Re: Plants that attract bees
- Subject: Re: Plants that attract bees
- From: M* &* L* D*
- Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 06:05:34 -0700
I think there might be some misunderstanding. This is how I understand the
situation:
Although honey bees are introduced, there used to be a lot of "wild" honey
bees. These wild honey bees have been completely (or almost completely,
depending on whom you listen to) wiped out by the mites in California. Honey
bees will continue to escape (by swarming) from commercial hives, but if
they become infested with mites they will not survive in the wild.
How this affects the gardener in California will depend on the situation
(plants involved and location). Obviously, if the garden is near commercial
hives (or hives kept as a hobby), there might be no effect. Or other insects
could replace the bees as pollinators in some situations. I think it would
be difficult to generalize for all of the gardens in California (as to how
this shortage of wild honey bees will affect them). The strength of the
honey bee as a pollinator is that they tend to stay with a single type of
plant and will travel great distances.
In my situation, I have noticed that there are very few honey bees in my
yard. It is strange to see a tree full of blooms and just one or two honey
bees. However, so far, the only impact that I've noticed is that my loquat
tree (which is a cultivar that needs a pollinizer) has a lot of fruit
without seeds. My opinion is that honey bees are still important for
pollinating the plants in my yard and that the low numbers of honey bees
present are sufficient for adequate pollination.
There's also the tracheal mites that are involved somehow, besides the
varroa mites.
--Mark
Central San Joaquin Valley, California
