UW students build bee homes to boost biodiversity on campus

The GreenHouse Learning Community hosted a Pollinators and Sustainable Gardening April 24 between the Allen Centennial Gardens and Leopold Residence Hall. University of Wisconsin students and GreenHouse interns Courtney Manor and Evie Skibicki headed the event.

Event participants constructed solitary bee houses. Manor said this is an easy do-it-yourself project that can help grow biodiversity and promote bee nesting.

“Wisconsin’s native bees are considered solitary bees, they burrow in sticks and in the ground,” Skibicki said. “Unfortunately, with urbanization, concrete and grass lawns, there are not a lot of opportunities for bees to find sticks and compatible houses that they can live in for the season.”

Skibicki said creating the solitary bee houses was not difficult — the process involves twigs, leftover cardboard and sticks with holes drilled in them. Gathering and drilling into the stick is the most time-consuming step in making the bee houses, Skibicki said.

After the sticks are drilled, assembly of the bee house takes about five minutes. The event also provided markers and crayons to let participants decorate their bee houses, adding some creativity to the project. Some participants added flowers, while others added words. Most people also decorated their houses with bees.

Once participants completed their bee houses, they hung them up outside. The holes in the sticks give solitary bees a nesting place, helping to add biodiversity to the surrounding areas, Manor said.

‘Save the bees’ is a popular saying related to protecting the environment — Manor and Skibicki are working to show students how they can easily contribute to protecting the state’s pollinators.

“They [solitary bees] are important for the sake of biodiversity, even just on the lakes, the nature preserve,” Manor said. “Pollination is really important to keep everything going out there and in all of our green spaces on campus.”

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