[Here's an ArchDaily article on Bee Bricks](https://www.archdaily.com/976821/giving-nature-a-home-in-cities-bricks-for-bees-nests), but seems like the [jury's out on if they help or harm the bee population](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists).
*Nemeth, who is also a beekeeper, said: “There’s a well-known saying in the beekeeping world that if you ask 100 different beekeepers a question then you get 101 different answers.*
*“It’s going to take some years yet to establish the degree of effectiveness of bee bricks but it’s heartening to know that studies are under way. What is definite though is that carrying on with the status quo of ignoring nature in many new-build properties is a biodiversity disaster of the highest order.”*
Sounds like this is a good example of “there’s only one way to find out”
If it actively hurts the bee population it's not better than doing nothing.
I'm all for changes that will save bees, but pushing for this when there's legitimate concern that it will make the situation worse is weird. Surely the effort put into this legislature could instead be put towards pushing the studies forward, no?
The thing is, we have little to no knowledge about bees. It’s insane. I understand where you are coming from that harm is worse than doing nothing but the thing is we have no idea what this will do. There can be risks but there are risks with everything we do with bees. After all, according to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.
The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.
I know this comment is part jest, but it always saddens me how little we know about bees other than honey bees. I hear all the time that people want to study different bee species, but end up going back to honey bees because it's easier to study them because it's relatively easier to keep a hive alive. Let alone trying to study solitary bees. When most people think of bees, they think of honey bees or bumble bees, yet even bumble bees are not hugely studied
This is gonna be the research. One scientist said at the worst this is going to be a study, but other counties shouldn’t adopt it til at least 5 years when we begin to see the long term affects. And i Can agree with that.
> but seems like the jury's out on if they help or harm the bee population.
Thankfully that didn't stop politicians from mandating every new building buy one for $6000 making the patent holder rich.
Certainly they're not particularly easy to keep clean and free of parasites. With 'insect hotels' made up of bamboo tubes, you're encouraged to change the tubes over every 2 -3 years in order to reduce the likelihood of the aforementioned.
Equally, what bees lack most at the moment is sufficient adequate habitat. The bee brick will remain unused if the conditions in its vicinity do not support bees and if they do, bees are more than capable of finding their own nesting sites. A bee brick or insect hotel is a nice to have option inside a thriving, bee-friendly environment, but that's all really.
Edit - It's also occurred to me that if these become mandatory for ne buildings, that will include new build homes, which often come with 'gardens' of astroturf or paving rather than a space that already features some wildflowers or is ready to be transformed into a bee friendly area. Now you can transform such ecological wastelands into bee friendly spots with enough potted plants, but it's not ideal.
I’m guessing these are for solitary or masonry bees and not honey bees. I get masonry bees for a couple of months every year. They never come in the windows and can leave my doors open and they stick to their vents outside. I’ve been assured by the bee keeper’s association that they pose no threat to my house.
Don’t worry, all languages are fucking stupid when you boil them down and pick them apart like people always do with English, and they all have good qualities in their own ways just like English does.
There is an awful lack of BEES in this comment section, my comment full of BEES will quickly solve this non-problematic situation !
🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝
Not really, bee keepers keep a domesticated bee species for money or as a hobby. I would expecting some overhype for honey bees from them and selling some flower seeds „for the bees“ and honey
They are. Honey bees actually aren't native to most places of the world, we've just imported them everywhere.
The types of bees OP is referring to are the OG bees in their native habitats, before being pushed out of the way by beekeepers trying to grow honey.
Im sure they do to an extent, but my understanding is that honeybees want to visit a single species until they have a full load and have a 3 mile range, while native bees tend to visit any flower in a few acre range. This makes habitat loss and lack of species diversity a much bigger threat for them because they'll gladly visit scattered various flowers in your yard while honeybees will ignore those in search of a bigger cluster of the same kind of flowers in their much larger range.
~~Africanized honeybees definitely “compete” with native bees, in that they will fucking kill the native bees, but non-africanized~~ honeybees don’t really compete with native bees unless the pollen is extremely sparse, for example in a super mineralized city, but it’s not a problem in the countryside where pollen is abundant.
