Is this mason bee going to be successful?

Factual Questions
1

I got a new deck last month and promptly attracted a carpenter bee. Luckily, and hopefully, I got rid of that problem right quick. (They may be eating away at the underside of the deck…I would never know)

After the carpenter bee, I got a mason bee (I must have a union-friendly deck). There are sunk screws in my custom-made benches, and since I haven’t been out there that much, the mason bee has now filled up at least 6 of these holes with mud.

But, the holes are only about a quarter - maybe a half - inch deep. That hardly sounds deep enough for a nest. This page about attracting mason bees says to make holes for them 4"-8" deep.

It the bee just totally confused and building nests because she found holes? Or is my bench actually prime nest real estate?

BTW - why are insects attacking my treated wood? I thought it would turn them off. And why didn’t the anti-carpenter bee/termite spray I put all around, including the benches, deter the mason bee?

2

I googled ‘pictures of mason bee damage’, wondering if I had a mason bee. Knowing a lot of readers here live in deathly fear of the sight of a thing with lots of holes in it (like the dreaded lotus pod) - do not look at those pictures!

3

I don’t think mason bees do damage. They just use already-created holes. I was unhappy with having them hang around but the Wikipedia article on them is quite favorable, so now I’m cool with it.

Yeah sorry to the trypophobics out there. Didn’t think of it. Pictures of clustered holes in the links.

4

They probably will. They make a lot of useful business contacts that other bees don’t get.