More than 4,000 species of bees are native to North America, and most don’t form hives and rarely sting. You can help bees by building or buying a wood or bamboo nesting house for them. Note: due to fungal infestations, replace your bee nesting houses every 2-3 years.
This website from the National Wildlife Federation explains the easy process of building a bee nesting house.
This video from the Chicago Botanic Garden explains in 4 minutes how to build a “bee condo” using an old block of untreated lumber or firewood, a cordless drill, a piece of paper, and a black marker.
It’s easy to build your own bee nesting house, but if you’d rather buy one, here’s an example product on Amazon.com.
How do bees use these nesting boxes? This video shows bees using a bamboo nesting box, and the narrator explains why she can get so close without being stung.