State of Beeing
Barely bigger than a raisin, bees can strike terror in the hardiest adults, sending them into a duck-and-weave dance to elude the little insects.
Granted, a sting is an unpleasant sensation that makes many of us disdainful of bees. Plants, on the other hand, will do almost anything to attract bees, such as blooming in the insects’ favorite colors and forming a shape to entice the pollinators.
Bees are one of nature’s most important pollinators. For some plants, a bee visitation is a matter of life or death. Squashes, such as pumpkin, cannot form fruit unless bee-pollinated.
Though farmers have long known they need bees for healthy crops, the average backyard gardener is just learning how to bee appreciative.
“There really is a new interest in bees,” said Jaci Siehl of Silverado Honey Farm. “People getting into organic gardening, for instance, are finding out they need their plants pollinated, and bees do it most efficiently.”
There are nearly 5,000 described species of native bees in the continental United States. When it comes to pollination, not all little buzzers are created equal. There are bees that go to only one type of plant and make their entire living from that one species.
“That’s why honeybees became so popular. They have long-lived colonies, and for the most part they try to pollinate everything in sight the whole year round,” said Stephen L. Buchmann, bee expert and adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is also the co-author of a new book, “The Forgotten Pollinators,” due out in early July..
Apis mellifera, the honeybee most of us are familiar with and which is most popular with beekeepers, is actually an immigrant from Europe. The Spanish brought the bees first into the Caribbean, then into Mexico City, where they were moved northward by the Franciscan missionaries.
“They were introduced purposely because at the time they had to use beeswax for candles according to the laws of the Catholic Church. At the time, honeybees were thought to be pure and have virgin births. But it isn’t true; they have pretty kinky sex miles in the air,” Buchmann said.
Besides honeybees, there are a variety of solitary bees collectively referred to as mason (Osmia species) and leaf-cutter bees (Megachilie species). One native species, the blue orchard bee (O. lingnaria), a lovely gunmetal blue, is excellent for pollinating cherry, plum and apple trees.
Even plants that self-fertilize produce larger, more flavorful and more abundant fruit when bee pollinated.
Bumblebees (Bombus species) land on a flower, hold on tight and start a high-intensity “buzz” that shakes the pollen from the plant onto the bee’s fuzzy body. “The buzzing is so intense that if they didn’t hold on tight with their mandibles they would be shaken off,” Buchmann said.
Popular backyard garden crops such as tomatoes, eggplant, chili peppers and blueberries are all buzz pollinated.
For whatever reason, honeybees cannot buzz pollinate, Buchmann said. “This makes the native bees that can all the more important.”
Breeding bumblebees has become a $30-million industry in Europe. “It used to be that they had workers hand-pollinating the plants in the greenhouse, which was very costly and time consuming. Bees are much more efficient, and they don’t have to be paid,” Buchmann said.
So no problem here, you might think. Aren’t there plenty of bees flying about?
In fact, the honeybee, one of the most prolific pollinators, is on an alarming decline that scientists believe is being caused by killer mites.
Two types of mites have infiltrated bee colonies in Orange County as well as the Western United States. The mites started showing up in the mid-’80s and have wreaked havoc on the bee population, Buchmann said.
“The first one, tracheal mite (Acarapis woodsi) is tiny and basically lives inside the breathing tube of the bees,” he said. “They’re not direct killers but cause enough damage to weaken the colony, leaving it in a vulnerable state.”
The other, more dangerous mite is one of the world’s largest, called a Varroa mite (Varroa jacobsoni). This lethal mite hitches a ride on an unsuspecting bee, then sucks the blood of the larvae, killing the next generation of bees.
Many county beekeepers, including Siehl, have lost colonies and profits to the Varroa mite. She treats her hives twice a year with a general antibiotic and a miticide. The treatment lasts 45 days, during which there is no honey collected.
At Cal State Fullerton, Eugene Jones, a bee pollination expert, has lost several of his hives to the mites. “Once the hive is weakened, any other adversity like a cold shock in winter will make a hive unable to survive,” Jones said.
