Recently team member Ellen Sousa did an interesting piece on Leafcutter Bees. Ironically, I had just seen a bee with a circle of leaf attached to it’s bottom, so the article was timely and cleared up the mystery of this platform-toting pollinator. In my quest for information on this type of bee as they appear in Florida, I did a search and came up with Publication #EENY342 published by the University of Florida Extension Services. I read with interest and dismay.
Please don't take away my home!
Paragraph 1: “Leafcutting bees are important native pollinators of North America”.
Paragraph 6: “Leafcutting bees are important pollinators of many wildflowers. Leafcutter bees also pollinate fruits and vegetables and are used as pollinators by commercial growers of blueberries, onions, carrots and alfalfa.”
Paragraph 9: “Leafcutting bees can be considered a pest because of leaf cutting on ornamental plants. Although the cutting can destroy the aesthetics, it rarely harms the plant.”
Thank GOODNESS The next sentence read: “Since leafcutting bees do not feed on the leaves they cut, insecticides are usually ineffective…”,
Yet it goes on to recommend how to prevent the habitats of these pollinators.
Who's next? the sweat bees?
I JUST DON’T GET IT!! Gather around as I am now dragging my soapbox into the middle of this article and stepping up to rant.
“One out of every three bites of food that we put in our mouths is put there by the honeybee pollinating those crops,” says Dave Hackenberg, a 46-year veteran beekeeper. With the advent of Colony Collapse Disorder, which affects the imported honeybees that pollinate our food crops, we are becoming more and more reliant on native bees to pick up the slack, especially in the home environment.
The general public relies on the information provided by its county extension offices. If this is the type of information being distributed, I have serious concerns about the role of an extension office in the realm of protecting our environment and native species and being proponents of management techniques to insure an adequate food supply.
Please protect and preserve habitat for these beneficial creatures
I mean, seriously, isn’t it time to step up and start educating the public that doing away with habitat of a creature in the name of having some unblemished ornamental is just plain foolish? If you need unblemished plants, there are thousands of Chinese-made plastics that can provide that very thing…many quite realistic looking. Why have something alive if you find it imperative to kill a different something in order to keep your garden “pristine” looking. If that something is at the expense of our food resources it certainly should be raising concerns. When food resources lessen because of the lack of pollinators to keep up with the requirements, will an unblemished shrub really seem so important?
It’s time for the extension services to change their attitude and get these antiquated documents removed from the Internet and rewritten to deal with today’s needs in agriculture. The document in question was written in January 2005…BUT, and here is the kicker, it was reviewed in March 2011. Clearly in our world of dwindling pollinators, it is imperative to get the general public on board with habitat protection instead of habitat elimination. The public needs to learn that what happens in a home garden can have far reaching effects beyond their little square patch, all the way to our food supply and water resources. The University of Florida IFAS Extension would do well to eliminate the “Management” section of this document in favor of a section highlighting the importance of accepting a little garden imperfection in the name of our future existence.
Are you a protector? or a killer?
There! I feel better. I’m putting away my soapbox now, but before I go, please let me know what you are doing for our native pollinator friends. Habitat creation? or {UGH!} Habitat elimination?
© 2011, Loret T. Setters. All rights reserved. This article is the property of BeautifulWildlifeGarden.com If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Loret T. Setters
Another great INFORMATIVE article! Thanks!
May all your gardens grow,
Jan
Aww, thanks Jan! Always appreciate your taking the time and your feedback!
Loret recently posted..Pond Prank
I agree with you 100%! My next door neighbor sprays, shoots down chipmunk holes, etc. etc. all in the name of “perfect” mostly non-native plants in her yard. Government (including local) is too much under the influence of Monsanto and the like.
Hi Ginger,
I have a few neighbors with similar outlooks.
I think a lot of it is conditioning from years ago. Picture perfect lawns in magazines, garden shows that insist on flawless leaves, etc. Fear of native creatures. In a lot of the educational outreach programs we do with the Native Plant Society, once people realize how this type of gardening can actually can affect things beyond their personal garden, they ask a lot more questions and rethink their gardening practices. It is rewarding to hear a person say…”I’m no longer going to use pesticides…I had no idea”. Education is key. Thanks for stopping by!
Loret recently posted..Pond Prank
I agree with the basic premise of this article. I just want to set the record straight in one respect. Dave Hackenberg didn’t get it quite right when he gave too much credit to honey bees and not enough to native bees. So, this is the comment I just posted in the Xerces site where the quote was taken from.
‘ “One out of every three bites of food that we put in our mouths is put there by the honeybee pollinating those crops,” said Dave Hackenberg.’
