These are difficult times. Most of us are living with austerity and too many of us are living with actual want. Doom and gloom have blanketed the country. Nevertheless, allow me to insert a ray of light: Mother Nature wants us to live with plenty and is working toward that end. One of her gifts is a plethora of pollinators that give us productive plants. Of all of these, I would like to look at bees. These helpful beings include both immigrants (domesticated honey bees) and native species (wild bees).
I want to praise wild bees.
Honey bees get all the publicity. Parasites, pesticides, and herbicides make us worry about the honey bees and the food crops that we have cultivated alongside them. We forget native bees that have been here all along. Wild bees are also sensitive to pesticides and parasites but have some protection against infection because most of them are solitary nesters and so don’t spread. disease
Native bees are more effective than honey bees in pollination. They are tougher and do not need to be cared for, if we can preserve natural habitat. They fly in the wet and cold and they survive storms because they are native. They evolved to live here.
There are over 20,000 known bee species in the world and North America has its share.
Canada has 800 or more species of native bees. Canadians have observed that some wild bees, such as bumblebees and mason bees, are more efficient pollinators than honey bees. Some native species emerge earlier in the year, to the benefit of early spring blossoms.
Mexico has about 2000 species that are native. These include varieties of stingless bees, which inhabit the Yucatan peninsula. There are around 500 species of stingless bees in the world and 47 of these live in Mexico.
The United States has 4000 or so species of wild bees. We may have more than our neighbors. probably because the contiguous 48 states are entirely within the temperate zone. Mexico dips down closer to the equator and Canada reaches up to the Arctic.
In the US, honey bees are about 15 mm long. They are modestly colored, soft yellow with brown stripes and accents. A large portion of wild bees have more dramatic colors, including metallic green or bright blue. These are usually 8 to 12 mm long. So our highly colorful little friends are actually kind of short.
The smallest bee is about 2 mm long, and is commonly called the Perdita. The are copper colored and blend well with foliage.
Carpenter bees and bumblebees are larger. They are about equal in size, being about 25 mm (an inch)in length. They look a lot alike but the carpenters have a solidly black abdomen while the bumblebees have yellow and black stripes on their abdomen. Bumblebees are very important pollinators for a variety of crops including tomatoes and blueberries. They implement a technique called sonication or buzz pollination to free the pollen from these plants and others that require vibration for pollen release. (And I thought that buzzing was just a cute little quirk.)
Several bee species are basically black and white. They have black and white stripes on their abdomens, while the thorax is solid colored. Some species have a black chest and some have a white one. I think they look rather dashing, sort of like Putting On The Ritz.
The red mason bee is very active as a pollinator. It is actually about the color of auburn human hair. They nest in the crumbling mortar of old walls. I don’t know where they nested before mortar.
If you want to help wild bees, try to give them flowers and nesting places. Some bees like variety in their diet and they need blossoms in the spring, summer, and fall. It might be a good idea to provide at least three different plant species blooming in each spring, summer and fall seasons, for a minimum of nine flowering plant species through the seasons.
Some bees build nests in the ground. They would benefit from undisturbed bare soil areas located on south-facing warm slopes. For other bees, you can allow for “messier” landscape areas in addition to your neatly mown lawn. For example, leave dead limbs on trees and shrubs to rot and be available for nesting sites. Some people have a “wild” corner in their back yard.
In closing, I wish you sunshine and courage. As we struggle through this winter, it would be good to remember that Mother Nature is on our side. If we can stay alive until spring, we just might be okay.