Dear Bee Listers:

   This article on carpenter bees was published Sunday Monring in a
number of Media General Newspapers. It is by the gardening
columnist David Bare of the Winston-Salem Journal, where he tells
of his war with carpenter bees with tennis racquet and poisons:

http://journalnow.com/wsj/living/home/bare/MGBFRZ8EOED.html

I wrote him the e-mail that follows, and I hope others will do so as
well, perhaps also contacting the editors of the various newspapers
to let them know there is another side to the story.....

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[log in to unmask]
Flabberghasted (and steamed!) by your Carpenter Bee Article!

Dear Mr. Bare:

    As a retired commercial beekeeper, who specialized in pollination
service, I have often been dismayed to find that people will
vandalize beehives placed in vegetable fields and orchards to
pollinate them. Hives shot to pieces, deliberately run over, or left as
a pile of ashes testify to the monumental ignorance of those who will
bite the hand that feeds them.  But you have done the same with
carpenter bees.

    You have clearly illustrated the crux of the modern environmental
problem by your article on carpenter bees. The problem is centered
in an attitude.  Why must we impulsively destroy, without attempting
to understand, that which we fear? You made me wish I could give
you many good whacks with your tennis racquet.

   Unfortunately your article undermines your credentials as a
gardener and environmentalist (who seems to have no notion of the
environmental problem of loss of pollinators), and as a journalist
(whose bias and superficial research did not make any attempt to
show the other side of the story).

   In areas, where honeybees are now absent, the carpenter bee
has become the primary pollinator of many spring blossoms that
feed wildlife and humans. I have seen them on every kind of fruit
blossom that grows in the southeast. I have been in orchards,
where, until honeybees were brought in, carpenter bees were the
ONLY bees to be found on the blossoms.

   I expect your attitude from pest control operators who stand to
make a lot of money from a gullible public on an easy job. But I am
incredulous to hear such statements from a gardening specialist,
who also is supposedly a journalist.

   You say, they do "considerable damage" from repeated
colonization.  PROVE IT!   I challenge you to show me any damage
that is more than superficial and cosmetic, from carpenter bees that
have been left alone to do their thing.

   I have lived with carpenter bees for many decades, and seen
them reuse the same nest year after year, with no serious damage.
The only time I've ever seen extensive damage was in cases where
humans poisoned or plugged the nest sites, forcing them to
repeatedly drill new ones.

   If there is a case where wood is so valuable as to really require
protection, some aluminum or vinyl flashing, or screening can be
applied to vulnerable places.  But, as is done in some areas of the
world, where their value is realized, and people are smarter, SOME
places should be left where they CAN nest.

   YOU have instead declared an all-out war against a very valuable
environmental resource!  NOT ONCE did you ever mention their
considerable value as pollinators!  Carpenter bees should be
protected by law, as are bumblebees and hornets in Europe,
because they are precious, and endangered by human paranoia.

   You say they are aggressive. That is nonsense, unless you refer
to a drone chasing off another drone. The drones will investigate
any motion in their territory. Yes, they will get "in your face" but will
only look you over. You can dance with them, as they tend to mirror
your movements. But they are only checking to see if you are sexy.
Sometimes they will chase birds, dragonflies, etc, and try to mate. I
once saw a pair of wrens attempt to build a nest, while being
harrassed by a sex-crazed drone, who would hover in front of them
while they would scold him, then chase them as soon as they flew
again. It was hilarious!

   I challenge you to redeem your credentials by another article with
the "other side of the story" of these gentle, though buffoonish, giant
pollinators.


Required reading to start research for the "other side of the story:"
1. The Forgotten Pollinators, by Steve Buchmann and Gary Nabhan
2. The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com  (by yours truly)
3. McGregor's Pollination "Bible"  USDA  (old but still valuable),
online at: http://www.beeculture.com/beeculture/book/
4. Pollination: The Forgotten Agricultural Input  Dr. Malcolm
Sanford: http://apis.ifas.ufl.edu/papers/altpol.htm


Dave Green   SC  USA   Retired Pollination Beekeeper
Carpenter Bee, a Major Pollinator:
http://www.pollinator.com/gallery/April/carp_privet.htm

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