That all bees die then they sting. It’s not true. The misconception stems from, you guessed it, Honey Bees. They have barbed stingers which get caught in human skin.
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Oh one other thing, when people think they are helping bees by buying and releasing Mason and Leafcutter Bees onto their properties. Oh yes, let’s add a bunch more non-natives into the mix. This one is so bad, that I had a guy in my area ask me about it after he had contacted the entomology department at a college and asked if that would cause resource competition with things like Bumble Bees. Their response? Mason Bees and Bumble Bees are active at different times of the year and won’t adversely compete. My beard went into a blaze when he told me that.
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Chalcidoid wasps, but extremely tiny ones, I believe.
I see larger Chalcidoid all the time and there is a fig tree in the garden, so I always think if maybe my eyes were just better, I could see one but so far not yet.
Here’s an extremely gorgeous bigger Chalcidoid wasp on a leaf of the fig tree though!
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Biocontrol is a similar pandora’s box. Importing Ichneumonids to control alfalfa weevils, for example, and hope they remain faithful to the intended hosts. Humans rarely fix the problems they create without causing more.
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Potter Wasps are double nice. They both pollinate and keep caterpillars in check.
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and build cute nests Subgenus Eumenes from Greenbelt, Ottawa, ON, Canada on July 13, 2014 at 01:30 PM by christine123. Clay pots on American elm leaf. · iNaturalist
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Bee hotels are easy and always good
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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!’
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Pesticides are the best and first option for pests, which kill pollinators (instead of relying on parasitoids, companion planting, manual checking, etc)
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Also just that ‘more bee hives’ is good. Most everyone implies this means European honeybees and we have no idea how much disruption could be caused to other pollinators and even plant evolution by suddenly introducing multiple hives in a location, especially if not already established widely
Note: I think we definitely do need more dandelion and clover filled yards, just not specifically for saving the bees. They’re low maintenance, encourage all sorts of insects, are beneficial to the soil and the alternative, manicured lawn, is terrible
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False dichotomy in my opinion. A yard of native, regionally appropriate plants is the ideal alternative - meadow, chapparal, forest, etc.
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hold up I thought there wer ea lot of native leafcutter bees (assuming y’all are in North America).
Agree with @headsoup about lawns
Agree with @egordon88 about
This paper might have some think twice about the majesty of dandelions Amino Acid Content of Dandelion Pollen, a Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Nutritional Evaluation - abstract only (paywall to full article)
In the same vein Sunflowers were also looked at. Chemical composition of the ‘low quality’ pollen of sunflower (Helianthus annuus, Asteraceae) - abstract only (paywall to full article)
Western Honeybees are not the only pollinators(pollen gatherers) visiting these plants.
Yes, hundreds, but nonnative Megachile are spreading. Mostly agricultural introductions: Megachile rotundata (Alfalfa Leafcutter Bee) · iNaturalist
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I think the issue is that the marketed Bees (Leaf Cutters and Masons) are not necessarily the regional species that have evolved with the plants in the area. The imported bees like honeybees may displace and outcompete the regional native bees. The imports may not have as great a reach in what they visit as the regional specialists. Same thing with Bumble Bees escaping from greenhouses.
Concerns too are parasites and pathologies the imports may introduce with them. Even have bee hotels concentrate populations which allows for greater success of their parasites.
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so is it mostly/all nonnative varities used in efforts like that? And for pete’s sake, why?
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As found in previous studies, the protein content of sunflower pollen was relatively low compared to other important bee forage plants. In the cultivars tested, two essential amino acids, methionine and tryptophan, are likely to be below the minimum requirements for honeybees.
Interesting abstract. There are 100+ oligolectic species that specialize on Helianthus in the western USA, so the ‘low quality’ is not an issue for native bees?
The top 50 most recurrent host plant genera (N = ~250) associated with pollen specialist bee species were: Helianthus L. (101 spp.)
Source: Pollen Specialist Bees of the Western United States (jarrodfowler.com)
Speaking of sunflowers: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/egordon88/56388-in-appreciation-of-sunflowers
Money money money, probably
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I’m not sure if it is or not. Plants growing in the wild are different than crop plants. In the wild they are spread out with other choices and successional replacements. In crops or monoculture there is mostly just one choice. The plants may get successfully pollinated but that does not mean that the bee population is benefiting equally or robustly.
I know of the jarrodfowler page as I had just posted it on the Association plants for BC native Bees project.
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I was referring to the context of weeds growing vs the ‘usual’ manicured lawns. Of course there are many other options and better integrated systems for filling the yard up, I just mean in terms of people wishing to remove these ‘weeds’ from their lawns, not seeking out to plant clover/dandelion especially :)
In terms of the sunflower study, the concern I always have with studies of pollinators, parasitoids or pests is they’re always in the context of agriculture/industry, rather than a more broadly encompassing sustainable or incorporated system. It’s just an unfortunate fact that industry provides the funding for studies so the goals are always focused on yield, regardless of the interesting discoveries along the way.
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Many people I’ve met believe that any flying insect with yellow and black stripes is a bee or wasp. Striped fly is a bee. Striped beetle is a wasp, etc.
Also, many people do not know that in other parts of the world, bees and wasps can have stripes that are not yellow and black. For example, in Papua New Guinea, I saw far more orange (or reddish) and black stripes on wasps and things that mimic them.
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That’s where the funding is … trust me, I wish it were different
Here I do battle with - urban beekeepers defending invasive aliens. Eucalyptus trees and Paterson’s Curse. But. They feed my bees!
We have many wild bees, and beehives along the urban edge are stealing food from wild bees. A suburban greenwashed way of poaching.
Rant over.
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Oh it’s far stupider than that. One fine day in the USDA, they notice that Honey Bees appear to be declining. What to do, What to do. How do we pollinate the crops? Hmm. Do we:
A) Study the thousands of native species looking for ways that agricultural practices can be altered to work with them?
or…
B) Ask Dr Suzanne Batra to go shopping internationally for more non-native species to actively release in the US in a government funded program?
If you selected A, then you are not a part of the USDA. Dr Batra goes to Japan, grabs Osmia cornifrons and Anthophora villosula (and unknown to her, some parasitic wasps, and Fungi), later on they would accidentally grab Osmia taurus.
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