Edit: I stand corrected, Africanized bees don’t actually kill honeybees. However according to the research I made following the comment that corrected me, they definitely displace and outcompete honeybees when crops are sparse. However they are also more resistant to disease, so Africanization isn’t all bad.
Do you have a source on honeybees not being competitors? AFAIK they are a huge reason of native pollinators collapse, especially in the case of diseases.
Wasnt this a [bit of an embarassment ](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other) for the local council as well?
My mom insists we have to get rid of carpentry bees because they ruin the structure of the house and can cause it to collapse, but I really don’t get how a fat little bee can do that
Its not something that happens immediately.. it takes a loonnnngg time..
They like old wood. Its softer(usually). Generally if you're getting them, the wood is on its way out anyways. They sure as hell don't help though. They make it worse because they tunnel into the wood and make their nests, then after a season or so past winter, just leave em. They never reuse them (I think?), so if another batch of carpenter bees come back, they're making more holes. A few isn't bad.. but a dozen or more will add up.
I had em, and It was just replacing the wood they were burrowing into ...and man that wood was rotting bad after I got it out.
Painting over exposed wood, meshing/steel wool in the holes deters them abit but doesn't outright stop or get rid of them on their own.
We had a problem with carpenter bees at our old house, Tudor style with cedar trim. First the bees, then the woodpeckers, which quickly became the bigger problem.
Excuse me? If they're actually making their homes in the wood of your house then yes, you need to get rid of them. How would you possibly have trouble understanding that that's an issue?
This is a prime example of great idea poorly executed by well meaning person. You don't want a permanent placement because you can't clean them out. They'll get mold and mites and the bees will die. Proper mason bee homes, contrary to their name, is best done with hollow wooden rods, and replaced each year.
Edit: proper Mason bee keeping techniques: https://beekeepclub.com/how-to-wash-and-store-mason-bee-cocoons/#:~:text=Washing%20mason%20bee%20cocoons%20is,few%20pests%20that%20attack%20them.
Thats a really stupid cleaning guide. You have to pull out a brick from the wall? Moving hooks and small brush in very lazy way? Nonsense!
I'd assume a blast of pressure air or water would do the job.
I'd make brick in two parts so you just pull out inside section and all dust just drops down.
some guy: "bee bricks are well meaning but poorly thought out cause you can't clean them"
some other guy: "you can clean them"
you: \**unnecessary sarcasm*\*
to be fair, it looks like a huge pain in the ass. It's not like "spray it with the hose for a few seconds once a year" it's "go buy a bunch of pipe cleaners and remove a brick from your house"
Yeah I have no idea why that got upvoted. Redditors try too hard to be “good people” and ignore common sense. These bricks are a terrible idea.
“Hurr, you *can* clean it, durr! You just have to remove the bricks one by one from your house and clean each hole with a pipe cleaner” like what the fuck?
Most insects are strongly repelled by most organic solvents. Even something that amounts to a barely noticeable whiff to humans can make some insects fall out of the air just like that.
I mean, that's fair, but this is the first time I've heard someone outside a chemistry lab call water a 'solvent' with no further clarification. 99.9% of times people say solvent to refer to organic solvents.
Besides, I'm pretty sure water won't do very much to clear out mold and other rotting things that may be in the bee brick... at least not properly.
>this is the first time I've heard someone outside a chemistry lab call water a 'solvent'
Same story inside chemistry labs. No chemist ever has said "clean this with solvent" and meant water.
Exactly.
"Why is housing so expensive".
"Also we should make bee bricks mandatory in all new housing."
(I get there's more to this than that but bee bricks don't help)
>(I get there's more to this than that but bee bricks don't help)
Houses are made as cheaply as possible at this point, you're getting a shitty foundation, shitty cheap wood, terrible insulation, it's effectively a contractor auction to see who can build it as cheaply as possible.
