Left: Bumblebee on a lilac flower. Right: Bumblebee on a squash blossom. Photos by Jennifer Devine.

MI BACKYARD

EDITOR’S NOTE: We don’t discount the importance of honeybees as crop pollinators, nor their colony losses last year and in previous years, but our writer does want to highlight native bees and the vital role they play in our ecosystem. This story contains a sidebar we didn’t have room to include in the printed paper.  Read about two more native bee species she admires and their place in our backyards.

By Jennifer Devine

The slogan, “Save the Bees”, writes Alveole.buzz, “first appeared in the early 2000s, amidst news of devastating honey bee colony losses in North America.” This is why the honeybee often takes center stage as the symbol of environmental conservation, thanks to its iconic yellow and black stripes, honeycomb hive structure, diligent pollination work, sweet honey production and easy tattoo-ability.

But the truth is, they are not threatened and not endangered. Becoming a backyard honeybee keeper isn’t the answer. Brought to the Americas by early colonists for honey production, the important agricultural role honeybees played in crop pollination soon became clear. Hives were moved closer to gardens, orchards, clover and wildflower fields. What wasn’t thought of, however, was the competition with native bees for resources and the negative impact on local ecosystems.

Bee threats

Michigan has recorded over 450 colorful and essential bee species, each with unique adaptations and preferences. Like many other regions, our state has witnessed a decline in native bee populations. Lack of available plants contribute to colony collapse disorder, partly due to humans and partly due to “honey bees monopolizing sizable fractions of floral resources and disrupting the intricate interactions between native pollinators and plants,” according to Nature.com.

Habitat fragmentation caused by climate change, natural disasters, and development of an area can be detrimental to many different pollinator species, as their overwintering, foraging and nesting sites disappear.

Pesticide use “harms pollinators and other beneficial insects instantly with the removal of important floral resources, causing subtle yet concerning effects on reproduction, navigation and memory”, notes the Xerces Society, a nonprofit that protects invertebrates. These are just three factors that can move a species into threatened, endangered and extinct categories.

Bumblebees in need

As Clay Bolt, a native-bee activist and acclaimed wildlife photographer, would say, “Worrying about their (honeybees’) extinction is like worrying about the extinction of cattle.” Focusing solely on honeybees diverts our attention away from other important pollinator species needing our help, such as the endangered rusty-patched bumblebee, endangered American bumblebee and threatened yellow-banded bumblebee.

In 2017, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the rusty-patched species as federally endangered, the first bumblebee species and the first wild bee to be listed in the lower 48. The last confirmed sighting of this insect in Michigan was in 2000, and it is listed with the yellow-banded as a “species of greatest conservation need” in the Michigan Wildlife Action Plan.

In 2023, Michigan added the American Bumblebee to the endangered list, but there has not yet been federal action.

“While the feds aren’t doing much to recover native bees,” notes the Nature Conservancy, “there’s a great deal the public can do. Native bees need only three things — flowers, nesting sites and a pesticide-free environment. Provide these, and they will come.”

Pollinator powerhouses

These “buzz pollinators” and our other native bees contribute to food security and promote healthy, functioning ecosystems. Being 50 times more effective as pollinators, bumblebees are a key species for creating seeds and fruits that also feed wildlife, from songbirds to deer.

They lend a huge helping hand in growing foods such as tomatoes and blueberries. These types of plants need help to shake their pollen loose to yield delicious fruit. Since honeybees don’t vibrate, they cannot help in this effort. However, we can rely on our native bees, alongside honeybees, to enhance pollination — especially during cooler, wet weather — helping to ensure an abundant harvest.

“Successful pollinator habitat provides resources for the entire life-cycle” of different pollinator species … “While pollen and nectar sources support adult bees and butterflies, you need to also provide adequate nesting habitat if you want pollinators to live in your landscape rather than just pass through”, explains the Xerces Society, in its nesting resources article.

Queen bee

Bumblebees are active from late March to October. Like a bear, the queen emerges from hibernation in early spring and needs to find nectar and pollen to replenish her energy levels and fat reserves. She then spends the next several days searching for a nest location to construct her colony.

Bumblebee colonies are annual, meaning the one you see this year is not the same one you saw last year. This year’s queen produces next year’s queen, who — after mating, filling her fat reserves and watching everyone die off around her — will leave the nest. Her mission: to find organic decaying matter (leaf piles) or empty rodent tunnels in which to overwinter.

Bee alert

I have heard individuals say they would love to plant flowers or gardens but are afraid of/allergic to bees. There is almost nothing to be afraid of as “(bumblebees) are so good-natured that getting a female to sting you (males can’t) is a major undertaking. Proceed carefully and you can even stroke her Teddy-bear-like fur,” writes Ted Williams on the Nature Conservancy blog.

That’s not to say I’ve never been stung. Stepping on a bumblebee hurts, but if you pay attention (and keep your EpiPen on you, just in case) you can avoid some injuries while harmonizing with nature.

As for the types of flowers and plants they prefer … They are generalist-foraging pollinators of spring, summer and fall, so planting natives that bloom in different seasons will help attract them to the area. Bumblebees enjoy the riches of native plants like lupine, aster, bee balm, boneset, coneflower, goldenrod, St. John’s wort and columbines, plus many berry crops, peppers, tomatoes and melons.

Bee knowledgeable

May is Endangered Species Month. I challenge you to take action, celebrate and learn every day. Visit websites like The Michigan Bumble Bees and The Michigan Bumble Bee Inventory Project. Read books such as “Our Native Bees”, “The Humane Gardener” and “Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide”. Get involved in citizen-science projects such as Bumble Bee Watch and BeeSpotter. Become an MSU Pollinator Champion by taking online pollinator conservation courses, and take a Pollinator Pledge. Importantly, don’t start cleaning up your garden until late April or even May, when temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

My other favorite native bee species

Mason bees are 120 times more efficient pollinators than other bee species, according to organiccontrol.com, visiting more flowers per minute and carrying 90% more pollen from flower to flower. Their colors vary from metallic blue and green to black. (To see a photo of a mason bee by Best Bees beekeeper Chealsey Lynch , click this link on the Best Bees’ website HERE.)

Apple and cherry tree flowers, dandelions, elderberry, crabapples and forsythia are some of their favorites. To keep them on property, you’ll want to provide an insect house with many small tubes. Since mason bees are solitary, without a hive or queen to protect, they are not aggressive and are safer around kids or animals, especially since they lack venom in their stingers.

Squash bees are more black than yellow and are active from July to September. (To see a photograph of squash bees, go HERE. ) They specialize in pollinating cucurbits, such as squashes, pumpkins and gourds. They are the sole pollen hosts for these plants, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

Look at your garden during the first few hours of sunrise to see the female squash bees foraging at their flowers. Females create nesting tunnels in bare dirt near the fruiting plants or under cucurbit leaves. They resemble anthill mounds around a pencil-wide entrance tunnel. There is no threat of a sting as these bees are docile and possess no stinger.

Jennifer Devine has a passion for writing and nature. With a myriad of experiences, memories and adventures in city living to off-grid living, she and her family continue to utilize the bountiful resources Michigan has to offer.