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Bumble bees have
been pollinating sunflowers, an important crop for Native
Americans,
long before the arrival of the honey bee © Beatriz Moisset |
One third of our
food needs to be pollinated by insects. Honey bees are responsible
for most of it. With 4,000 species of bees in North America plus
numerous other pollinators of different stripes, how did we manage to
become so dependent on just a single species? We know how important
it is to diversify our portfolio, our diet, and our crops and
gardens. So, what were we thinking?
We hear constant
bad news about the situation of the honey bee. Their populations have
been dwindling for the past fifty years. They took a sharper dip in
the 1980s with the introduction of the varroa mite and a second sharp
drop in the past few years with what came to be known as Colony
Collapse Disorder. What would happen if all honey bees were to
disappear from North America? Is it true that fruits and vegetables would disappear from supermarkets? Is
it possible that we would all be dead in a few years?
Let us remember
that there were no honey bees in this continent a few hundred years
ago. NativeAmericans ate a healthy diet which included squash and
beans, sunflower seeds, chestnuts and a variety of berries, all of
them pollinated by native bees. More recently, small farms and
vegetable gardens still could obtain enough
pollination services without managed bee hives.
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A
squash bee doing its work early in the morning
before other flower visitors show up © Beatriz Moisset |
Present day
farming or agribusiness, with its enormous monoculture fields,
requires managed pollinators: hives with large numbers of workers
that can be trucked long distances and moved from crop to crop as the
seasons progress.
If all honey
bees disappeared, it would be catastrophic for agriculture, as we
know it, and we would certainly suffer grievously, but we would
survive. Nevertheless, over time, other pollinators could, and would, take over all the tasks
that the Jack-of-all-trades performs today. This would require
profound changes in agriculture to meet these pollinators’ needs
such as nesting habitat, diversity of crops, protection from
pesticides and more. Fortunately, several groups of pollination
experts are already exploring this issue and coming with
alternatives.
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| Apples, pears,
cherries, crab apples, etc. belong to the same floral syndrome They have a similar structure and are visited by the same types of pollinators © Beatriz Moisset |
The flowers of
almonds, apples and cherries, as well as those of native crab apples
and wild cherries are enthusiastically visited by native and
non-native bees alike. The alfalfa leaf cutter bee and the alkali bee
do a better job than honey bees at pollinating alfalfa. Wild bees are
far superior to honey bees at pollinating the native blueberries and
cranberries. Nonetheless, beehives are used for the pollination of
these crops because honey bees compensate in numbers what they lack
in finesse.
 |
A metallic green
bee
© Beatriz Moisset |
Would we all die
if honey bees disappeared overnight? The answer is an emphatic no.
Would the environment benefit from the changes imposed in
agriculture? My guess is yes. What is yours?
Do native plant
gardens, nature centers or wildflower preserves need honey bees? No,
they do not. Native plants and local ecosystems need native pollinators. Bring them all, the shiny metallic ones,
the fuzzy fat bumble bees, the leaf cutters, and the long horned
ones, the ground nesters and those that prefer hollow tubes. Bring in
the generalists and also the specialists, like the azalea bee, the
spring beauty Andrena, the trout lily Andrena, the blueberry bee and
the squash bee. We want the ones that are active briefly in early
spring or in the summer and fall, and also the long lived ones that
stick around through the seasons. Finally, let us not forget the
flies, wasps, moths and all the others. The native plant garden needs
them all and benefits from this wealth of species.
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Spring beauty
bee
© Beatriz Moisset |
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Azalea bee
© Beatriz Moisset |
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A variety of
native pollinators:
metallic green bee, Andrena, bumble bee, leafcutter Megachile © Beatriz Moisset |
Additional readings
Bring Back the Native Pollinators. Honey bees are not enough
Agroforestry: Sustaining Native Bee Habitat for Crop Pollination
NativePollinators in Agricultural Hedgerows: An Alternative to Honeybee Colonies for Crop Pollination
NativePollinators in Anthropogenic Habitats
WildPollinators of Eastern Apple Orchards (Xerces Society)
NativeBees, Native Plants and Crop Pollination in California
Nativebees are better pollinators, more plentiful than honeybees, finds entomologist (Cornell University)
Organic Farming for Bees. Conservation of Native Crop Pollinators in Organic Farming Systems (Xerces Society)
Agroforestry: Sustaining Native Bee Habitat for Crop Pollination
NativePollinators in Agricultural Hedgerows: An Alternative to Honeybee Colonies for Crop Pollination
NativePollinators in Anthropogenic Habitats
WildPollinators of Eastern Apple Orchards (Xerces Society)
NativeBees, Native Plants and Crop Pollination in California
Nativebees are better pollinators, more plentiful than honeybees, finds entomologist (Cornell University)
Organic Farming for Bees. Conservation of Native Crop Pollinators in Organic Farming Systems (Xerces Society)
© 2014. Beatriz Moisset. First published in Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