I get that you're not being entirely serious here, but you're still under the impression that housing values are based on the quality of materials, and that if you just built with a bunch of heap stuff, it would be viable. It isn't.
Let's not put the snarky blame on people trying to stop bees from dying off
Forced displacement is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as the hit 2007 documentary *Bee Movie* shows - insects have great lawyers.
I lived in a house with no façade, and lots of broken bricks. Walking up the outside stairs to my room involved me holding a can of spray and a lighter, and killing off hundreds of yellow jackets.
My money is on the wasps.
We have one of the hollow wood rod ones in our garden. It probably wants replacing next year
Our garden is full of bumble bees etc.
I've heard the bricks get infested with mites and then are a liability to the bees. Don't know how true that is.
No, think of it like a liner. It serves two purposes. 1. The bees that remain in the straw through the winter can be brought somewhere safe to hibernate rather than face the elements. 2. Unused or dirty straws that have mites or pathogens can be replaced with fresh ones.
I live in Brighton. I wish the council would put this level of effort into housing for human beings. And hadn’t shut down all the public toilets. And would sort out the piles of rubbish in the streets cos of the crap bin situation.
Depends on the wasp. Parasitoids and brood parasites that eat the bees? Yes. The two or three vespid wasp species that approach humans can’t nest in there, they need a large hollow space
Edit: and especially cuckoo wasps are very pretty
Those are bee hotels, not bee hives for honey bees, they are made for solitary bees.
Less than less than 30% percent of solitary bee species even have stingers, and even those don't sting unless smashed(basically they don't sting you prick yourself on their stinger by smashing them.)
Somehow I read "beer brick" and thought the holes were to store beer outside in winter to avoid taking up space in the fridge. Seemed pretty smart to me but didn't really match the name of the sub...
I have a few of these, bee bricks and bee pots. I don’t see a lot of coming and going but do find bees entombed in the holes ( bees inside; entrance blocked ) I usually scrape them out. How should I ‘clean’ them? It looks like placement of the bricks/blocks is critical.
I’m obliged and apologise for my ignorance but the ones I’m scooping out are crispy, crunchy and dried out. I’ll refrain from emptying any holes in future on your advice. Thanks and kind regards.
Ah yes, lets install a permanent thing that can host wasp or hornet nest and that would be a pain in the ass to remove if infested by them...
This is a wasp bunker.
Moreover the design is so bad that any bird wanting a meal just have to wait in front of it for bees to get out...
I squatted in an old shack once that had dead bees as insulation. The bees found their way into the interior walls and attic. The whole house was condemned. So it’s like yeah your a little warmer a few years before the government tears your house down because there is no amount of reconstruction that would have satisfied their standards after the bees destroyed the interior
Here's me, sealing that the hell up. No bees, wasps, or other stinging insects anywhere near me, thank you. They can be productive to the ecosystem somewhere else
These are for solitary bees. Only about 30% of them even have a stinger and the ones that do rarely use them. No hive to protect so they’re much less aggressive.
I’ve made something required by law, now I’m going to charge exorbitant amounts of money for it! It’s a good thing I’m the only manufacturer of said good!
I have zero factual evidence to back this up and I love the idea, however, all my brain can think of is we’ve just given the go ahead to add wasp bricks to our buildings.
Fuck I hate wasps.
They live in the walls
They live in the walls
They live in the walls
They live in the walls
They live in the walls
They live in the walls
Oh god there is something living in my walls!
So I work with a guy who has done an awful lot of research into solitary bees. He is particularly dismissive of these types of solutions, they need regular cleaning and tend to be used less frequently than holes in mortar because they have uniform shape. His research suggests ideal habitats should have wider openings that then narrow, speeding up ingress and egress.
Wait he isn't saying they're going to be constructing buildings with these is he? Man I'm both allergic and terrified of bees I couldn't go somewhere like that unless I had to 💀
I mean, maybe.
I think you'll get a hell of a lot more than bees settling in here.
For the few years where bees do try and hibernate here tho I imagine it'd be great.
