[LMB] (chat) Bees! or, Life Imitates Art. Again.

[D. Reed]

Feral bees are crucial pollinators! 

Not even necessarily honey bees, but there's thousands
of species of bees, and most of them are on the
decline due to a whole bunch of factors. Even
cultivated honeybees are having lots of trouble.
Intensive agriculture, spraying open flowers with
pesticides....general paranoia about any bee *sigh*

/why yes, I do work in the bug room at a museum

--- Paula Lieberman <paal at gis.net> wrote:

> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tracy MacShane" <trix at queerscience.net>
> 
> 
> > So, what *are* ground bees? I presume they're not
> honey bees that a
> > local beekeeper could harvest? Because that would
> be the best option, if
> > they are.
> 
> There's a specific species of bumblebee that
> pollinates tomatoes!
> 
> Actually, there are some major concerns these days
> about bee well-being, the 
> European honeybees brought to the USA as pollinating
> insects, are majorly in 
> decline these days, between some parasite that
> weakens them and disease--the 
> combination of them has been causing major bee
> die-offs.  There is a non-bee 
> insect that pollinated e.g. apple trees, BUT, it
> lays its eggs at the same 
> time and the eggs hatch into larvae that become
> worms in the apples..  so, 
> commercial orchards spray the trees afterward to
> prevent infestation by the 
> worms
> 


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