Bees have earned our respect
Forked bluecurls get a bit bent out of shape when pollinators visit.
Dune sunflowers provide a cozy bed for sleeping bees.
Florida greeneyes are attractive to many pollinators.
When you think about pollinators, the first insect that probably comes to mind is a busy bee.
In the order Hymenoptera, along with wasps and ants, bees are unique in that they typically have hairy bodies and stiff hairs on their rear legs that collect impressive amounts of pollen, making them the best pollinators on the planet.
These small pollinators deserve our respect, and they’ve received it for millennia. Bees and their honey have been a part of human culture for centuries, ranging from ancient symbolism to common slang (“she’s such a queen bee,” “the place was a beehive of activity,” etc.).
In his commentary, “Bees in Ancient Egypt,” Richard Lobban says that, according to ancient Egyptian legend, bees were a creation of the god Re, formed from his tears. Based on a relief showing an Egyptian gathering honey, it appears the cultivation of honey began around 2400 B.C., though bee symbolism tied to the ancient pharaohs stretches back even farther.
Bee symbolism and domesticity aren’t the only facets of bees that stretch over the centuries – honey itself has amazing powers of preservation. According to Smithsonian Magazine, archeologists excavating ancient Egyptian tombs found preserved pots of honey, thousands of years old. “Through millennia, the archeologists discover, the food remains unspoiled, an unmistakable testament to the eternal shelf-life of honey,” the article states.
Here in Florida, we have more than 300 native species of bees – bumblebees, solitary bees, sweat bees, leaf-cutter bees, to name a few, plus the nonnative honeybee that pollinates so much of our crop food. Honeybees are facing population decimation due to Colony Collapse Disorder, which first gained attention in 2006, as well as because of the threats of pesticides, viruses, fungi, and bacterial diseases, according to Pollinator Partnership. Native bees are facing similar threats, and loss of habitat continues to be a major issue for all pollinators.
On a bright note, Florida Museum of Natural History scientists have found the first nest of Florida’s rare blue calamintha bee, identified a second host plant for the species and added a new location to its known range, the Ocala National Forest. The bee’s primary home, Lake Wales Ridge, is where its two highly endangered host plants live – Ashe’s calamint (Calamintha ashei) and false rosemary (Conradina brevifolia).
If you have native wildflowers in a welcoming habitat, you will have bees. Speaking from personal experience, I see that honeybees gravitate toward the pink puffs of Mimosa strigillosa, and bumblebees are all over my partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) blooms every morning. Bees like to sleep in the flowers of our Helianthus debilis, we’ve found, too. In addition, solitary bees will converge on the sweet-smelling saw palmetto (Sereona repens) inflorescence, and the elegant purple Liatris spikes are very appealing in the fall to a wide variety of bees and other pollinators, especially butterflies.
Thriving bees need more than flowers in their habitat – they also need nesting sites.
Nest boxes have become a popular way to provide bees nesting areas. Ground-nesting bees also appreciate a few open, sandy areas, and other native bees will take advantage of hollow, dead plant stems, clumping grasses and brush piles.
Bees also need healthy environments, which means avoiding or minimizing pesticide use, especially neonicotinoids, which are systemic.
“Some insecticides have warnings or bee hazards on their label because they are toxic to honey bees, causing honey bee deaths,” Pollinator Partnership says. Logically, the chemicals would also be detrimental to native bees, as well.
As pollinators of our fruits, vegetables, and many other crops and plants, pollinators help us survive and thrive.
Research suggests one out of every three bites of food we eat is thanks to pollinators like bees, butterflies, flies, wasps, bats, beetles and birds. Pollinators add $217 billion to the global economy, and they “support healthy ecosystems that clean the air, stabilize soils, protect from severe weather, and support other wildlife,” Pollinator Partnership says.
Let’s show these tiny powerhouses some love and respect by providing nesting materials, not dousing our environments with pesticides, and planting a variety of native wildflowers that can provide them flowers and nectar throughout the year.
Tomorrow, we wrap up our Pollinator Week journey. See you then!
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