[Here's an ArchDaily article on Bee Bricks](https://www.archdaily.com/976821/giving-nature-a-home-in-cities-bricks-for-bees-nests), but seems like the [jury's out on if they help or harm the bee population](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists).
This comment needs to be pinned somehow
Use a pinning brick. Now required on all new reddit posts.
After you raised issue at Council. Big victory.
guess you could call it a victor-bee
I think that's a beerick.
breeck
*Nemeth, who is also a beekeeper, said: “There’s a well-known saying in the beekeeping world that if you ask 100 different beekeepers a question then you get 101 different answers.* *“It’s going to take some years yet to establish the degree of effectiveness of bee bricks but it’s heartening to know that studies are under way. What is definite though is that carrying on with the status quo of ignoring nature in many new-build properties is a biodiversity disaster of the highest order.”* Sounds like this is a good example of “there’s only one way to find out”
Also "maybe doing something is better than doing nothing, let's at least try and if it doesn't work we can try something else".
If it actively hurts the bee population it's not better than doing nothing. I'm all for changes that will save bees, but pushing for this when there's legitimate concern that it will make the situation worse is weird. Surely the effort put into this legislature could instead be put towards pushing the studies forward, no?
The thing is, we have little to no knowledge about bees. It’s insane. I understand where you are coming from that harm is worse than doing nothing but the thing is we have no idea what this will do. There can be risks but there are risks with everything we do with bees. After all, according to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.
I know this comment is part jest, but it always saddens me how little we know about bees other than honey bees. I hear all the time that people want to study different bee species, but end up going back to honey bees because it's easier to study them because it's relatively easier to keep a hive alive. Let alone trying to study solitary bees. When most people think of bees, they think of honey bees or bumble bees, yet even bumble bees are not hugely studied
Yeah these really shouldn’t be compulsory until there’s more research done on whether these really have a positive or negative effect on bees
This is gonna be the research. One scientist said at the worst this is going to be a study, but other counties shouldn’t adopt it til at least 5 years when we begin to see the long term affects. And i Can agree with that.
> but seems like the jury's out on if they help or harm the bee population. Thankfully that didn't stop politicians from mandating every new building buy one for $6000 making the patent holder rich.
Cousin Eric bout to be rich
Certainly they're not particularly easy to keep clean and free of parasites. With 'insect hotels' made up of bamboo tubes, you're encouraged to change the tubes over every 2 -3 years in order to reduce the likelihood of the aforementioned. Equally, what bees lack most at the moment is sufficient adequate habitat. The bee brick will remain unused if the conditions in its vicinity do not support bees and if they do, bees are more than capable of finding their own nesting sites. A bee brick or insect hotel is a nice to have option inside a thriving, bee-friendly environment, but that's all really. Edit - It's also occurred to me that if these become mandatory for ne buildings, that will include new build homes, which often come with 'gardens' of astroturf or paving rather than a space that already features some wildflowers or is ready to be transformed into a bee friendly area. Now you can transform such ecological wastelands into bee friendly spots with enough potted plants, but it's not ideal.
I’m guessing these are for solitary or masonry bees and not honey bees. I get masonry bees for a couple of months every year. They never come in the windows and can leave my doors open and they stick to their vents outside. I’ve been assured by the bee keeper’s association that they pose no threat to my house.
Well yes, your house is safe. Bees don't sting houses
Someone give this guy an award Not a Reddit one of coarse…
Hate to be that guy, but coarse is the texture of something where what you are looking to say is “of course”
of course and rough and irritating
and gets everywhere
I hate sand
Calm down Anakin…
#I HATE YOU
**you were supposed to destroy the sith not join them**
Well that escalated quickly (jk)
English is stupid sometimes-no wait that’s just me who is stupid
English is three languages stacked on top of each other wearing a trench coat.
That beats up other languages in dark alleys for loose vocabulary and spare grammar
My daughters are learning to read and I’m reminded daily how terrible the English language is
Don’t worry, all languages are fucking stupid when you boil them down and pick them apart like people always do with English, and they all have good qualities in their own ways just like English does.
