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Re: Woe is me

In a message dated 5/23/98 7:05:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
stanford4334@juno.com writes:

<< Well, this gives me a chance to ask a simple question.
 Does is make any difference for attracting bees to pollinate my
 garden whether or not I have lots of flowers around in the rest
 of the property?  
      Will the flowers attract extra bees and some of them will
 pollinate my veggies, or do the flowers attract those bees
 that do come, away from the veggies.   >>

    You cannot attract bees, if they are not present. If there are good bee
populations, then they will work your veggie flowers, regardless of how many
other flowers you have. With honeybees, it depends mostly on whether there is
a beekeeper in the neighborhood, since the feral bees are pretty much gone.

    With solitary bees and bumblebees, the populations depend on the nesting
sites available, the food supply, and the pesticide practices of the area.
Pesticide misuse will bankrupt or drive away beekeepers, as well. Some of the
worst pesticide misuse I've seen (violations of the label directions) are with
public mosquito, medfly, and gypsy moth aerial programs.

   If you have a lack of pollinators, you may have to bring them in. If you
have a few solitary bees to breed from, you can provide nest sites to
stimulate greater populations. Usually these are drilled wood blocks, or
clusters of properly sized paper straws. You can also purchase orchard mason,
fuzzyfoot, or leafcutter bees from commercial sources (sorry -- too late this
year for the northern hemisphere). Bumblebee houses are easily made or are
available on the web (see links under Alternative Pollinators below).

   Each pollinator has its best uses, and its weaknesses. Most are threatened
by pesticide misuse, public paranoia, urbanization, clearcut logging, etc. I
get abuse for defending carpenter bees, which do some cosmetic damage to
buildings, but are valuable pollinators. Some people seem to get a special
thrill in killing them.

   You can't do much about the weather. Keeping good pollinator populations
does help to make sure to maximize the limited "windows of opportunity"
whenever the rain stops.

Pollinator@aol.com     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html

Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm
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