You may have
heard that honey bees are in trouble. Bee hives all over North America and
Europe have been dying off en masse. The
situation has been given the name Colony Collapse Disorder. It is currently
thought that the parasitic Varroa mite is spreading a particularly virulent
disease known as deformed wing virus. This has led to "one of the most
widely-distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet", according
to the bee scientists.
This is of
importance to humans because bees are responsible for pollinating many of the
food crops that we consume. To give you an idea of the magnitude of the
situation, consider that it takes 50,000 bee hives to pollinate the blueberry
crop in the state of Maine. That is a lot of bees! The American Institute of
Biological Sciences reports that native insect pollination saves the United
States agricultural economy nearly an estimated $3.1 billion annually through
natural crop production; pollination produces some $40 billion worth of
products annually in the United States alone.
Honey bees are
not the only kind of bee that are useful in pollinating crops. One species of
bee that is helpful to the backyard gardener is the mason bee, which is the
common name for species of bees in the genus Osmia. Mason bees prefer to nest
in narrow holes, and get their common name from their habit of using mud to partition
their nest holes.
Mason bees are
active for several weeks in Spring, and you can encourage them to pollinate
blossoms in your garden or on your fruit trees by building very simple houses
for them. All you need is some scrap blocks of wood (2" x 4" is
perfect) into which you drill some 5/16" diameter holes. Hang your
finished block up on a south facing wall and the mason bees will use this as a
nest.
The nest block
that you make can be as simple or as fancy as you like. I put a little rain
roof on mine. This is a very simple thing that you can do to increase the
chances for pollination in your garden area. It is somehow rewarding to see
these little creatures using the nest block that you have made for them.
Lending a helping hand ...
No comments:
Post a Comment