Apparently leaf cutter bees (Megachilidae) are very common in the Sonoran Desert, especially around the urban areas of Tucson, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Phoenix. They feed on nectar from lantana flowers and cut circular segments from other leaves to make their nests.
This makes perfect sense because lantana is planted everywhere in Arizona.
In our case, these bees seem to attack the pink and yellow rose bushes across the street from us.
These poor bushes struggle to produce 1 – 3 blooms during the month of April .. and well … I simply have to honour them. Almost every leaf on the shrub has been ravaged like these:
The roses themselves seem to remain untouched …
… until they fall apart (which happens in a day or two) … so fleeting!
You might want to Google leaf cutter bees for some fascinating images of these bees in action!
Thank you for stopping by, and I just want to add that I have a special give-away coming this week so please stay tuned!
What a nasty thing for those bees to do, and such damage they cause. I have a friend who has many old rose bushes that are ravaged by Rosetta disease. She is going to lose all of her beautiful bushes. At least the roses are still lovely with this bee. Lovely shots as always Barb
Hi Jeanne … I looked up Rosette disease and yes, it looks ghastly. Thankfully these bees don’t kill the actual bush. Thank you so much for stopping by today!
I’ve had leaf cutter bees in my roses here in Edmonton Barb. I find them rather facinating and as it doesn’t seem to cause any real harm to my roses I really don’t mind.
Hi Rosa! I did not realize we had them here as well! I’ve never had many roses and have never seen any… it would be interesting to see a nest (maybe ;)
I’ve never seen a nest but it’s very cool to watch them snipping at the leaves. :)
They manage to cut on mine ever year. I’ve never once caught them in action. That cup and saucer are so pretty! And how did you manage to plan so well to have that book with you too? Stunning photos girlfriend!
Hi Roxi! Such interesting and furtive little creatures they are! I bought that flower book a couple years ago (for $5.00) while in Arizona visiting Melinda in her beautiful town of Prescott! They have the BEST antique stores!! Thanks so much for stopping by today!
I have 10 rose bushes. Each Spring the cutter bees come and eat ALL of the aphids off the rose bushes. I don’t mind the leaf damage, because I don’t have to bug spray them. As long as the Rose Bush gets enough water, the flowers and the bush are not negatively affected. The aphids do much more damage to the Rose Bush than the cutter bees do. I love having the cutter bees come and clean the aphids off my Roses. ?