Expert Sees Solitary Bees as Good Alternative to Depleting Honeybee Population

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

HERSHEY, Pa. — 2007 was a rough year for the honeybee.

At this time last year, reports flooded the media about a mysterious ailment, later known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), that led to the dissapearance of millions of bees from their hives around the country.

The situation got so bad that the U.S. Congress held hearings on it. It was feared the nation’s crops wouldn’t get pollinated and that honey was going to become a scarce commodity.

The honeybee community still hasn’t recovered totally and as a result, growers are having to shell out a lot more money this year to get pollination for their crops.

But one Penn State researcher has asked the question, “why rely just on the honeybee?”

Solitary bees or wildbees, may be a viable and possibly necessary alternative.
Dr. Shelby Fleischer, professor of entomology, discussed the use of solitary bees recently at the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention here.

Solitary bees, Fleischer described, are different than honeybees as they go after pollen from specific plants and don’t go after nectar.

Queen solitary bees usually lay eggs underground and emerge in the spring, where they go out and pollinate earlier than the typical honeybee. Fleischer said the bees tend to start pollinating earlier when it’s cool and wet.

“They are really designed for pollination,” Fleischer said.

More than 4,000 species of solitary bees exist in North America. He said in New Jersey alone there are 350 species; Pennsylvania has approximately 40 species.

Although solitary bees don’t cover the distance of honeybees, which can travel two miles or more to do pollinating, Fleischer said recent studies have shown they can do the job a honeybee does and then some.

He referred to a recent study by a researcher at Princeton University, which compared honeybees and solitary bees at 23 separate farms in the Northeast.
The study found the solitary bees pollinated watermelon flowers at 88 percent of the farms compared to 71 percent for honeybees and they pollinated much more prolifically.

“In this area, we are doing something right,” he said, adding that 98 percent of canola and coffee pollinated in Canada comes from solitary bees.

Some types of solitary bees are specific to certain plants. The “squash bee”, for example, co-evolved with cucurbit vegetables like squash and pumpkin, so they specialize in pollinating the flowers in the spring.

He likes the bees for their high efficiency, low maintenance and relatively free cost. But creating a habitat for them to thrive in is key.

Fleischer said the bees thrive in areas where food, water and shelter are available. But they become easily susceptible to insecticides and other things used by farmers to control invasive insects. Dust in particular, he said, is very toxic.

He said anyone interested in creating a good habitat should preserve their flowering plants and nesting sites and enhance it even more with additional plants.

“Mix in some things that give you a lot of floral,” he said. “Put a lot of pollen and nectar out there. Supplement that forage.”

When spraying, do it after bloom closes, so the bees won’t injest the chemicals.

Fleischer warned solitary bees may not be the ultimate answer to pollinating as they are also susceptible to mites, diseases and other things effecting honeybees. But they could be a good insurance policy.

“They are not the total answer, but we need to start diversifying and adapting,” he said.