I’m starting to sketch out some presentations to local gardening groups next year that highlight pollinators, especially the wonderfully diverse native bees of New Mexico. I want to address common false ideas, so who better to ask than this forum. Running list: all bees live in hives and produce …

[image] egordon88: so the ‘low quality’ is not an issue for native bees? It looks like that article only considered the domesticated sunflower species, Helianthus annuus. Here in NC, we have ~30 different wild and native Helianthus species, most of them perennials, and I think the number is a…

[image] egordon88: Which ideas have you heard in circulation or used to think were true? Thanks! European view ahead: ** That bumblebees don´t sting… I believed that until I was stung when I was 12 years old… and worst part was that nobody did believe me, because “They don´t sting” … ** Tha…

[image] headsoup: An inverse one here, but ‘squish all mozzies and things that look like them’ often leads to bees, non-biting flies, wasps and multitude other insects killed because ‘eek!’ God, I remember seeing all these posts of a squashed, wasp-looking insect and then the squisher posting…

Another misconception I heard was that wasps do not like to build nests close to each other. Well, seeing two founding Polistes exclamans nests within the same porch maybe 1m away from each other immediately destroyed that belief.

You mention the dandelion as not the be-all and end-all plant for bees, but would it be worth mentioning some local species that tend to attract native pollinators? Anecdotal, but I’ve seen it twice where the native species was teaming with life (bees, beetles, bugs, etc.) vs. a non-native by such a…

[image] vreinkymov: would it be worth mentioning some local species that tend to attract native pollinators? The most popular with pollinator plants in my garden are: tall plants (2+ meters tall): Hamelia patens – an entire habitat unto itself for bees, butterflies, beetles, birds, reptiles …

You may well be correct. However, just because someone is attracted to it does not mean it is of nutritional value. Compare this to humans and thier love for junk food and sweetened soda drinks and the overall health of those whose whole diet is based on those foods and drinks.

I guess this also comes from “all bees/wasps are either honey bees or yellow jackets” but “all bees and wasps are social” and “all bees make honey” are common ones. Also, inverse to “any black and yellow stripey insect is a wasp,” there’s “this non-stripey insect must be some kind of fly” when peop…

The world is a large place, so this is easily its own hundred comment thread. Helianthus petiolaris and Xanthisma spinulosum are the most prolific plants in my summer garden and combined host a few hundred bee, wasp, beetle, bug, fly, and moth species.

[image] alloyant: What misconceptions are there about pesticide use? I would think it’s kind of intuitive that chemical pesticides are bad for non-pest insects as well. But they are only trying to kill “pests”, so why should it affect the good bugs too? - that kind of naïveté

Bee (and wasp) misconceptions

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Bee (and wasp) misconceptions

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