Holly-B Apiary
P.O.Box 26
Wells,Maine 04090-0026
http://www.cybertours.com/~midnitebee
June 1, 1997, Sunday
Section: Style Desk
Music to a Gardener's Ears: Bzzzzzzz
By Anne Raver
The Sonoran Desert, with its ocotillos and agaves, might seem a
strange
place for a New York gardener to find inspiration, but I returned
from a
trip to Tucson, Ariz., fired up about pollinators. They need our
help.
Two bug lovers, Dr. Stephen L. Buchmann, an entomologist at the Carl
Hayden Bee Research Center, and Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, the director
of
science at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, both in Tucson, are the
authors of ''The Forgotten Pollinators'' (Island Press, 1996). And
they
have begun a campaign by the same name to increase awareness about
the
sorry state of the world's bees, birds, bats, butterflies and
beetles
(they have a web site, too: www.desert.net/museum/fp/).
A gardener may not be able to single-handedly stop yet another
shopping
mall from paving over the last meadow or forest in the neighborhood
or
to cease the widespread use of pesticides. But one pollinators'
paradise
may inspire others on the block, creating a little corridor of
plants
for wildlife. And who knows: getting to know the bees that pollinate
your squash patch may galvanize a little political action.
''If backyard bug watchers become engaged with the interactions they
see
in their gardens,'' Dr. Nabhan writes, ''they may become stronger
advocates for keeping highway medians herbicide-free, for assuring
that
only biological control agents are used to manage pests on food
crops
and for establishing corridors linking protected areas.''
That's only one message in ''The Forgotten Pollinators,'' which
covers
everything from how a moth lays eggs in the ovary of a yucca flower,
and
then intentionally pollinates the same flower (to insure her
offspring's
food supply), to the increase of pesticide use with the North
American
Free Trade Agreement. The sheer weight of information is a bit
daunting,
from mutualism (how one insect may depend on a single plant, and
vice
versa, for its existence) to how many species are threatened. But
take
it in stages, like the rufous hummingbird, which flies 2,000 miles
every
year from central Mexico to Canada to breed. This bird is in
trouble,
too, for the usual reasons: habitat destruction and pesticides.
Hummingbird gardens and butterfly gardens are old hat, but if you
want
to be on the cutting edge, how about planting a garden for bees?
Then at
the next cocktail party you can casually say, ''The mason bees are
nesting in the dead tree in my pollinator garden, really they are.''
I
predict pollinator gardening will be hot in the Hamptons this
summer.
But back to Tucson, where it was 100 degrees in late May, and the
rufous
hummer had already high-tailed it up north. The nectarines and
apricots
were hanging heavy on the trees in the desert garden at Dr. Nabhan's
house, and his pomegranates were forming bright red balls on the
ends of
the pollinated flowers, which hummingbirds love.
''Steve pointed out that rotting fruit was important to keeping
butterflies around, so I put it in the birdbath,'' said Dr. Nabhan,
firing a couple of overripe peaches into an old birdbath under a
mesquite tree.
Fruit trees, of course, are pollinated by bees, and not just
European
honeybees. ''Honeybees are nasty competition for the native
pollinators
-- because of their famous wiggle dance,'' he said. ''As soon as
they
find a tree, they dance their brains out, and soon 40,000 to 50,000
sisters are there -- tens of thousands of little mouths sucking up
the
nectar.''
This wiggle dance is like a map showing your neighbors how to get to
the
free Ben & Jerry's.
Wild bees, on the other hand, are basically solitary and have to
find
food on their own. (Bumblebees are more sociable, Dr. Buchmann says.
''You hear little buzzes inside the hive,'' he said, ''but we don't
know
what they're communicating.'')
''Everybody thinks about honeybees, but there are 5,000 species of
native bees,'' Dr. Buchmann said. And they pollinate many crops far
more
efficiently than the honeybee, which is an import from Europe.
''Blueberries, cranberries, eggplants, chilies, kiwis and tomatoes
are
all buzz-pollinated,'' he said. The anthers, those doodads that hold
the
pollen, ''look like saltshakers with two holes,'' he said. A female
bumblebee grabs hold of the anther with her mandible. She ''curls
her
body around it, and the pollen comes blasting out the holes,'' he
continued, adding, ''It can harvest pollen five times faster than a
honeybee.''
About 30 percent of food crops are pollinated by bees, and no one
has
ever tried to count the wild ones. But the honeybee population has
dropped from 6 million to 1.9 million since 1950, Dr. Buchmann said.
The
main causes, scientists say, are two kinds of mites, as well as
pesticide use and harsh winters, which are also taking their toll on
the
wild bees.
Many flowers loved by hummingbirds and butterflies are also popular
with
bees, and you can't go wrong if you choose natives from your region,
which are rich in nectar and pollen and have evolved with local
insects.
Dr. Nabhan's garden is full of ocotillos, mesquite and agave, which
would be hard to grow in New York. But he also has oregano, clover,
mustard, verbena, lantana, columbine, penstemons, wild gourds and
squashes, passionflowers and chilies, to name a few. His buddleias
are
natives of the Chihuahuan desert; his pomegranate trees are heirloom
varieties of the Southwest. For the species that once thrived in
your
area, call a native-plant society or nursery specializing in native
plants.
Bees are drawn to the bean or pea family, from snap peas to black
locust
and redbud trees, and they love the Compositae family, including
sunflowers, dandelions, thistles, asters, daisies and goldenrod.
Salvias
and penstemons are favorites, too.
Pollinator gardens could be consiousness-raising. When visitors to
the
National Zoo in Washington were recently surveyed, Dr. Buchmann
said,
three-quarters of them ''didn't know bees had to do with
pollination --
they just saw bees as a threat.''
He added: ''And pollen was not seen as sex cells for the plant. It
was
associated with sneezing.''
The West has a phobia about ''little creepy crawlies,'' he said,
adding:
''In China and Japan, people keep crickets in cages. They write
poetry
about them. If a cricket started chirping in our house, we'd call
the
exterminator or hit it with a shoe.''
But try to control your fight-or-flight response the next time an
inch-long carpenter bee -- Dr. Buchmann calls it the ''gentle
giant'' --
hovers around your head. It is solitary, and it pollinates
everything
from tomatoes to cotton. Give it a dead tree to dig into (don't
worry
about your house; it likes untreated wood).
You can also simulate a dead tree by drilling holes -- about 5/16
inches
in diameter and five inches deep -- in a piece of soft wood and
hanging
it in the shade. Mason bees, which use leaves and mud to build their
nests, will pack the holes with eggs and pollen to feed their young.
And
they'll pollinate your fruit trees, too.
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