Yay! Wool Carder Bees are here

If you ever want to see Wool Carder bees Anthidium in action, plant Lambs Ears Stachys.

I used to enjoy observing these industrious bees in patches of Lambs Ears in the garden of our former home.

Last year I saw none because the Lambs Ears that I transplanted from our former garden, were still small.

Now, a year later, the Lambs Ears have spread and are larger.

I observed this one gathering fiber from one of the leaves.

These bees scrape the soft hairs off leaf and stem surfaces to stuff into their nests to form a pad to lay an egg on.

It's a laborious task, which takes about a minute.

The bee has to form fiber balls, one at a time, then fly with the ball to their nest.

Here the bee has made a lot of progress, forming a ball from the fiber.

Now the bee is packing the fiber into a tight ball to transport to its nest.

It will soon fly back to repeat the task.

Astonishing to observe!