"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 7/7/06 08:10, in article
,
"Charlie Pridham" wrote:

snip

With us its wisteria leaves, if you are close enough to watch the bee in
action, its a most extraordinary noise then they take off using the piece
a
bit like a surf board!

Thanks to those who replied and I'll check the Wisteria tomorrow because
we
have never noticed either that or the Mde Isaac behaviour. Where do they
nest, does anyone know?

The females lay a single egg on a pad of pollen in any suitable hole, a few
feet off the ground, preferably in wood. They do this several times. We had
lots of them in the cracks in our old apple tree bark. The adults don't
'nest' as such.

You can encourage them by bundling short lengths of hollow cane together and
hanging the bundle from a tree.

Mary