Understanding and protecting native pollinators is an important part of ensuring the future of the foods we consume, as these are directly responsible for a third of our diet. Multiple pollinators are highly beneficial in pollination; researchers at the University of California at Davis (2006) have shown that honey bees are up to five times more efficient pollinators when native bees are present than when working alone. In fact, protecting both native pollinators and honey bees ensures that all flowering plants, including trees and shrubs, can continue to produce fruit and seed for future generations. Our efforts to collect native bees provide valuable knowledge of these pollinators as we seek to develop appropriate management tools for their protection.
They rarely sting. Most of them don’t live in hives. They don’t make honey and many aren’t yellow and black. But the 4,000 species of native bees in the U.S. are free of the mysterious disorder that is killing honey bees in droves.
There are more than 4,000 species of native bees, 500 of which haven’t even been named. More are being discovered all the time. Of the native bees only bumblebees, carpenter bees, sweat bees, and many other small bees that don’t look like bees to most people. They do not include wasps such as yellow jackets dirt daubers and paper wasps. Native bees rely on pollen but don’t make honey except sometimes in small amounts to feed their young. Because they don’t have a big nest and a queen to defend, native bees generally don’t sting except in extreme circumstances. Unlike honey bees and yellow jackets, most of their stingers are designed to handle only other insects and can’t cause significant pain to a mammal. Also unlike honey bees, native bees don’t lose their stingers when they sting.
Droege said researchers know that many native bee species are dwindling in numbers, and some of them have become extinct in recent years. No one has ever conducted bee surveys to tell the extent or cause of the problem. Droege is working on effective survey methods now. Knowledge about native bees may expand soon. Bee experts agree that there is greater support for native bee studies since colony collapse disorder was documented in populations. Also, solitary bees cannot hybridized with Africanized honey bees.
Chester focused his research into the number and varying species of native bees and how they can be propagated. During the summer of 2007, Mr. Lee was successful in propagating nine species. Up until that time little to no research was done on native bees due to the honeybees being the choice for pollination and the lack of an available way to control native bees. Chester’s research over the past six years confirms that honey bees can be replaced by native bees and controlled to any application. By having native bees present in fields it has been proven that you will have a 15 to 30% greater yield, just because these native bees are more efficient pollinators.
The buzz in honey bee breeding is local queen bees. Without a queen bee a colony can’t produce. For the past several years colony collapse disorder has killed off roughly 1/3 of bees every year, that means a lot of beekeepers who will need new queens for their hives. Many of those queen bees are bought by mail-order from breeders in the South. But WPSU’s Emily Reddy reports a group of researchers at Penn State wants to see if local bees might be a better idea.