- Author: Ben Faber
By: Carey Gillam, Reuters
Honey bees, critical agents in the pollination of key U.S. crops, disappeared at a staggering rate over the last year, according to a new government report that comes as regulators, environmentalists and agribusinesses try to reverse the losses.
Losses of managed honey bee colonies hit 42.1 percent from April 2014 through April 2015, up from 34.2 percent for 2013-2014, and the second-highest annual loss seen, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report issued on Wednesday.
"Such high colony losses in the summer and year-round remain very troubling," Jeff Pettis, a USDA senior entomologist, said in a statement.
The 2014-15 yearly loss was down slightly from the 45 percent annual loss for 2012-2013 but well above the prior two years of annual measurements and above the benchmark of 18.7 percent that is considered economically unsustainable, USDA said.
Millions of honey bees are relied on to pollinate plants that produce a quarter of the food consumed by Americans. Beekeepers travel the country with managed hives to help the process.
But over the past few years, bee populations have been dying at a rate the U.S. government says must be addressed, and finding an answer has become a politically charged debate.
Beekeepers, environmental groups and some scientists blame a class of insecticide known as neonicotinoids, or neonics, used on crops such as corn as well as on plants used in lawns and gardens.
But Bayer, Syngenta and other agrichemical companies that sell neonic products say many factors such as mite infestations are harming the bees.
The White House has formed a task force to study the issue, and some lawn and garden retailers have been cutting use of neonics.
The Environmental Protection Agency is requiring a series of studies on neonic effects on bees and plans to issue the first of a series of assessments later this year.
The USDA report issued on Wednesday said colony losses were 23.1 percent for the 2014-15 winter months, typically the higher loss period. The 2014 summer loss of 27.4 percent marked the first time summer losses exceeded winter, and marked a surge from the 2013 summer loss of 19.8 percent, USDA said.
The results are considered preliminary and are based on survey responses from about 6,100 beekeepers managing 400,000 colonies, USDA said. Those beekeepers represent nearly 15.5 percent of 2.74 million U.S. bee colonies. A more detailed report is to be published later this year, USDA said.
- Author: Ben Faber
Gordon Frankie a bee biologist at UC Berkeley and I are doing a study to ultimately identify what plants could grown in avocado orchards to attract more honeybees, as well as other pollinators and potential biocontrol agents. There are five orchards in Ventura and Santa Barbara where we have been monitoring flower visitation by different insects in order to get a baseline of what is there before introducing potential pollinator/biocontrol attractants. The numbers are finally in for last spring avocado bloom. Virtually no honeybees, but significant numbers of syrphid flies. They are also called flower flies or hover flies. They superficially resemble bees. They are predatory as larvae, primarily feeding on aphids. Then they become important pollinators as adults. They are not as efficient as honeybees because they lack all the hairs on their bodies where pollen gets stuck and carried to female flowers. The cause of the honeybee decline has many causes, but the most likely one is the drought in the avocado growing areas. There just aren't any plants in the foothill areas to provide pollen and nectar year round.
Images of egg, larvae (going after aphids) and adult syrphid flies
- Author: Ben Faber
Two years ago we set out to study the impact of native bees on avocado fruit set. We applied for several grants unsuccessfully and turned to growers to see if there was interest. We raised $6,000 to start the project and have established 4 sites in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. in the meantime have gotten a Sustainable Agricultural Research and Extension grant. This grant does not start until October 2014. We need bridging funds to continue this study. Below is the original request from growers for funds. If you would help contribute it will keep this study going until the larger grant comes through. Thank you.
Dr. Gordon Frankie at UC Berkeley is teaming with Dr. Ben Faber from the Ventura County UCCE Extension to jointly work on a pollination study for avocados. Dr. Frankie is studying how to increase native bee pollinators in avocado orchards. To do this, we plan on surveying the native bees that are in the area, identify the plants that they are foraging on and then plant those species in orchards to lure indigenous bees + pollinators in to the orchards. These plants will also be monitored for their attractiveness to beneficial insects which could control avocado thrips, persea mite along with other pests. We will need some startup money to cover the costs of native plants plus travel for Dr. Frankie and his assistant to be able to come down to monitor the project. They are ready and willing to come do this important study. We have applied for UC grants and will apply to CA Avocado Commission and CDFA Specialty Crops for money, but we will not see that money until summer 2014 at the earliest. We need your help. It would help to plant the natives before the winter rains. They need the rain to bloom; so the sooner you can help, the sooner we can plant. We are trying to cobble together donations of about $3,000. Thank you in advance. Any contributions are tax deductible and can be made to: UC Berkeley Foundation (with a notation at the bottom of the check: Gordon Frankie Bee Lab) and sent to Dept of Environmental Sciences, UC Berkeley, 130 Mulford Hall #3114, Berkeley, CA 94720.
- Author: Ruben Alarcon
Pollination ecologists have typically studied a focal plant species and one or a few closely related pollinator taxa, such as bumblebees, which fostered the view that plant-pollinator relationships are highly specialized. However recent community-scale studies have revealed that many pollination systems are generalized, such that plants are visited by diverse, and spatiotemporally variable, pollinator assemblages. My goal is to reconcile traditional views of "specialized" floral adaptation with ecological generalization. Specifically my lab will be incorporating aspects of pollinator foraging behavior and flower/pollinator phenotype, into the analysis of plant-pollinator communities using network techniques. To address this issue my lab is exploring several plant-pollinator systems, including sub-alpine meadows in Colorado and California, the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, as well as the coastal sage scrub community surrounding the CSUCI campus.
From an applied perspective my lab is also working to maintain honeybee populations for crop pollination. In the United States over 130 crops require insect pollination, with nearly one-third of our diet coming from honeybee pollination services. However, over the last several years large numbers of honeybee colonies have been lost to Colony Collapse Disorder. Working with beekeepers and growers, my lab is trying to assess the benefits of providing supplemental forage for colonies transported to California every winter to pollinate almonds. We are also available to assist Ventura County beekeepers in identifying Nosema microsporidian infections and to monitor parasitic mites.
In addition to working with honeybees my lab also studies the nesting and foraging behavior of native bees, including the Blue Orchard Bee, Osmia lignaria. By furthering our understanding of native bee biology we hope to increase their use as sustainable pollinators. In collaboration with the UC Cooperative Extensions, Ventura County, we will also be studying how native bees could be used to improve avocado pollination.
- Author: Ben Faber
UCCE Farm Advisor Gary Bender finally has his 14 chapter book on avocado history, botany and cultural practices on the San Diego County web site. Check it out:
http://ucanr.org/sites/alternativefruits/?story=237&showall=yes