Table 2 Country, place of installation, maximum occupation rate, type and number of attracted species, materials used in the construction, volume (L), entrance (cm), and key results of studies that have used nest boxes to attract or trap bees
From: How effective are artificial nests in attracting bees? A review
Reference | Country | Place | Occupation rate | Species | Material | Volume | Entrance | Key results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(Barron et al., 2000) | New Zealand | Farm | 13% | Bumblebee | Wood | - | 2.5 | In the intensive farms, occupation was lower than less disturbed sites. |
(Inoue et al., 1993) | Indonesia | Forest | 6% | Trigona minangkabau | Wood | 0.7, 2 | - | Arboreal ants occupied one-half of artificial nest sites. |
(Coelho and Sullivan, 1994) | USA | Forest | 30% | Honeybee | Wood | - | 6 | The nest boxes were not attractive to bees while the entrances were open. |
(Prange and Nelson, 2007) | USA | Forest | 10% | Honeybee | Wood | 6.7 | 3.1 | Our observations supported the theory that minimum acceptable cavity volume varies geographically. |
(Oliveira et al., 2013) | Brazil | Forest | 10. 2% | 9 Stingless bees | Cardboard, Plastic | 0.5, 1, 2, 3 | - | Most swarms chose the largest container (3 L). |
(Veiga et al., 2013) | Kenya | Forest | 31% | Native bee | Wood | 3, 7, 15 | 0.45 | Bees were more abundant in forest boxes than savannas. |
(Silva et al., 2014) | Brazil | Forest | 0.035% | Honeybee and 5 Meliponini | Plastic | 1, 2, 3 | - | The present study suggests the existence of a minimum volume threshold of approximately 1 L for most local species of stingless bees. |
(Efstathion et al., 2015) | Brazil | Forest | 51% | Tetragonisca sp, Honeybee | Wood | 2.7 | 2.5 | Trap boxes may be effective at reducing the number of bird nest boxes colonized by invasive Africanized honeybees and wasps. |
(Le Roux et al., 2016) | Australia | Forest | 12.5% | Honeybee | - | - | 2, 3, 5.5, 9.5, 11.5 | Nest boxes with small (20 and 35 mm), intermediate (55 and 75 mm), and large (95 and 115 mm) entrance sizes were predominately occupied by Apis mellifera. |
(Arena et al., 2018b) | Brazil | Forest | 5.5% | Scaptotrigona postica | Plastic | 3 | 2.5 | We suggest reducing the diameter of the PVC pipes (nest entrances). |
(Arena et al., 2018a) | Brazil | Forest | 5.5% | Stingless bee | Plastic | 3 | 2.5 | Bees showed a preference for occupying artificial shelters that were located in the patches’ cores. |
(Guimaraes-Brasil et al., 2020) | Brazil | Forest | 6% | Apidae, Megachilidae | Wood | 1.5, 6 | 1,2 | Only nest boxes with a volume of 1.5 L were occupied. |
(Berris and Barth, 2020) | Australia | Forest | 24% | Honeybee | Wood, PVC | - | - | Feral honeybees were less likely to occupy nest boxes made of PVC (5%). |
(Gaston et al., 2005) | UK | Urban | 0% | Bumblebee | Wood | - | 2 | No bumblebee nest sites of any of the three designs. |
(Lye et al., 2011) | UK | Urban | 3.1% | Bumblebee | Wood | 6 | 2, 12, 20 | Attempts to use domiciles for conservation or research in the UK are likely to be ineffective. |
(Johnson et al., 2019) | Canada | Urban | 13.3% | Bumblebee | Wood | 3, 6 | 2 | The majority of sites had at least one domicile occupied. |