Category Archives: Conservation

Are pollinators sensitive to climate change, urbanization?

Posted on by
Image of blazing sun over city.

(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.

Leafcutter bees as plastic recyclers? Not a good idea

Posted on by
Image of hand holding strips of plastic with holes in them.

(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

Posted on by
Image of entomologist in hazard suit showing container of hornets.

(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.