"In most areas where large scale agriculture is practiced, there is very little natural habitat left. Native wild bees do not fly very far, usually less than a mile, so if they are to be beneficial they have to be close."

"Sorry  Pete,  but with the exception of the Sacramento Valley,  that’s just simply not true.... Here in the Midwest mason bees and red wasp are the same or growing."

I'm with Charlie on this one. Here in rural Missouri I'm surrounded mostly by corn and soybeans, with a couple of small developments interspersed. I have a half dozen beehives on my couple of acres, but I mostly see natives around the yard and garden. In fact, for two years I produced a Missouri Honeybee calendar, but since I find so many of the other pollinators while looking for honeybees to photograph, I switched gears this year and did a Native Pollinator calendar. All 12 photos were taken in my own yard - and it ended up selling better too!

Eugene Makovec

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