FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi there,

I seem to have bees nesting in my vft. Every 10 minutes or so I see a single bee leaving the plant, shortly to return with leaf cuttings for what I guess is a queen. I understand I can't do anything about it and should leave them be. The plant still looks healthy etc. This has been going on for about a month now. Is this likely to do any long term damage and has anyone experienced this before? Its a v.large flytrap by the way so I'm sure no harm would come to it.

Thanks. Oh I'm in the UK. Plant lives outside all summer.

You most likely have some kind of solitary bee who is building a nest for her young. I doubt it is making the nest directly in the flytrap, but if it is than there may be nothing you can do short of removing that portion of the flytrap that the bee is nesting in. Or you can allow the bee to finish its nest. It won't stay in there forever, just until the young ones reach adulthood and then they'll all be gone.

Sounds like a leaf cutter bee. If you have no kids near it. It is OK to leave it alone I guess. Be careful to be in front of the bee's flight path and so not breath into it or the plant. As carbon dioxide may make the bee panic thinking a bear is after its honey.

toecutter wrote:I seem to have bees nesting in my vft.

I doubt it's nesting IN your VFT, more likely to be nesting in the medium.

toecutter wrote:Thanks. Oh I'm in the UK. The plant still looks healthy etc. This has been going on for about a month now. Is this likely to do any long term damage and has anyone experienced this before? Its a v.large flytrap by the way so I'm sure no harm would come to it.

Had this happen to me about 2 times before with the plants grown outside the greenhouse and I just left them to it. Didn't bother repotting and they were gone by the time it came to repotting them in the spring.


Here's a thread from a while ago by Dan about leafcutter bees in the peat of his plants. Again, in the UK.
http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/post1 ... hilit=bees

Thanks for the replies. Yeah its a leafcutter bee. Will leave it to do its thing. Theyre quite interesting to watch, not the most sensible place to build a nest...