My work focuses on Bee Hotels, which are artificial nesting structures for bees that in nature would nest in cavities such as beetle holes and snail shells. Bee hotels have been marketed to gardeners as a way to help bees but there is evidence they could help promote parasites and invasive species. I collected bee hotels from gardeners across Illinois to investigate and I am just now wrapping up rearing bees like this one from them. I had the bees emerge into deli cups from each individual bee hotel hole so I could identify which species were associated with which parasites.