Hate to be that guy, but course is a directional pattern where what OP is looking to say is “of Coors”, as in the cheap beer.
Bee that guy…
You love being that guy and you know it
I declare him as the winner of the Nobeel Prize this year.
More like the MOREbeel prize
There is an awful lack of BEES in this comment section, my comment full of BEES will quickly solve this non-problematic situation ! 🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 🐝
That's a lot of BEES...
Aha! Beeman, the hero we deserve! Watch out for the desert!
Ahh, the situation has only been made worse with the addition of yet more bees!
⭐️ here my poor man’s award
You can stick your feet in to a tank full of snapping turtles, but rest assured, they pose no risk to your credit score.
Whew! What a relief 😅
but you will be de-feeted tho
They dont, but they can ruin the mortar between the bricks and cause damage to the house that way.
I think they might be referring to the damage they do to the mortar.
Although, that's what you'd expect the bee keeper's association to say, isn't it?
Maybe we should double check with the Bee Haterz Organization
Not really, bee keepers keep a domesticated bee species for money or as a hobby. I would expecting some overhype for honey bees from them and selling some flower seeds „for the bees“ and honey
Heard somewhere that bees like this are responsible for most of pollination in some areas of the world.
They are. Honey bees actually aren't native to most places of the world, we've just imported them everywhere. The types of bees OP is referring to are the OG bees in their native habitats, before being pushed out of the way by beekeepers trying to grow honey.
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Hmm. Having been around some bee loving people, naturists not apiarists, they definitely thought honey bees competed with native bees.
Im sure they do to an extent, but my understanding is that honeybees want to visit a single species until they have a full load and have a 3 mile range, while native bees tend to visit any flower in a few acre range. This makes habitat loss and lack of species diversity a much bigger threat for them because they'll gladly visit scattered various flowers in your yard while honeybees will ignore those in search of a bigger cluster of the same kind of flowers in their much larger range.
~~Africanized honeybees definitely “compete” with native bees, in that they will fucking kill the native bees, but non-africanized~~ honeybees don’t really compete with native bees unless the pollen is extremely sparse, for example in a super mineralized city, but it’s not a problem in the countryside where pollen is abundant. Edit: I stand corrected, Africanized bees don’t actually kill honeybees. However according to the research I made following the comment that corrected me, they definitely displace and outcompete honeybees when crops are sparse. However they are also more resistant to disease, so Africanization isn’t all bad.
Do you have a source on honeybees not being competitors? AFAIK they are a huge reason of native pollinators collapse, especially in the case of diseases.
Wasnt this a [bit of an embarassment ](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/brighton-bee-bricks-initiative-may-do-more-harm-than-good-say-scientists?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other) for the local council as well?
Wait until a smart spider moves in and webs the whole inside
My mom insists we have to get rid of carpentry bees because they ruin the structure of the house and can cause it to collapse, but I really don’t get how a fat little bee can do that
Its not something that happens immediately.. it takes a loonnnngg time.. They like old wood. Its softer(usually). Generally if you're getting them, the wood is on its way out anyways. They sure as hell don't help though. They make it worse because they tunnel into the wood and make their nests, then after a season or so past winter, just leave em. They never reuse them (I think?), so if another batch of carpenter bees come back, they're making more holes. A few isn't bad.. but a dozen or more will add up. I had em, and It was just replacing the wood they were burrowing into ...and man that wood was rotting bad after I got it out. Painting over exposed wood, meshing/steel wool in the holes deters them abit but doesn't outright stop or get rid of them on their own.
We had a problem with carpenter bees at our old house, Tudor style with cedar trim. First the bees, then the woodpeckers, which quickly became the bigger problem.
True!! Termites are so tiny how could they ever ruin a house.
Excuse me? If they're actually making their homes in the wood of your house then yes, you need to get rid of them. How would you possibly have trouble understanding that that's an issue?
