Don't Underestimate the Native Pollinators

Honey bee and several native bees on flowers of fruit trees

© Beatriz Moisset

 The concern for honey bees has exploded in recent years. A day doesn't go by without a new article on the media or comments on numerous nature blogs. Some are agonized cries of help with words such as: Save the bees to save our food supply! Honey bees are going extinct, we are next! Almost completely lost in the shuffle are native pollinators, namely the 4,000 species of bees in the US.

Most of the public is unaware that native pollinators could supply a substantial amount of crop pollination. In many instances one or another native bee or an entire cadre of them results in more efficient pollination than that of honey bees. Here are a few examples:

In an apple orchard, 250 orchard mason bees can do as much as 15,000 to 20,000 honey bees. Squash bees are early risers and are likely to do more pollination of pumpkins and squash than the late arrivals—honey bees and bumble bees. The Southeastern blueberry bee, Habropoda laboriosa, is capable of pollinating $20 worth of blueberries in her lifetime. Many native bees work in wetter or colder weather than honey bees. The alkali bee and the non-native alfalfa leaf cutter bee pollinate a higher percentage of visited flowers than honey bees do. Some small orchards and vegetable fields get most of their pollination done by native bees.

Many native bees practice buzz pollination,

needed by tomatoes and other crops

© Beatriz Moisset

All and all according to some studies, native bees provide $3 billion worth of pollination to agriculture, while honey bees' contribution is valued at $15-18 billion. If we put native bees to work, we could reverse these proportions. Perhaps the best way out of the so-called honey bee crisis is to find the way to take better advantage of the other bees. How difficult would that be?

A hundred years ago native bees played an important role on crop pollination. As far back as seventy or eighty years, several authors noticed that bumble bee and solitary bee populations were dropping. This loss was most noticeable in larger farms where sometimes fruit or vegetable yield suffered by the absence of pollinators. Nobody seemed terribly concerned as long as the honey bee could be brought into service. Some observers knew that native bees were more efficient in many cases, but felt that the ease with which honey bees can be managed compensated for this drawback.

Some native bees are just as efficient as honey bees

at pollinating fruit trees

© Beatriz Moisset

Intensive farming grew as did the need for pesticides, and beehives started to be transported long distances and in large numbers to do their duty. It was the birth of the pollination industry involving beekeeping practices far removed from what would be considered natural. It shouldn't surprise us that such an unsustainable system is causing troubles for honey bees.

Can we bring native pollinators back after they continued to lose ground for the past century? Are there enough left around to take over the task of pollinating our crops? Even without statistics, we can be sure that only a tiny fraction of the previous populations remains. Perhaps, some species are precariously hanging on the verge of extinction or have already disappeared.

Dead solitary bee © Beatriz Moisset

No species takes the road to extinction willingly. Every creature, large or small, fights tooth and nail, or mandible and tarsal claw as the case may be, to stay alive and procreate. A few years ago, an entomologist found a miner bee's nest in a flower pot in his backyard. Another bee expert encountered a rare species of bee, regarded close to extinction, in the very heart of Washington DC, in a butterfly garden at the Washington Mall. With remarkable tenacity, these little survivors had managed to find just enough resources and shelter to raise their families in the middle of the concrete jungle.

We should not give up hope. Native pollinator populations can be brought back to the levels of yesteryear; perhaps then they can resume pollinating the crops that feed us.

Pollinators. © Beatriz Moisset.

Update, April, 2014. I followed some published reports when I said "native bees provide $3 billion worth of pollination to agriculture, while honey bees' contribution is valued at $15-18 billion." However this may be shortchanging native pollinators. Perhaps they do a lot more. A publication by Claire Kremen states that in California  native pollinators are responsible for $2.4 billions and honey bees for $3.9 billions. In other words, in that state native pollinators are responsible for almost 40% of all agricultural pollination. I will keep searching the truth.


List of articles

One Bite our of Three

Will We all Die if Honey Bees Disappear?

Bring Back the Native Pollinators! We need them more than Ever

Wild pollinators worth up to $2.4billion to farmers, study finds

Reversing threats to native pollinatorcommunities and services

Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2014 

Roadside Pollinator Gardens and Traffic

Mountain laurel. © Beatriz Moisset

Pollinator gardens are blooming along many highways. Perhaps the idea originated with Lady Bird Johnson and her beautification program. But it goes well beyond that. Planting wildflowers along highways has many advantages besides the esthetic ones. With the growing loss of pollinator habitat, it is a blessing to use the wasteland of roadsides as wildflower gardens to take care of the needs of pollinators.

Butterflies and bumble bees are more abundant where wildflowers bloom than in areas where grasses are dominant and where mowing and pesticide treatments are routine according to many reports. The possible downside is that larger numbers of dead butterflies, and perhaps bumble bees are found along highways with abundant wildflowers. How serious is the problem? Do the benefits outweigh the damages?

