When people think of buzzing, busy bees, the one species that nearly always flits to mind first is the charismatic and much celebrated honey bee – Apis mellifera. The honey bee is widely recognized and well-loved thanks to its magical ability to transform floral nectar into sweet and delicious honey, a household pantry (and farmers market!) staple. This industrious, hard-working insect is also highly prized for the pollination it provides for a variety of crops including apples, melons, cranberries, pumpkins, squash, broccoli and almonds.
While it is the most well-known type of bee, many of us aren’t aware that honey bees are not native to the continental United States. In fact, they are indigenous to Eurasia and were introduced here by European settlers who brought over the first hives to these shores in 1622. Nowadays, honey bees are considered essential to American agriculture, with one in every three bites of food produced from the pollination they perform. Amongst commercial beekeepers and farmers, domesticated honey bees are thought of as a livestock commodity, just like sheep, pigs and cattle.
While there has been an enormous amount of media coverage and high-profile campaigns to “save the honey bees” that have stoked concerns for the welfare of the species in recent years amidst a spike in colony collapses, our attentions may have been misplaced. Out of the 20,000 bee species that exist worldwide, honey bees are the least in need of saving and can be counted as a harmful invasive species when they outcompete wild, native bees for food. Fortunately, environmentalists and experts are now working to correct the murky messaging and redirect attention to the plight of our native bee populations, many of which are truly endangered.
Native Bees Native bees are indispensable to the health of our natural environment, yet they are declining due to escalating threats from agricultural expansion, pesticide use, habitat loss and climate change. Ironically, scientists have established that agricultural yields can be higher with the superior pollination provided by our native bees versus that of honey bees. Of course, it makes sense that bee species that have co-evolved for millennia alongside crops indigenous to the Americas, such as cranberries, blueberries and squash, are the ones best designed to most efficiently extract pollen from these plants.
Here is a closer look at some native bee species and the local crops they help pollinate:
1. Leafcutter Bees Leafcutter bees earned their name because they cut oval-shaped fragments from deciduous leaves and use them to construct nest tunnels inside rotting wood, hollow-stemmed plants or in the ground. Unlike highly social honey bees who live together in hives, leafcutter bees are solitary individuals that build their own nests, live alone and never venture farther than 100 yards from their home base. Leafcutter bees can be used commercially to pollinate a variety of fruit and vegetables including blueberries, sunflowers, onions, carrots and alfalfa. Farmers provide bee boards for the insects to nest in, shelter them during the winter, and then place them outside in time for the next growing season.
2. Bumble Bees Bumble bees are the only bees native to North America that are truly social and live and thrive together in colonies. These fuzzy bees pollinate a variety of food crops including tomatoes, potatoes, blueberries, pumpkins, cranberries, bell peppers and eggplant using a technique known as buzz pollination during which they audibly vibrate, or buzz, against a flower’s anthers to shake loose its pollen. Buzz pollination has been shown to increase crop yield, while bumble bees are also more effective than honey bees at pollinating crops grown in greenhouses. Currently, the Common Eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) is the only bumble bee native to the eastern U.S. and Canada that is reared and used commercially by farmers for its pollination services.
3. Squash Bees Before honey bees were introduced to the New World, native squash bees (Peponapis and Xenoglossa) were responsible for helping with the domestication and production of squashes and gourds by indigenous peoples throughout the Americas. Squash bees tend to be solitary but have been known to group their nests together in suitable ground habitat. They are specialist bees who are unique in that they will only visit flowers within the cucurbit family (i.e. squashes, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers and zucchini). When present in adequate numbers, these native bees have been shown to be more efficient pollinators of commercial squash crops than honey bees.
Scientists estimate that over 52% of the 1,437 identified native bee species in the United States are declining at an alarming rate. To support these critical critters and the vital pollination services they provide, the best approach is to start local, right in your own backyard. Make your garden as bee-friendly as possible by eliminating or minimizing pesticide use, planting native wildflowers such as coneflowers, wild bergamot and New England aster, and skipping the fall cleanup to provide bees with shelter in which to overwinter such as hollow stems and piles of dead leaves. For other ideas on how to keep the buzz going, visit this link.
