The Why Files Blog
Study: Wild bees make great pollenators!
With colony collapse disorder threatening honeybees across the United States, a group of scientists has looked at pollination by wild bees in Michigan blueberries, and found that they may do just as well, or better, than the captive honeybees that are trucked into the field.
One hundred twelve species of native bees were found working the blueberries while the plants flowered, and many of them pollinated more plants per minute, and deposited more pollen as well.
No, we didn’t measure the pollen ourselves…
And we don’t subscribe to the bee’s sexual mores, either.
Pollinators are critical to many fruit crops, because they move pollen from male to female flowers. Otherwise, the flower cannot develop into a fruit.
“This should help growers know what kinds of bees are in the fields so that they can make informed decisions about whether they should modify crop management practices in order to help conserve natural populations of bees,” said Julianna Tuell of Michigan State University.
Could that be a code for “insecticide kills bees; maybe it would make sense to use less of it”?
More.
Tags: bee, blueberry, crop, pollenation
