On Garden Pollinators

[robby]

 Over the years, I've noticed that my garden has a range of different pollinators. Sure, the European honey bees do show up, but it's for the big events, like almond or lemon trees in blossom. Less glamorous pollinators, like native bumble bees and various flies do the everyday pollination of my squash, eggplant and plum trees. 

Here's a link to an article that describes the connection between the honey bee and modern agriculture, and points out that in a thriving diverse ecosystem (like our gardens) we still can rely on the more natural range of pollinators.

www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/06/13/532729268/why-honeybees-are-the-wrong-problem-to-solve

Comments

[daidoji_gisei]

That's really interesting! I do notice a lot of non-honeybees in my garden; now I'm wondering how to attract and care for the native bees in my area.

[robby]

One group of pollinators that I find especially interesting are bee like insects called hover flies. Before I knew their proper name I was calling them proto-bees.

[theora]

I love hoverflies! I also thought they must be bees, only learned otherwise quite recently.

[cyprinella]

I know there's a bunch of plants in the Americas that the best pollinators are buzz pollinators, which honeybees are not. If you've got blueberry bushes, you want to attract mason bees which tend to emerge at the same time blueberry bushes flower. Tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes are other common ones.

[robby]

That's interesting. My buzz pollinators must be the bumble bees.

[cyprinella]

Yep! They also definitely patronize blueberry bushes. I also see them a lot on my tomatillos, which are closely related to tomatoes, etc.

[lilacsigil]

In Australia the buzz pollinators are the native blue banded bee which I have many of in my garden. I was stung by one and was terribly sad that the bee would die, but as it turns out they are not killed by stinging and the bee was fine!

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Yes, this is true of bumblebees in North America, stinging isn't lethal for them so they will do it if you're too close to the burrow. I've gotten better at realizing the signs.

[tielan]

My local Australian permaculture/garden culture is spotlighting (stingless) native bees as pollinators.

[bridgetmkennitt]

That's an interesting read, thank you.

[theora]

Yay! I saw this article elsewhere, great to see it here too. One of my favorite native pollinators is the metallic green bee (not my pic, found on the web). They love my yellow coreopsis.