- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What are insect pollinators worth to the global economy?
Well, it's a lot less than the Wall Street bailout...er...rescue plan.
Recent research published in the journal Ecological Economics reveals just how important insect pollinators are.
A Eureka Alert press release issued by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres says that a team of French and German scientists found that the "worldwide economic value of the pollination service provided by insect pollinators, bees mainly, was $153 billion in 2005 for the main crops that feed the world."
That amounts to 9.5 percent of the total value of the world agricultural food production.
The study says that fruit and vegetables account for about a third of that total. The bee shortage has already hurt growers and consumers worldwide. Pollinator disappearance "would translate into a consumer surplus loss estimated between $190 to $310 billion," the news release says.
A Sept. 26 article in Business Week noted that "California almond growers, who require 1.5 million bee colonies for pollination, are renting hives for $200 each, up from $35 two years ago. In China, where pesticide overuse has killed off pollinators in some fruit orchards, farm workers have resorted to dabbing pollen into blooms by hand."
California's growing almond acreage, which now exceeds 700,000, requires two hives per acre. Our state does not have enough bees to pollinate the almonds, so bees are trucked in all over.
Honey bee researchers think that stress may be one of the factors in the declining bee population. Other factors: malnutrition, diseases, pesticides, parasites and changing climates.
Colony collapse disorder, a phenomonon characterized by bees mysteriously abandoning their hives, is probably due to those multiple factors, according to UC Davis apiculturist Eric Mussen.
The declining bee population, the growing need for pollination, and the burgeoning U.S. financial crisis--those issues should concern us all.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you spot a ladybug, don't just start reciting "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home."
Aim, click and shoot.
With a camera, that is.
Agricultural Research Service scientists and entomologists at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and South Dakota State University, Brookings, are surveying the country's ladybug species.
They want you to photograph every ladybug you see and send the photos to them so they can inventory them. They are specificially seeking rare species, such as the nine-spotted, two-spotted and transverse ladybeetles, but any and all ladybugs will do.
Ladybugs, also known as ladybeetles (familyCoccinellidae and beetle order Coleoptera) are the "good guys" and "good gals." They prey on insects that eat our agricultural crops. They also help protect our nation's forests.
The scientific project is titled "The Lost Ladybug Project." Everything you've always wanted to know about ladybugs is at "Legends, lore, facts and more."
The good folks at The Lost Ladybug Project also offer some photo hints. They know that the bugs may not sit still for a photo shoot (let alone "smile") so they recommend you pop them in the freezer to slow them down. "You can do this in a freezer at home or in a cooler in the field," they say on their Web site. "Lady beetles can be chilled in a freezer safely for 5 minutes (over six may kill them) and this will quiet them for 2-4 minutes. Coolers are not as cold as freezers so it will take 30+ minutes to get 1-6 minutes of quiet time. They will survive for days in a chilled cooler."
Nope, I did not "chill" my ladybugs. No ladybugs were harmed or "chilled" in the making of these photographs. I popped the 60mm macro lens on my Nikon and stealthily waited amongst the Russian sage.
Gotcha!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They danced in it, rolled in it, and bathed in it.
The honey bees just couldn't get enough of the rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora).
Last week when we visited Vacaville's El Rancho Nursery and Landscaping. nursery, owned by Ray and Maria Lopez, it was like a free-for-all at the French Laundry. The bees clustered around the rock purslane flowers, waiting inpatiently for them to open. No sign read "Closed" but some of the magenta flowers had not yet unfolded. No matter. A robost honey bee tried to slip inside. What do you mean, I'm too big?
Nearby, two other bees, sisters in honeyhood, shared the same flower as another honey bee tumbled happily out of her flower and made a beeline for the next one.
Ernesto Sandoval, curator of the College of Biological Sciences Greenhouses at UC Davis and Robbin Thorp, emeritus professor of entomology at UC Davis, say that bees love Calandrinia grandiflora. The plant, native to Chile, blooms here in late summer and early fall.
"It has has bright red-orange pollen that honey bees love," Thorp said.
They do, indeed.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you love pomegranates, you can thank a honey bee.
If you love capturing images of pomegranates, you can thank a honey bee.
And, if you love juicing them and making pomegranate jelly—as I do—you can thank a honey bee.
The honey bee makes it all possible.
In mid-May, our 81-year old pomegranate tree blossomed. The silky red blossoms drew dozens of bees. On May 26, armed with a macro lens, I photographed them gathering nectar and pollen.
The blossoms, like the bees, quickly vanished. Worker bees live only four to six weeks during the busy season. The blossoms dropped and fruit formed. Today, four months later, the harvest-ready fruit glistens with red jewels. More photo ops!
The tree is truly amazing. It's 81 years old and yields six to seven orchard boxes of fruit each year. How can we be certain of its age? It was planted in 1927, the same year our Spanish stucco home was built. The owners planted a pomegranate tree because “our daughter loved them.”
So do the bees.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So, you want to become an entomologist...
Entomologists, future entomologists and others interested in science are looking forward to the fall seminars sponsored Oct. 1 through Dec. 3 by the Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis.
All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. Individual faculty members will host the seminars.
You'll learn about fungus-farming ambrosia beetles, the invasive brown marmorated sting bug, argentine ants, thrips, and Culex mosquitoes, to name a few.
The UC Davis entomology faculty do a fantastic job lining up speakers. The key word here is "passion." (The best advice I ever received in a fortune cookie involved passion: "Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.")
Bring on the bugs!
The schedule:
Oct. 1: Jiri Hulcr of Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, “Evolution and Ecology of Fungus-Farming Ambrosia Beetles. Host: entomology professor Phil Ward
Oct. 8: Anne Nielsen, Department of Nematology, UC Davis, “Population Ecology and Damage Estimates of the Invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys.” Host: nematology and entomology professor Ed Lewis
Oct. 15: Urs Wyss, Institute of Phytopathology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany, “Biological Control of Greenhouse Pests with Natural Arthropod Enemies.” Host: entomology and nematology professor Harry Kaya
Oct. 22: Greg Crutsinger, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, “Linking Plant Genetic Variation to Foliage- and Litter-Based Arthropod Communities.” Host: entomology professor Rick Karban
Oct. 29: Kris Godfrey, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Sacramento "Pest Management of Invasive Insect Pests in California.” Host: nematology and entomology professor Ed Lewis
Nov. 5: Neil Tsutsui, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley, “Exploring the Genetic and Chemical Basis of Argentine Ant Behavior.” Host: entomology professor Phil Ward
Nov. 12: Le Kang, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Chemical Communications Between Plants, Leafminers and Parasites.” Host: Michael Parrella, associate dean of the Division of Agricultural Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and entomology professor
Nov. 26: Chris Barker, Department of Entomology, UC Davis, “Environmental Drivers of Large-Scale Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Mosquito Abundance and Virus Transmission in California.” Host: Bruce Eldridge, emeritus professor of entomology
Dec. 3: Lisa Chanbusarakum, Department of Entomology, UC Davis, “Exploring the Microbial World of Frankliniella occidentalis, the Western Flower Thrips.” Host: Diane Ullman, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and entomology professor
