native bees

This week’s episode of the Good Growing Podcast features Ken and Chris in conversation with Brodie Dunn and Timo Wayman. The discussion revolves around a new research project on bee hotels that includes a citizen science component. Brodie and Timo share their insights on what they hope to discover through this scientific endeavor, and whether bee hotels are beneficial or detrimental to bees. Tune in to learn how you can contribute to this scientific cause and become a citizen scientist.

Skip to what you want to know:

0:28 Hey Ken! Bugs are cool now and what kind of bee hotels do we have?
2:48 Welcome Timo and Brodie from the most podcast-y location we've ever had on the show!
4:07 What drew Timo to studying insects?
7:10 What are bee hotels and how do the help bees?
11:44 Do only bees use bee hotels? What about wasps and other insects?
Problems with bees hotels.
   13:34 Predation from natural enemies if bees and wasps like the cuckoo wasp (cleptoparasites).
   15:19 Diseases showing up in bee hotels.
   16:40 What about invasive bees using bee hotels?
   19:10 How much research is out there regarding bee hotels?
27:31 How do bees utilize bee hotels?
30:06 Is there a recommendation on where to put a bee hotel in the landscape?
31:32 How do the bee babies get out of the galleries drilled into the wood?
34:11 What could someone look for when buying a bee hotel? Should people buy bee hotels!?
35:22 Talking about the bee hotel research. How can Illinoisians contribute to increasing our knowledge?
44:29 How can people learn more about this project or contact Timo?

go.Illinois.edu/BeeHotel

Urban environments have species-specific associations with invasive insect herbivores https://doi.org/10.1093/jue/juac011 

Contact us! 
Chris Enroth: cenroth@illinois.edu
Ken Johnson: kjohnso@illinois.edu 

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No bee is as popular as the honey bee. When we think of a bee, many of us think of this charismatic social bee that lives in large colonies, does the wiggle dance, produces the honey we love, and pollinates many of our crops. Although honey bees can be found all over North America, they only arrived in the 17th century by way of European settlers. Aside from honey bees, in North America, thousands of native bees can be found on the landscape.

We’ve all heard that bees are in decline. As a non-native species, are honey bees the answer to helping us “save the bees”? How do honey bees interact with our native bees on the landscape? 

Joining us to help answer these questions is Rich Hatfield. Rich is Xerces Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist and Bumble Bee Conservation Lead, and manages all aspects of the Xerces Society’s work on bumble bees. This includes community science projects, as well as understanding the threats to bumble bees and actions we can take to protect them. Rich has studied the factors that impact bumble bees, including the presence of honey bees in our landscapes.

Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

Heavy rain over parts of South Australia and NSW in recent days has damaged some crops and brought much-needed water to other farmers, South Australian researchers are working to turn inedible almond waste into a nutrient rich compost, and Australian native bee experts say there's no funding in Australia to support much-needed research.

The SADA Fresh brand reaches a 10 year milestone of supporting SA's dairy farmers and investing back into their industry, Roseworthy's Old Collegian Association celebrates its 125th anniversary, and a new South Australian developed tool will help fill data gaps about the world's native bees.

Today’s guest is Krystle Hickman. Krystle is a TEDx speaker, artist, photographer, and community scientist. However, it is her passion for native bees that has led her to appear on Nature’s Archive today.

Krystle has combined her tenacity and photographic talent to make a number of discoveries about native bees. She’s determined to raise awareness about the decline of native bees and their habitats, and she was recently profiled in the LA Times for these efforts.

Today, we embark on a journey of discovery with Krystle as she introduces us to our native bees.

We will explore several genera of bees and delve into their habits and remarkable life histories. Krystle will also share her expertise on photographic techniques for bees and how to find them in the wild.

Also, Krystle has just launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new project featuring photographic flashcards of 40 of the most common native bees, complete with interesting facts and identification techniques.

To stay connected with Krystle and her work, you can find her at beesip.com, or follow @beesip on Instagram, or @beesiponline on Facebook and Twitter.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Additional Links
BugGuide - one of the original online communities for insect enthusiasts to share, learn, and identify insects
Discover Life - resource for learning about bees (and other organisms)

Books and Other Things
Note: links to books are affiliate links

Bees of the World by Charles Michener
Bumble Bees of North America: An Identification Guide
Krystle's Kickstarter campaign for her native bee flashcards
My Garden of a Thousand Bees - documentary
The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America's Bees by Wilson and Carril

Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist website: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Support Us On Patreon!

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Get inspired with the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature podcast we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests such as Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Gabe Brown. And topics ranging from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18:29 wind and water pollination 

18:43 AI bees 

AI, Big Data, and Bees 

19:12 Native Bees in NM Resources

20:40 Native Plant Guide for the High Desert in NM 

21:00 Monocropping is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, in the absence of rotation through other crops or growing multiple crops on the same land. Maize, soybeans, and wheat are three common crops often grown using monocropping techniques. 

21:51 neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides related to nicotine 

22:28 NSMU Guide to biological control of pests in your yard

24:00 DIY native bee hotel building guide

25:37 Track the Senate bill on eliminating neonicotinoid SB 103 

26:43 Register for the NM Beekeepers Assocation Conference here! 

28:15 Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, a chemical herbicide used widely in agriculture and commonly in lawn care produced originally by agribusiness giant Monsanto--which was acquired by Bayer in 2018

28:35 The Green Amendment in NM 

31:15 Quivira coalition 

31:50 License plate to protect pollinators in NM

32:28 Burque Bee City USA designation 

35:54 A food desert is an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food, in contrast with an area with higher access to supermarkets or vegetable shops with fresh foods

In this episode, Heather speaks with prior guests and friends of the podcast Chrissy and Jessica to learn all about bees. 🐝 Despite coming from different backgrounds on the topic (Jessica from Industry and Chrissy from Academia), they have a lot of the same messages in regards to bee health, colonies, concerns for bees, and ideas to help your local pollinators.  Plus we get into some myths about bees and do I need to watch now for murder hornets as well?

Some related links:
Waggle Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=LU_KD1enR3Q
Making Honey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZlEjDLJCmg

On this week’s The Sci-Files, your hosts Chelsie and Danny interview Jenna Walters. Jenna is a M.S. student studying the influence of extreme heat conditions on blueberry pollination and bee nutrition. Her work draws from an applied ecology background as she studies the entire blueberry crop system- pollen physiology and chemistry, fruit yield and quality, and bee health and diet preference. Jenna has broad interests in pollination ecology across natural and managed systems and is particularly interested in understanding the ramifications of climate change on crop and bee health.
If you’re interested in talking about your MSU research on the radio or nominating a student, please email Chelsie and Danny at scifiles@impact89fm.org. You can ask questions about future episodes here. Check The Sci-Files out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!