Signs of Decline: First Honeybees, now Bumblebees
By Adrian Higgins, The Washington Post
August 7, 2008
The honeybees seem to be bucking the trend and thriving for the moment, at least in my garden. So I have stopped watching them at work and turned my attention to the native bees. The honeybee came over from the Old World, but there are more than 3,500 species of indigenous bee, from the pesky carpenter bee, which buzzes you in April as it starts to tunnel into your woodwork, to the tiny sweat bee, which alights on your arm to take a sip of perspiration. If you look closely and it’s the right species, you can see that it shimmers an iridescent green.
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November 26th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I have a nest in a tree saw a green foil what i think was a queen laying eggs nearby my lavender plant and want to know what type she was.I cant find any on the web.I live in West Park FL near Hollywood.
December 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
This last summer of 2008 I had many honeybees return to full populations unlike in 2007 and lots of bumblebees as well. I am in central PA.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:16 am
To bad the article starts off on the negative. Carpenter bees often buzz people usually because you represent a land mark that was not there previously and they are simply getting their navigational bearings.
What species is a yellow-banded bumblebee?
February 15th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Dr. Vaughn and I have corresponded concerning restoring native pollinator habitat here in the East, for which I am working towards my PhD. While looking for old notes and meadow pollinator inventories in some old sketchbooks from 2000 - 2005 I found, September 2002, a sketch of B. terricola (actually four sketches) in a meadow restoration garden in my own yard in southern York Co. PA. Of other bumblebee sketches I made that year and since, all have been B. pennsylvanicus. The yellowbanded bumblebee was once very common here. With the expansive application of Round-Up to Round-Up-Ready soybeans, intensively farmed in my area, I wonder if the elimination of foraging plants by chemical application has contributed. My place in surrounded by soybean fields, all of which are no-till and sprayed regularly. There is also a huge push to expand tillable land, so hedgerows and roadside tree brakes have been toppled. Loss of habitat, chemical use and disease seem to have created the perfect storm for our little yellowbanded. Plant hedges please! Let your garden and yard edges go a little wild.
March 28th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Hi, Your web says you have photos of native bees. I am teaching grade school children about native bees, and would love to have good photos to show them that highlight the amazing diversity. Are they available? Thanks