# Honey Bees and Hostas



## FlowerPlanter (Aug 3, 2011)

Have not seen honey bees work our Hostas.

If you google image it there are pictures, several of honey bees they look like they are collecting pollen.


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## Vectorjet (Feb 20, 2015)

Never seen honey bee on my hostas either.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Nope, hostas will not work for my bees. And they will not bite into the flowers to gather
nectar either. Blooming time of a flower and a day going by is too short for them to even waste their
time on such issue. Bees like an easy way of gathering within close proximity to the hive. Flowers are short blooming and so is
a bee's life.


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## ApiaryObservations (Jul 10, 2021)

I have been watching my honeybees. They are piercing the base of the hosta's tubular flowers and extracting nectar from them. In previous years, I have not seen them do this - must be a dearth of other forage right now.


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

I have not seen honey bees on Hostas. Bumble bees and wasps and humming birds are all over them though.


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## Shoreline Honey (Feb 22, 2021)

I haven't noticed my honey bees on my hostas, but the bumble bees are all over them.


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## ncbeez (Aug 25, 2015)

Shoreline Honey said:


> I haven't noticed my honey bees on my hostas, but the bumble bees are all over them.


Bees will only work hostas when they need them. Ours are done blooming for the year. We have had hostas for years and the only time they worked them was in July 2017. Must have been about the only thing blooming around that time during that year. They may not have much to offer.


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## Kansas57 (Aug 31, 2021)

ApiaryObservations said:


> I have been watching my honeybees. They are piercing the base of the hosta's tubular flowers and extracting nectar from them. In previous years, I have not seen them do this - must be a dearth of other forage right now.


I have observed honeybees on hosta blooms. They don't enter the tubular end of the bloom, but go directly to the base of the tube. A closer look reveals a slit in the tube that the bees seem to be probing. I haven't seen them make this slit and in fact, notice they only visit blooms where a slit already exists.


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## Norcal Mtns (Mar 28, 2021)

HBs do not make entrance into the blossoms, but they will collect nectar when they find an existing entrance. Other insects, including caterpillars and thrips, will make the entrances.

It is a popular internet misconception that our bees chew into flowers and easily discredited.


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