Wonderful Wild Bees
Working quietly behind the scenes, America’s wild bees help with pollination chores. Luscious berries, crunchy almonds, and many more foods that we enjoy each benefit when these mostly unheralded insects visit blossoms and inadvertently—but, for us and the plant, fortuitously—place pollen where it’s needed most.
In fact, the work of America’s wild bees might be especially needed in view of the blows being dealt to the nation’s No. 1 pollinator, the “domesticated” European honey bee, Apis mellifera.
The recent and mostly mysterious colony collapse disorder has pummeled honey bee hives, adding another burden to the bee’s already long list of woes: beetles, mites, and diseases like foulbrood and chalkbrood.
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Wild and native bees are also known as “non-honey bees” because they don’t produce the sugary golden syrup. Some carry the moniker “solitary bees” because they live the single like, perhaps making their nests near other bees—in a somewhat gregarious fashion—but at the same time not surrendering their independence to the communal, ultra-socialized lifestyle of a hive, for example.
Whatever their name, these hardworking bees have always played a strong supporting role to hived honey bees.
Uncovering secrets about the lives of the nation’s wild bees commands the full attention of bee experts at a unique research facility in Logan, Utah. It’s the ARS Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory, North America’s only scientific institution devoted exclusively to providing practical, science-based knowledge on how to domesticate, that is, manage, non-honey bees such as the alfalfa leaf cutting bee, Megachile rotundata – a proficient pollinator of that forage crop; the blue orchard or orchard mason bee, Osmia lignaria – a winged worker of apple, cherry, and almond orchards; bumble bees; and others.
What’s more, the team’s unparalleled excellence as bee explorers – finders of even the most secretive of native bees – has led to a steady demand for their help in discovering and documenting the wild bees and other pollinators inhabiting ecosystems throughout the United States. |
Marcia Wood is part of the Agricultural Research Service Information Staff. This article was reprinted from “The National Gardener,” a publication of the National Garden Clubs. The NGC is recognized as the largest volunteer gardening organization in the world. Since 1929, they have provided garden club members with educational opportunities in all aspects of gardening and floral design. NGC aids in the protection and conservation of natural resources, promotes civic beautification and encourages the improvement of roadsides and parks. Find out more at http://www.gardenclub.org.
