>Ok Allen, I know this isn't a surprise to you.

We've spent a couple of years looking at onions and brassica - working to
improve the efficiency and reliability of pollination by honey bees.  Bees
can be fickle about working these crops.

Its clear that there was significant visitation by flies in some of the
fields -- and why not?  Onions stink, and that odor is the flower's way of
getting the attention of insects that like smelly food.

Whether you agree with my characterization of 'stink' or not, that's the
game that onions use to pull in their co-evolved pollinators.  No fruity
floral scent here.

Problem is, with agricultural monocultures where vast areas are planted to
a few crops, with heavy handed pesticide spraying killing many of the
native insects, and urban sprawl cutting up areas in a patchwork of field
with highways, houses, and buildings acting as barriers -- native insects
have a tough time, even more so than bees, since no one moves them around
to help out.

You just can't depend on the flies being present at the right time and in
the right numbers to satisfactorily pollinate the crop (and I assume the
interest was on seed production).

No surprise the flies are there and may even do it better -- after all,
they evolved with these plants.  But what do you do when they're not
there?  And how do you keep them on the field that you want.  Unlike bees,
they don't have a central home (hive) that provides some influence over
distribution.

So Allen, I'd save those flies for flyfishing.  After all, you've
supposedly retired.

Jerry



>Flykeeping anyone?
>
>allen
>
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>

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