Life is hard when you're a rather small insect. It seems like everything that comes along wants to eat you. When you're a bee, birds are a scary thing. Especially this one:
This bird is called a Western Kingbird, but many locals call it a Bee Martin. They're tremendously agile fliers. They use this agility to catch insects on the wing. Bad news if you're a bee that's not a particularly tricky target and lives in large concentrations in conspicuous trailers. Left unchecked, these birds can damage a bee population significantly. The fields draw in lots more then just bees. Farmland is an endless buffet for a kingbird, and they thrive out here.
This tiny wasp is a somewhat more surprising predator of the bees. They're called Pteromalus. Being only about a millimeter long they don't seem very threatening, but they're quite insidious. They break into the cells that the leafcutter bees have lain their eggs in and then lay their own eggs in there. The Pteromalus larvae hatch first and then eat the pupating bee. Nature is a rough place.
This is a Sapygid Wasp. They're much the same as their tiny cousin above. They're roughly the same length as the leafcutter bee (just under a centimeter) but they're much thinner and lighter. Their larva eat the eggs of the leafcutter bee.
When the farmers bring in large amounts of helpers, all nature can see is a large amount of food. Despite an impressive mandible strength (they'll pinch you good) and a stinger, leafcutter bees are mostly defenseless. Their strategy in life is to work real hard and hopefully make enough cells and lay enough eggs that the predators can't get them all. Farmers do their best to protect their little helpers. Ultimately, though, its just a rough life for little bees.
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