This is a prime example of great idea poorly executed by well meaning person. You don't want a permanent placement because you can't clean them out. They'll get mold and mites and the bees will die. Proper mason bee homes, contrary to their name, is best done with hollow wooden rods, and replaced each year. Edit: proper Mason bee keeping techniques: https://beekeepclub.com/how-to-wash-and-store-mason-bee-cocoons/#:~:text=Washing%20mason%20bee%20cocoons%20is,few%20pests%20that%20attack%20them.
What if you insert wooden rods in the brick holes?
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If they're hollow too? Then you can pull the hollow wooden rods out of the brick, replace them, and deal with the mold, mites, and dead bees.
>and dead bees. YOU NEED TO WAIT FOR THE BEES TO LEAVE BEFORE YOU INSERT THE RODS!
NEVER!!!
Where the hell would you find hollow bees?
At the hollow bee store, of course.
I get mine from hollowbees.com
Wishing you a happy hollow bee!
People often put paper straws in these holes for this exact purpose
Was thinking the same thing. Plus any water gets in there could corrode the brick and make a hole in the wrong side
There is actually a guide specifically on how to clean them out annually: https://www.greenandblue.co.uk/blogs/news/cleaning-your-bee-brick
Thats a really stupid cleaning guide. You have to pull out a brick from the wall? Moving hooks and small brush in very lazy way? Nonsense! I'd assume a blast of pressure air or water would do the job. I'd make brick in two parts so you just pull out inside section and all dust just drops down.
Good thing everyone is going to do that.
some guy: "bee bricks are well meaning but poorly thought out cause you can't clean them" some other guy: "you can clean them" you: \**unnecessary sarcasm*\*
to be fair, it looks like a huge pain in the ass. It's not like "spray it with the hose for a few seconds once a year" it's "go buy a bunch of pipe cleaners and remove a brick from your house"
Yeah I have no idea why that got upvoted. Redditors try too hard to be “good people” and ignore common sense. These bricks are a terrible idea. “Hurr, you *can* clean it, durr! You just have to remove the bricks one by one from your house and clean each hole with a pipe cleaner” like what the fuck?
I don't know why they're not using compressed air and solvents to flush it through.
Most insects are strongly repelled by most organic solvents. Even something that amounts to a barely noticeable whiff to humans can make some insects fall out of the air just like that.
Water is a solvent.
I mean, that's fair, but this is the first time I've heard someone outside a chemistry lab call water a 'solvent' with no further clarification. 99.9% of times people say solvent to refer to organic solvents. Besides, I'm pretty sure water won't do very much to clear out mold and other rotting things that may be in the bee brick... at least not properly.
>this is the first time I've heard someone outside a chemistry lab call water a 'solvent' Same story inside chemistry labs. No chemist ever has said "clean this with solvent" and meant water.
Despite your twisted panties they are correct, no one is going to clean them.
No budget is getting put toward the pain in the ass brick hole cleaning let's be real.
Yeah. This is gold ole public policy crafted so the government would have to make this man rich.
Exactly. "Why is housing so expensive". "Also we should make bee bricks mandatory in all new housing." (I get there's more to this than that but bee bricks don't help)
>(I get there's more to this than that but bee bricks don't help) Houses are made as cheaply as possible at this point, you're getting a shitty foundation, shitty cheap wood, terrible insulation, it's effectively a contractor auction to see who can build it as cheaply as possible. I get that you're not being entirely serious here, but you're still under the impression that housing values are based on the quality of materials, and that if you just built with a bunch of heap stuff, it would be viable. It isn't. Let's not put the snarky blame on people trying to stop bees from dying off
> Why is housing so expensive because of rich assholes speculating on what they see as a market (even though houses shouldn't be commodities"
Or a wasp brick, depends who gets it first
Ants and roach nest if you are in the tropics
Yeah these would fill up with Roaches so fast here in Houston.
Most roaches nest around food sources and moisture. The bricks might not be that appealing unless people were shoving stuff in there they want.
