvor and Packer, 2015) | Canada | Urban | 75% | 31 Megachildae, Apidae | Cardboard | 15 | 3,5,7 | Native wasps were significantly more abundant than both native and introduced bees and occupied almost 3/4 of all bee hotels each year |
(von Königslöw et al., 2019) | Germany | Urban | 31% | 22 Bees (49%), 6 Wasps | Bamboo, Reed | 5, 8, 13, 20 | 4,6,8,9 | Cavities with diameters between 4 and 8 mm were occupied most often. |
(Geslin et al., 2020) | France | Urban | 57% | Megachile sculpturalis, Osmia | Trunk, Bamboo | 20 | 6,8,10,12 | The most abundant species that emerged from bee hotels was the exotic bee species Megachile sculpturalis. |
(Boff and Friedel, 2020) | Brazil | Urban | 7% | Centris analis | Wood | 12 | 6,8 | Females preferred to nest in painted nests compared to unpainted nests, with blue nests being the most occupied ones. |