Skipper on asters. © Beatriz Moisset

It isn't easy to assess all the aspects of the situation. But the weight of opinion is that the deaths by vehicles are not much higher than those by natural causes. The increase in food supplies and shelter for the pollinators benefits them and contribute to larger populations. So, those who study the matter feel that it is worth to continue creating habitat for pollinators along highways.

Other advantages of such roadside pollinator gardens are a reduction in mowing frequency once the gardens are established and a reduction in pesticide use. Did I mention that the view is also more pleasant to the eye? Perhaps, this improves the mood of the drivers and brings down accident frequency.

Milkweeds. © Beatriz Moisset

References

Pollinators and Roadsides. Xerces Society. 
Manage your Roadsides for Bees & Butterflies. 
Use of Roadside Prairie Plantings by Native Bees. Iowa State University. 
Roadsides as Habitat for Pollinators: Management to Support Bees and Butterflies. Jennifer L. Hopwood.
A Sticky Situation for Pollinators. Minnesota Conservation.

List of Articles
Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2013

Pollinator Conservation Short Course

Snyder Farm

On April 27, I attended a short course on pollinator conservation at the Snyder Farm, an agricultural research station of Rutgers University, located in Pittstown, NJ. It was sponsored by Rutgers University, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). There were very informative sessions in the morning and a walk of the property in the afternoon ending with information on the current Farm Bill provisions for pollinator conservation.

We learned about recent research about the most common native pollinators of crops in New Jersey, several bumble bees and sweat bees among others. This is probably applicable to most of the Mid Atlantic region. We were informed about recent studies on the best native plants for pollinator gardens adjunct to farms. Among them some very familiar ones such as: cutleaf coneflower, some types of goldenrods, butterfly and swamp milkweeds, Joe pye weed and New England aster.

One of the best ecosystem-service providers, Bombus impatiens, on one of the best plants for pollinators, New England aster

There were presentations on how to protect pollinator habitats: bare spots in the ground, logs or old trees and plants with hollow twigs; all of them provide nesting places. Perhaps most important is the use of Integrated Pest Management, to reduce pesticides to the bare minimum and to use them only very early or very late in the day, when pollinators are less likely to be active. See: Attracting native Pollinators, Pollinator Friendly Planting Guide.

Canola fields

During the walk we visited the fields of rapeseed or canola, which are captivating with their incredibly bright yellow flowers at this time of the year. Sadly for us the wind was so strong, sharp and continuous that flower visitors were notoriously absent that day.  The pollinator garden was at an incipient stage. Its value will increase with time. We were shown how to do an assessment of native bee conservation practices; for instance, the presence of a windbreak, hedgerows between fields or along the edges of the property, presence of nest sites and natural vegetation within certain distances, etc. This assessment is used later on to evaluate any improvement.

Pollinator garden

What was completely disconcerting to me was the huge expanse of lawn near the farmhouse and between orchard fields. It would have been more acceptable if the lawn was heavily sprinkled by "grass companions", broad leaved weeds which can provide food for many sorts of pollinators. I didn't see any broad leaved plants worth mentioning. To make sure I was seeing right, I got on my hands and knees and only saw some solitary gill-of-the-ground and the occasional violet. I have seen many suburban lawns that are friendlier to pollinators without really trying.

A wasted opportunity, huge pollinator unfriendly lawn

 Perplexed, I asked Tim Dunne, the NRCS representative, about it. He agreed that such lawn was not exactly pollinator heaven. He has tried to change such practice without success. The farmer in charge of planting and maintenance emphatically refuses to have weeds which, according to him, would promptly invade the orchards. By looking at that lawn, I am sure that they are using herbicides, a practice that makes no sense at all when you are trying to create a pollinator habitat. The few square yards of pollinator garden look puny by comparison with the several acres of pollinator unfriendly lawn I saw that day.

Bluets, one of many lawn companions good for pollinators

Another good lawn companion, low growing aster

It is time that somebody comes up with good seed mixes for pollinator lawns. Sam Droege of the USGS said it very eloquently in 2009 in an e-mail to the Bee Monitoring group.

"What if someone would develop a bee lawn seed mix? 
Wouldn't that potentially have a higher impact on the number and kinds of bees in urban areas than the high effort, high cost, high maintenance (but, yes, very pretty) pollinator garden?"

These mixtures should include lawn companions beneficial to pollinators, non-invasive and reasonably easy to maintain. Meeting these requirements should be easier in a farm than in a suburban garden setting; foot traffic and looks are not important. The Xerces Society advocates the use of "ecolawns". It also was one of the sponsors of this workshop. So why aren't they doing more for pollinator lawns?

Another good pollinator for farm fields, Augochlora pura

Lawns for pollinators, grass companions
Lawn for pollinators. Part II
Lawn for pollinators. Part III

List of articles
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors
© Beatriz Moisset. 2012