(Bowling Green State University) Newly-funded research will look at how bees are impacted by climate change and urbanization. The research will focus on bees in five sets of paired cities that represent a wide range of temperatures and precipitation. The researchers have identified six groups of bees that are considered “economically important and in large enough quantities in each of the cities.” They plan to study honey bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, sweat bees, mason bees and leafcutting bees.
Category Archives: Conservation
The problem with honey bees
Leafcutter bees as plastic recyclers? Not a good idea
(Utah State University) Plastic has become ubiquitous in modern life and its accumulation as waste in the environment is sounding warning bells for the health of humans and wildlife. Previously, researchers have noted leafcutter bees were using plastic waste to construct their nests, and they suggested such behavior could be an “ecologically adaptive trait” and a beneficial recycling effort. However, just because bees can use plastic, doesn’t mean they should.
Entomologists eradicate first Asian giant hornet nest
(Washington State Department of Agriculture) WSDA entomologists successfully eradicated an Asian giant hornet nest by vacuuming the hornets out of the nest on Oct. 24, just two days after finding the nest in a tree on private property in Blaine, Wash. In all, the entomologists with WSDA’s Pest Program removed 98 worker hornets. During the early morning extraction, 85 hornets were vacuumed out of the nest and another 13 live hornets were collected with a net while observing the nest.
Working landscapes need at least 20% native habitat
(Twitter, Lynn Dicks @LynnDicks) “One way to ensure that nature thrives in farmland and planted forests is to protect patches of natural habitat throughout. We argue that working landscapes need at least 20% native habitat to preserve” The original paper.
Australia’s Wild Pollinator Count begins in November
(Twitter, Dr Manu Saunders @ManuSaunders) “It’s spring! And that means #WildPollinatorCount time. Our next count is on between 8-15 November. Find out how to participate on our website“
Beekeeping in cities does more harm than good, study reports
Pollinator monitoring more than pays for itself
(EurekAlert, University of Reading) A new study found that the costs of running nationwide monitoring schemes are more than 70 times lower than the value of pollination services to the UK economy, and provide high quality scientific data at a much lower cost than running individual research projects.