Another threat to local bees are Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera scupellata). They have not reached Orange County, with the closest sighting along the north shore of the Salton Sea, according to Cynthia Ross of Orange County Vector Control, who specializes in the invading bee.
The threat from the bees is bodily harm. They are extremely aggressive and easily irritated. They have a 50-foot zone around their hives that they defend by attacking invaders en masse--from 1,000 to 20,000 bees.
“An attack can last as long as an hour,” Ross said.
The backyard gardener should keep an eye out for nesting clumps of bees near the house. But they don’t have to worry about bees searching for food. “Even Africanized bees are not dangerous when they are foraging. It’s just when you get near their nests that there is a real danger,” Ross said.
The Africanized honeybee is almost indistinguishable from a European honeybee, so if there is a swarm, Ross suggests keeping clear and calling vector control at (714) 971-2421.
Getting a new queen every year instead of every two years will guarantee that the drones mate with a European honeybee, Ross said.
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If you want a bee-friendly yard, there are a few things you can do to attract the good bees. Bees like almost any flower, but a gourmet meal to them would be flowers in the blue and yellow ranges, Jones said. Fruit trees are another popular attraction.
“People are familiar with putting out hummingbird feeders so hummingbirds will pollinate their red tubular flowers, but they’re not going to do a thing for zucchinis,” Buchmann said.
Bees don’t like insecticides or pesticides. If you want to increase your bee population, stop spraying plants with toxic chemicals, Buchmann said. When using benign insect controls such as insecticidal soap, spray in the evening, when bees are not active.
Though a solitary bee, orchard bees nest together in a kind of giant bee apartment building. They can be lured into a garden by hanging a wooden block drilled with 2 1/2-inch deep holes with a 5-inch diameter.
Creating a natural habitat for the bees is another way to keep them in a suburban yard. Leaving a small portion of the yard weedy and overgrown for ground-nesting bees is a good bet, as is planting flowers that may not be your favorites but ones that bees love, Buchmann said.
“I tell people to tolerate a little cosmetic damage the bees may create. It won’t really hurt the plant and will help the garden overall,” Buchmann said.
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Get the Buzz
Following is sampling of manufacturers, associations and publications used in apiculture:
* American Bee Journal, 51 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton, IL 62341, (217) 847-3324
* Bee Culture, 623 W. Liberty St., Medina, OH 44256, (330) 723-4359
* California Bee Times, California State Beekeepers Assn. Inc., 1518 Paradise Lane, Los Banos, CA 93635, (909) 924-8260
* LA Honey, 1559 Fishburn Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90063, (213) 264-2383
* Pierce Manufacturing Inc., 2536-A E. Fender Ave., Fullerton, CA 92631, (714) 447-3855
* Knorr Beeswax Products, 1965 Kellogg Ave., Carlsbad, CA 92008, (800) 807-2337
* Orange County Beekeepers Assn., (714) 968-1632
* The Speedy Bee, P.O. Box 998, Jesup, GA 31598, (912) 427-4018
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The Sweet Side
Apiculture, though a shadow of its presence in Orange County just five years ago, made a modest comeback in 1995. Beekeepers reported honey production more than doubled from 1994, though the number of producing colonies remained about the same. And the value of the total apiculture crop, which includes honey, beeswax and miscellaneous products, leaped 227%.
Producing colonies
1995: 573
Honey production (in thousands of pounds)
1995: 48,482
Production per colony (pounds)
1995: 84.6
Value (in thousands)
1995: 56,600
How Not to Get the Point
Scared of bees? Don’t swat them or they’ll get defensive and sting you, says apiculturist Jack Siehl of Silverado, who has 100 hives he uses to pollinate plants and make honey. “Just let them buzz up, stare at you eye-to-eye, and they’ll figure out pretty quickly you’re not a plant.”
* Source: Orange County Agriculture Commissioner
