Cleaning Mason Bee cocoons and prepping them for spring

By this time of year the larva have matured and spun their cocoon and now they are waiting for a streak of warm days. Where I live in North Georgia we sometimes get "fake springs" where we get 70F days for 5 or so days in a row. This causes flowers to open and possibly the Bees as well. But with fake springs they are usually followed up with 20F days that kill the flowers and possibly the Bees too.

So by refrigerating them, I can release them when I know they should emerge and not by so called Georgia fake spring.

But before I store them I clean them up and remove any mites or parasites that may be living on the outside of the cocoons.

I clean the cocoons after removing them from their homes using Spearmint oil. From what I've read its effective in treating mites on Bees.

Using a small storage container, a cat litter scooper (new), cold distilled water and Spearmint essential oil. We used Young living brand but I think any quality essential oil will do. Using cold water is very important, otherwise it may trigger the Bees to emerge from the cocoons. I stored my water jug in the garage overnight to cool it down before use.

Moving the cocoons around for about ten minutes knocks off all the remaining mud on the cocoons. The oil will also kill any mites crawling on the surface of the cocoons.

Before adding the cocoons the oil in the water had a real nice smell to it. I used about five drops of it for the gallon of water.

After soaking for about ten minutes I move the cocoons to a makeshift drying rack. Using milk crate boxes and some small celled metal mesh and fiberglass mesh. I found using screen used to cover windows worked best otherwise the male eggs would fall though small metal mesh.

I set up a fan on top of the cocoons and run it for about 8 hours until they are completely dry. I stir them a few times while drying to get all the surfaces.

The metal mesh didnt work as well. But I placed that crate on top so if they fell through they would be caught on the window screen mesh.

After drying I poured them into a small box with a paper sheet inside. This will help me pour them into vegetable bags for storing in the refrigerator. Theres a few hundred cocoons right there.

I add them to bags and place them in the refrigerator. They breathe well and should be okay for a few months when it's time to release them.

Lol it's funny to see bags of bees in the refrigerator upstairs. But better to have them there that have them emerge in January because of some weird weather we may get. It was 70F a few days ago so glad I handled it already.

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