Honey bees should not take all the credit; actually the “one bite out of three” statement applies to all pollinators, not just honeybees. Native bees and even some flies do a significant portion of crop pollination. Tomatoes and eggplants cannot be pollinated by honeybees; squash bees do most of the work at the pumpkin patch; the industrious blueberry bee, Habropoda laboriosa, does a $20 worth of blueberry pollination per bee and several species of megachilids are very good at pollinating fruit crops. Certain flies have proved their prowess as pollinators of onions and cabbage.
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..Bees and vitamins
Hi Beatriz,
You “agree with the basic premise”… Does this mean there is something further that I wrote that you don’t agree with?
I’d be interested to learn your viewpoint beyond your disagreement with Mr. Hackenberg’s quote.
Loret recently posted..Pond Prank
What I disagree with is Dave Hackenberg’s statement. It is a common mistake; honey bees get more credit than they deserve and native bees don’t get enough. So, actually my comment gives more support to your point of view: native pollinators and their habitats are important to all of us.
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..Bees and vitamins
I agree! It’s interesting how much really good information you can get from IFAS, and IN THE SAME publication, they do a complete 180 and promote bad behavior and support the wrong information in order to make all the people doing bad things feel OK with themselves. They need to get off the fence and start telling the truth: everyone needs to stop using pesticides, start apreciating plants insects and other animals NATIVE to their region, and for Mother Earth’s sake, STOP trying to control every aspect of life in their gardens, and start ENJOYING it!
Susan Scott recently posted..Sabal Palm The Tree of Life
“control every aspect of life in their gardens”….HERE HERE! what a great statement.
I have found lots of good information through IFAS publications but have to consciously put the blinders on because of the focus on insectide use to solve a problem over even the suggestion of IPM. I just wish that they would give equal weight to the two options, so that people know there is a alternate choice.
As always, thanks for stopping by Sue, and for your enlightened views!
Loret recently posted..Pond Prank
Thank you for an enlightening, appropriately passionate article. Being city bound in an apartment without so much as a balcony, I can do little in and on the ground. When I had an outdoor garden, I encouraged diverse insect, amphibian and other helpers, and will do so again one day, if I’m lucky enough to have a piece of ground once more. Nature knows best.
Your article is yet another reminder that Nature’s diversification is the key to successful food production in the long term. Industrial farming gets it wrong every time, it seems.
Kathryn Grace recently posted..Ordinary Hero: Dorli Rainey, 84, pepper-sprayed at Occupy Seattle
Thanks for the kind comments Kathryn. I don’t get fired up about too many things, but being detrimental to Mom nature for the sake of the aesthetic look of ornamental plants is a major bone of contention with me. I like your statement: “Nature knows best”. You are so right!
Loret T. Setters recently posted..Pond Prank
My first reaction to this was REALLY!! Come on…I am so tired of these old arguments that hold no water these days. No matter the bee, pollinators in general are vitally important to producing our food. Eliminating any habitat for the sake of looks is unconscionable. I am increasing habitats and looking for ways to do my part….
Donna@Gardens Eye View recently posted..Frosty November Blooms
I know you are Donna! And hopefully others will read your blog and follow your lead!
Loret T. Setters recently posted..Pond Prank
Loret, Thanks for the passionate angst in your post. It needs to be out there. “The public needs to learn that what happens in a home garden can have far reaching effects beyond their little square patch, all the way to our food supply and water resources. ” Education IS key. Old habits & information sinks in and doesn’t get re-evaluated often enough~
Kathy @nativegardener recently posted..Friend or Foe in the Canyon? #gardenwalk
Habitat creation? Yes! But our neighbours are wary, if not downright afraid, of snakes crossing the boundary to their gardens ;~)
Elephant’s Eye recently posted..Cape mountain leopard on camera
I have a guilty conscience.
I had a thorny problem maybe four or five years ago. I’ve become more aware of the importance of native plants and animals since, but I’m not entirely sure I would act differently. The situation involved a colony of some sort of ground-dwelling bee that was located under the property line in the side yards of both houses. My house and my neighbor’s house are maybe 20-25 feet apart, so this colony was located near both houses. To walk from the front yard into the backyard required one to walk through flying bees. And not just one or two bees. A goodly number of bees. A person afraid of bees might call it a swarm. These bees did not seem to be aggressive, but it was still a little unnerving. My neighbor was trying to sell their house (after the market just tanked) and was desperate to make a good impression on any potential buyers, so the bees had to go right away.
I felt so bad as I watched them sprayed with chemicals. Was there something I could have done differently? I am a relatively recent “convert” to the idea of native gardening (as of maybe two years ago), and I agree that pollinators shouldn’t be killed for ornamental reasons, but what about for human convenience? Where should the line be drawn? If the colony had established itself behind my shed, and out of the way, I would have been okay with that. But this was in a regularly traveled side yard, near the front door.
Does anyone have any ideas of what they would have done instead? Would you allow a colony of bees tight up against your house?
Don’t feel guilty Vicky.
In my view, bee removal from an undesirable area to protect life and limb and prevent stings is a lot different than habitat elimination to preserve a begonia leaf.
