Wasp predators found in Escape/Emergence boxes

Note escape hole of box in foreground and the escape hole in the adjacent box.  Mason bee cocoons cover the base of the box waiting for warm spring temperatures. As the temperature increases, bees chew their way out of their cocoon and then travel towards the light of  the exit hole.  Note empty cocoons.  Dave uses a hinged lid for closing the box.

Female wasps overwintering in an escape box (emergence box).  If left inside box, wasps would eat bees as bees emerge from their cocoons.

Hi Margriet: Look what I had waiting for me when I went to clean out the escape boxes from last year.
Dave M.Port Alberni, BC Canada

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