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This garden good guy makes big holes in leaves

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUL 27, 2020

Weird circular cuts mean a leafcutter bee has been
nesting nearby. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

Leafcutter bee loves roses, especially tender foliage

“Who is punching holes in my rose leaves?”

That’s what I exclaimed the first time I saw this damage. It looked like someone had attacked my rose bush with a large hole punch. Leaf after leaf bore circular cuts so perfect, the damage looked like it had been done with a tool.

No, it wasn’t a hole punch; it was the aptly named leafcutter bee.

About ½ inch long, this robust native bee has a thing for roses. It loves to make its home in old bushes, nesting in large pithy canes. It lines its nest with tender rose leaves, cut with circular precision.

Leafcutter bees also like to nest in soft rotted wood, or small crevices and cracks in tree bark. They’ve been known to make themselves comfortable in wooden house siding and among cedar shakes.

However annoying their damage to rose foliage may be, leafcutter bees are garden good guys. They’re non-aggressive pollinators, the sort of beneficial insects we try to nurture and support. So what if these bee mamas turn rose leaves into lace? They repay their garden host by pollinating lots of flowers.

Leafcutter bees live as solitary females. Each bee digs out her own nest, then goes looking for rose leaves. Starting on an edge, she cuts the leaf in a ¾-inch semi-circle, then carries back the foliage fragment to her new nest. Once fully lined with leaves, she adds nectar and pollen to the nest and lays an egg. Then, she seals the cell so the baby bee can develop undisturbed in its cozy chamber.

The leafcutter bee is a pollinator, too.

(Illustration courtesy UC IPM)

In the garden, leafcutter bees look similar to honeybees but darker. Instead of gold stripes, they have light bands on their abdomens.

Although their damage looks frightening, these bees are totally benign. They are friends; not foes. As for the holey leaves, the bees will stop cutting them once they’re done nest building.

The advice from the UC Integrated Pest Management program: Get used to it.

“Bees are important pollinators and should not be killed,” says the UC IPM website. “No effective nonchemical controls are known.”

So, if you see large round holes in your rose leaves, don’t be mad. It’s just leafcutter bees, providing for a next generation of pollinators.

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Keywords:

gardening Sacramento integrated pest management bees roses pollinators flowers

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Garden Checklist for week of May 5

Survey your garden after the May 4 rainstorm. Heavy rain and gusty winds can break the neck of large flowers such as roses. Also:

* Keep an eye on new transplants or seedlings; they could take a pounding from the rain.

* Watch out for powdery mildew. Warmth following moist conditions can cause this fungal disease to “bloom,” too. If you see a leaf that looks like it’s dusted with powdered sugar, snip it off.

* After the storm, start setting out tomato transplants, but wait on the peppers and eggplants (they want warmer nights). Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Don’t wait; plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

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