Leafcutter bee holes in rose leaves

Leafcutter bees

BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Published: Sunday, 3 March 2019 at 3:00 pm

Recognise and prevent leaf damage by leafcutter bees in your roses and wisteria

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Nesting female bees cut out immediately obvious elliptical shapes from the edges of a leaf to make their cells for laying eggs. Since one female might need 20 or so cells, that's a lot of leaf cutting, particularly when the bee keeps returning to the same plant. It's only a significant problem when young plants are being defoliated or you're growing specimens for a show.

Symptoms

Bees snip out elliptical sections of leaf margins, particularly on roses, and use them to make thimble-shaped cells in their nests. However, they can remove quite a large area of leaf.

Find it on

roses, wisteria, epimediums

Organic

Wait for the solitary female and swish her away. Try to avoid killing the bees because they're invaluable friends to gardeners, pollinating flowers.

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