Nest holes are placed in soft sandstone, but the bees cannot tunnel into hard sandstone. Soft sandstones are relatively low in quartz and high in clay. The bees have a preference for the soft mortar ...

The bees have a preference for the soft mortar used to assemble stone walls in pueblos. Female bees prefer to dig nests into the soft mortar used to build pueblos. (Adrian Carper/Courtesy Photo ...

There are about 200 species of solitary bee in the UK. Some nest in small tunnels or holes in the ground or in sandy banks, piles of sand, or crumbling mortar. Others use the hollow stems of dead ...