About bees…an entomologist speaks

I recently had the chance to talk to UW entomologist Evan Sugden. In addition to teaching traditional entomology classes, Evan teaches a class on scientific beekeeping. It’s not just because I get a jar of delicious honey at the end of the season that I think Evan’s beekeeping class is an excellent idea.

He’s combining a very practical skill, beekeeping, with the scientific study of bees and, among other things, how they react to an increasingly toxic environment and loss of habitat and what strategies we can use to help them. A beekeeping class seems like a good way to get students who might otherwise not take science classes to try one out and get some exposure to both theory and practice. The synthesis of the two is sometimes lacking for undergraduates in academia. The bees kept by Evan and his students are frequent and welcome guests in the Medicinal Herb Garden. Without their hard work and the work of other pollinators, the garden would be a desolate place before long.

Evan Sugden hard at work.

Evan Sugden hard at work, catching insects in the Medicinal Herb Garden.

 

We hear much about the afflictions of bees. Perhaps we should pay special heed to their woes. Could they be our modern-day canary in the coal mine? Evan generously consented to answer by email, a few questions about bees.

 

1  What are the biggest threats to honeybees?

 

1)    Imported natural enemies acting alone and in synergy. The central culprit is the Varroa mite, now ubiquitous, which transmits viruses. In our area the second most serious biotic threat is Nosema ceranae, a new species of a traditional disease, more virulent than before. Colony Collapse Disorder (a.k.a. “Disappearing Disease”) is likely the result of several such factors acting together, perhaps in concert with pesticides.

2)    Pesticides. New chemicals and new formulations of old ones continue to threaten bees. Pesticides are ever more widely used throughout the world and as agriculture expands and becomes more monopolized, their use has become more monolithic. However, urban areas have as much or more pesticide load because of irresponsible homeowner use. Research is showing that micro quantities of poison, not enough to kill an adult bee, can be enough to kill a tiny bee larva. The deadly connection between bees and pesticides has yet to be fully appreciated.

3)    Loss of forage habitat. Removal of wild flowering plants by agriculture and urban sprawl has reduced the potential forage and contributed to lowered nutrition.

4)    Management and breeding issues. In large-scale beekeeping, honey bees are worked and moved so much that they become stressed and more susceptible to disease. The importance of varied diet (many flower species) has been forgotten. The gene pool of honey bees in North America is very limited, so breeding new strains of disease-resistant bees is difficult.

 

What can non-beekeeping citizens do to help honeybees?

 

1)    LEARN. Learn about pollinators and their importance; teach others, especially children.

2)    GO ORGANIC. Avoid pesticide use.

3)    SUPPORT. Support local beekeepers and organic agriculture.

 

What are the biggest threats to solitary bees?

 

Basically the same as for honey bees,

 

1)Imported diseases. We are rapidly losing our native bumble bees, our best pollinators, probably because of diseases imported accidentally by agricultural operations. We are not sure how many parasites and diseases may be invading populations of solitary bees but the threat is large.

2)Pesticides. Native bees, especially solitary bees, are very susceptible to poisoning.

3)Habitat loss. This means fewer forage plants but also less chemical-free nest space, mostly open, undisturbed ground near flowers.

 

What can we do to help solitary bees?

 

1)    LEARN. Learn about pollinators and their importance, pass on the knowledge.

2)    GO ORGANIC. Avoid pesticide use.

3)    FEED. Plant a variety of nectar-producing flower plants that bloom throughout the year. Lists of good bee plants can be found on the internet and from the Xerces Society.

4)    WELCOME. Leave bare, sunny patches of soil in your garden or along edges of walkways, fences, etc. for solitary bee nesting. Leave some of your yard trimmings in a stick pile and/or leave standing any pithy stems for twig-nesters. Put up nesting blocks or commercial nest boxes if you want to do a little extra.

5)   PROTECT. If you know of bumble bee nests (usually in the ground but sometimes in bird houses or compost piles) leave them alone if possible. Help protect all wild areas. Bumble bees prefer open, sunny meadows where rodents have dug burrows.

 

Why did you decide to become an entomologist?

 

I had no choice! I was a regular kid playing in the dirt with bugs. And I just never grew up! Instead, I found a way to stay a kid and get paid for it! Of course, it entailed being a grown up long enough to get through college and apply for the right job. It helped that my mom was encouraging of my early entomological pursuits. Later on, inspiration came from an uncle who was a biologist, and from my paternal grandfather I received a legacy of natural history, including entomology.

 

Here’s a link to an article about Evan and his class from the UW student newspaper, The Daily:

http://dailyuw.com/archive/2013/07/23/science/love-bees#.U3VZU3bCr98

 

I selected some useful websites for learning about pollinators and what we, as concerned citizens, can do to help. Yes, we can and should petition the government to ban certain pesticides such as  neonicotinoids, known to harm bees. But there is much we can do on our own and as communities, to welcome our friends the pollinators.  The word, interdependence, has no more poignant and apt meaning than our relationship to pollinators. They can do fine without us, but we are undeniably here and they’re stuck with us. We need them and we share the earth with them, so we have the responsibility to protect them in perpetuity. We’re not doing that. To do that, we have to be thinking far ahead which is difficult for governments, when setting policy, because we live in a system that glorifies short-term gain for the individual, not long-term stability and resilience for the commonwealth. Pollinators are members of the commonwealth.

 

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/ecosystem/pollinator/

http://www.fws.gov/pollinators/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120904101128.htm

http://blog.conservancy.bc.ca/get-involved-with-tlc/resources/pollinator-enhancement-program/bringing-back-the-bees/

http://save-bees.org/

 

I’ll leave you with this entry from Wikipedia. The five principles are a bit vague and unenforceable, but they point to a way of thinking that is strangely foreign to the modern mind.

 

World Charter for Nature was adopted by United Nations member nation-states on October 28, 1982. It proclaims five “principles of conservation by which all human conduct affecting nature is to be guided and judged.”

  1. Nature shall be respected and its essential processes shall not be impaired.
  2. The genetic viability on the earth shall not be compromised; the population levels of all life forms, wild and domesticated, must be at least sufficient for their survival, and to this end necessary habitats shall be safeguarded.
  3. All areas of the earth, both land and sea, shall be subject to these principles of conservation; special protection shall be given to unique areas, to representative samples of all the different types of ecosystems and to the habitats of rare or endangered species.
  4. Ecosystems and organisms, as well as the land, marine and atmospheric resources that are utilized by man, shall be managed to achieve and maintain optimum sustainable productivity, but not in such a way as to endanger the integrity of those other ecosystems or species with which they coexist.
  5. Nature shall be secured against degradation caused by warfare or other hostile activities.[1]

The vote was 111 for, one against (United States), 18 abstentions.[2]

 

 

 

 

for our carefree life

everything depends on them

the pollinators

 

 

 

See you in the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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