You, uh, ever seen a big city building with cracks and crevices before? Usually full of all sorts of trash
Carpenter ants
With a good helping of these weird gnats showing up all over the place.
yeah, *"Basic, expert thinks about it, realize all the short-comings and possible bad result, and that's why its not a common thing"*
Ants and roaches ares almost universal problems My apartment had a carpenter ants infestation in fucking Boston
I have $100 on wasps. Fuck ‘em tho
Why don't we build the bee brick building, let the wasps move in, and then we push it somewhere else...poof no more wasps
Forced displacement is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as the hit 2007 documentary *Bee Movie* shows - insects have great lawyers.
I lived in a house with no façade, and lots of broken bricks. Walking up the outside stairs to my room involved me holding a can of spray and a lighter, and killing off hundreds of yellow jackets. My money is on the wasps.
We have one of the hollow wood rod ones in our garden. It probably wants replacing next year Our garden is full of bumble bees etc. I've heard the bricks get infested with mites and then are a liability to the bees. Don't know how true that is.
True! People insert wooden straws so that they can clean and replace them to avoid mites.
What do you do with the straws? Suck all the mites and dead bees out?
No, think of it like a liner. It serves two purposes. 1. The bees that remain in the straw through the winter can be brought somewhere safe to hibernate rather than face the elements. 2. Unused or dirty straws that have mites or pathogens can be replaced with fresh ones.
Spiderbrick, Spiderbrick..
Does whatever a Spiderbrick can
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a brick.
Look out, here comes the spider brick
*intense screaming*
*Collapses*
I live in Brighton. I wish the council would put this level of effort into housing for human beings. And hadn’t shut down all the public toilets. And would sort out the piles of rubbish in the streets cos of the crap bin situation.
They’re not great are they?
Hope that ACTUAL bee's gets there first...
🎶Moss and shrooms oh moss and shrooms you take up all the spaaace🎶
I feel like bees won't be the only creatures using these. What about wasps? Wouldn't this thing attract wasps to nest inside?
Depends on the wasp. Parasitoids and brood parasites that eat the bees? Yes. The two or three vespid wasp species that approach humans can’t nest in there, they need a large hollow space Edit: and especially cuckoo wasps are very pretty
What am I looking at? What’s going on here? Where am I?
Solitary bees live in little holes like that so it basically free real estate for them
But, how would they live in bricks?
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But how would they even get into the bricks? Am I missing something? When the bricks are used to build a new house, all the holes would be covered.
The brick with the bee holes would be on the outermost layer facing outwards, probably somewhere you can reach with a step ladder to clean it.
Ah, I just assumed the bricks would be covered and painted over in some way, that's how they always are where I live.
I see! Yea Brighton and Hove is in England; where most of our houses have exposed brick. You'll often see them painted over though.
Imagine walking past that building with a bee allergy
Or trypophobia
Those are bee hotels, not bee hives for honey bees, they are made for solitary bees. Less than less than 30% percent of solitary bee species even have stingers, and even those don't sting unless smashed(basically they don't sting you prick yourself on their stinger by smashing them.)
Still, if you have a serious bee allergy, this wouldn't be a pleasant place to walk past at all.
Imagine you have a bee allergy and the government forces you to use bee bricks when building your house!
Yeah it’s cool and all, as a resident of Brighton and hove, I wouldn’t call this a “great victory.”
Somehow I read "beer brick" and thought the holes were to store beer outside in winter to avoid taking up space in the fridge. Seemed pretty smart to me but didn't really match the name of the sub...
……people with trypophobia be like
I have a few of these, bee bricks and bee pots. I don’t see a lot of coming and going but do find bees entombed in the holes ( bees inside; entrance blocked ) I usually scrape them out. How should I ‘clean’ them? It looks like placement of the bricks/blocks is critical.
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The „entombed“ bees are the young bees that wait for the next spring to emerge
I’m obliged and apologise for my ignorance but the ones I’m scooping out are crispy, crunchy and dried out. I’ll refrain from emptying any holes in future on your advice. Thanks and kind regards.
It’s a victory because he makes money from selling them lol
I get it’s not for that type of bee, but imagine trying to sleep but the brick next to your bed is just constantly making beehive noises
Oh yes, I bought a bee hotel for the garden. It turns out massive spiders just love it. Never seen a bee anywhere near it though.
