Tawny mining bee are important pollinators.

Mining bees are important pollinators for spring flowers like the arrowleaf balsamroot plant.

I have written blogs on mining bees recently (click here to see), so I won't be going into their life history, but rather on their importance to flowering plants, especially ones that bloom early in the spring.  Here in the Okanagan, the plants of economic importance are the fruit trees.

Mining bees are considered "sloppy" pollinators.  While honey bees are better at collecting pollen (using pollen baskets on their legs), mining bees are better at moving pollen around between flowers.  This has the advantage of increasing the likelihood that a visit results in pollination.  Carpenter bees and mason bees are even better from what I have read, and these native bee groups have a significant impact on fruit success.

Honey bees have the advantage of sheer numbers; a large hive may have 50,000 workers, which means that the insects can travel a large area and have numerous visits per bloom.  Mining and mason bees are solitary insects; there is no hive.  By number, they are significantly outclassed.  However, mining bees are active early, require little work on behalf of farmers or apiarists, and are not subject to the same issues as honeybees regarding parasites or diseases.

I have noticed that some farmers are embracing these native pollinators for their crops.  I think we will see more of this in the future, as issues with honeybees increase.  There is an interesting article here on helping mining bee populations in your area.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

 

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