There are bee relocation services, although I’m not sure that all types of bees can be relocated. I myself relocated some paper wasps that were too close to the house (read about my antics at http://www.beautifulwildlifegarden.com/the-wildlife-garden-fashionista.html) but I sometimes take things to the extreme
A friend of mine recently found a massive beehive located in an area frequented by children. In trying to figure out what could be done, another friend volunteered and saw to the removal. She had taken classes on bees and now has her own bee colony which she loans out to pollinate local crops.
The fact that you feel guilty says a lot about your character! I’m so glad that you advocate for native plants and creatures.
Loret recently posted..Pond Prank
I also feel that the last paragraph of the IFAS article was unnecessary. You may want to share your thoughts with the author. I’ve had good luck tracking down and contacting the authors of these articles when I have had a question or comment and their answers have been timely and considerate.
For Vicky about the killing of the swarm of bees. Identification of the bees may have been a good first step. One could have been taken to the local Extention office. Often we have less fear of what we know. My neighbor was about to poison what he thought was a yellowjacket nest. He invited me to take a peak. My excitement at finding a nest of bumblebees was catching and he left the nest alone.
Carole, the reaction of your neighbor is testiment to the fact that education is KEY! Nature is lucky to have you around.
That’s good advice to check with the author of the article. Randomly ranting doesn’t help as much as directly offering a different view on how things could be presented to those that write the articles. Thanks!
Loret T. Setters recently posted..Pond Prank
Contacting the author sounds like an excellent idea. I didn’t think of it before and I have seen many fact sheets with this kind of advice. Take for instance, this Colorado State U. fact sheet about leaf cutter bees: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05576.html.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. So, how do we go about it? Perhaps, they would pay more attention if they were to get more than one letter. Could we have a forum where we communicate with each other about similar bad advice? Then, we could all write letters to the authors. I know, I know, soon we would have our hands full.
Beatriz Moisset recently posted..Bees and vitamins
Amen!
Loret – thanks for speaking out.
As a Master Gardener, I owe my educational opportunity to my state’s land grant college, UConn, and the CT Extension Service. I hate to say it but the CT Extension Service is not on the side of the environment and wildlife.
For example, there is a video they posted on youtube recently about killing barberry which would be hysterically funny if it wasn’t so serious because many innocent people will watch and believe. According to the video, you can destroy barberry only by (1) flame thrower (but do watch out for the poison ivy smoke, assuming you can ID poison ivy), and (2) by cutting the barberry down, letting it grow up again, and then broadcast spraying herbicide (but no need to wear a mask while spraying).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afgf3SDTcVw&feature=related
I, personally, control the stuff in the woods by annual ground cutting; in the garden where soil disturbance is less of an issue, it can be up-rooted.
The CT Extension Service is now on the budget-cutting list and I for one won’t fight to save them.
Sue
I’m often asked to become a MG, and I tell them as soon as they eliminate the word pesticide from their advice, I’m in! I just can’t imagine my sitting quietly in a class listening and not being disruptive
I’m glad you brought up the videos, Sue. Those by some agents also are a bone of contention with me. One specifically was on how to “properly” trim a palm tree….but they were including instructions on cutting off the blossoms to prevent untidiness on the ground, thus eliminating importing nectar sources for our native bees and other critters. I raised the question on how this could be a recommendation and most responses said, that it was really to demonstrate how detrimental the “hurricane” cut is to the tree.
So, they offer bad information under the cover of providing one speck of good advice. I just roll my eyes.
Nature and the environment is lucky to have people like you who put health concerns first. Hopefully you will rub off on others! You are doing a good thing!
Loret T. Setters recently posted..Pond Prank
I agree whole-heartedly. Scary thing is, it’s not just the online publications. I went to my local IFAS office to inquire what was wrong with my tomatoes and other veggies, and after they explained what pests I had, they gave me a laundry list of chemicals to put on it. I explained that I’m growing an organic garden, to which one of the gentlemen actually CHOKED BACK A LAUGH, and said, ‘good luck with that’. I realize that on the commercial level you can’t hand-pick the insects, but growing organically in South Florida CAN be done.
It has gotten so bad that they’re actually talking about using kilobots (mini-robots) to pollinate crops! (I found the article on CNET if you’d like to check it out, or there’s a link to it on my fan page) I mean, SERIOUSLY? You don’t help out the insects, but you’re willing to replace them (because you know we actually NEED them)????
Dirt Boss recently posted..Organic Gardening: A Beginner’s Guide
Thank you Dirt Boss (love the handle
)
I just read up on the kilobots OY! I just wonder what toxins they will leave behind when their batteries run out…of course they probably haven’t considered this aspect of it in the scheme of things. Thanks for the lead to that article! Oh, and I plan on thumbing through your website to see if I can’t learn some veggie gardening in FL tips.
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