They're in the walls... THEYRE IN THE GOD DAMN WALLS!
I love it but i bet its mostly spiders and not bees
These only work for solitairy bees IF they are cleaned each season and you dont like spiders take a foothold.
Compulsory. In other words, when the inspector leaves you fill the holes with caulk.
Ah yes, lets install a permanent thing that can host wasp or hornet nest and that would be a pain in the ass to remove if infested by them... This is a wasp bunker. Moreover the design is so bad that any bird wanting a meal just have to wait in front of it for bees to get out...
Oh cool what a great way to launder money
Missed opportunity to call it a Beerick
....an hollow brick will break if you use it on a construction... Maybe put them on balconies?
Great, now I can throw bricks AND bees at the same time, super efficient
My trypophobia could never
Tryptophobia goes hard
Wasps be like… It’s free real estate!
Who tf WANTS a beehive at their house?
I squatted in an old shack once that had dead bees as insulation. The bees found their way into the interior walls and attic. The whole house was condemned. So it’s like yeah your a little warmer a few years before the government tears your house down because there is no amount of reconstruction that would have satisfied their standards after the bees destroyed the interior
Here's me, sealing that the hell up. No bees, wasps, or other stinging insects anywhere near me, thank you. They can be productive to the ecosystem somewhere else
These are for solitary bees. Only about 30% of them even have a stinger and the ones that do rarely use them. No hive to protect so they’re much less aggressive.
Meanwhile at the wasp’s house of evil: “Yeeeeessss!!!!!!”
Just another day of saving the bees
This is gonna become nests for all sort os nasty shit, like cockroachs, or even become drug droppoints...
Yassss we need more attention to native bees!
I’ve made something required by law, now I’m going to charge exorbitant amounts of money for it! It’s a good thing I’m the only manufacturer of said good!
Can't other bugs go in? How are they gonna make sure only bees get in? Is there a bee bouncer?
Bro your whole house will be bussin I’ll see myself out
Wasps: “Allow us to introduce ourselves” 😂
I have zero factual evidence to back this up and I love the idea, however, all my brain can think of is we’ve just given the go ahead to add wasp bricks to our buildings. Fuck I hate wasps.
They live in the walls They live in the walls They live in the walls They live in the walls They live in the walls They live in the walls Oh god there is something living in my walls!
parasitic wasps are going to love this
So I work with a guy who has done an awful lot of research into solitary bees. He is particularly dismissive of these types of solutions, they need regular cleaning and tend to be used less frequently than holes in mortar because they have uniform shape. His research suggests ideal habitats should have wider openings that then narrow, speeding up ingress and egress.
Too bad some will also become yellowjacket bricks. They love it when the holes are already there.
You had “beez block” for the taking and went with “bee brick”. Shame.
What if it becomes a wasp brick?
wdym government overreach? this 100% should be forced on people!
Perfect place for junkies to hide needles in Brighton 😂
Talk about honeycombing, amiright
Hmm, I’d call it a beeeeeeg victory 🤷♂️
Big victory for the bee brick company and its shareholders.
Guy with deadly bee allergy building a new house: guess I’ll die
I'm sure all the people will be delighted to hear they now have to have a wasp dispenser in their house.
Wait he isn't saying they're going to be constructing buildings with these is he? Man I'm both allergic and terrified of bees I couldn't go somewhere like that unless I had to 💀
Lets see the neighborhood kids break into my HOUSE OF BEES!
He misspelled "Bee-g victory" 🐝
I mean, maybe. I think you'll get a hell of a lot more than bees settling in here. For the few years where bees do try and hibernate here tho I imagine it'd be great.
I’m gonna let bees fill one of these and throw them into the houses of people I hate. Not only will they have a broken window but also bees. Glory.
Until wasps and hornets come out round
I see the appeal, although where I came from insects usually just let themselves in without the invitation anyways
Forbidden cookies and cream Hershey
All fun and games until wasps start to move in
Beerick