[Pollinator] Fwd: Bee hotels may not be that good

[Mary Jo Sutton]

Peter,

Thanks for sending this article out about bee "hotels." I had sent out a
query last year to this group about the net effects of "Bee Hotels"  and am
excited to see some formal research being done on the topic.

Last spring and last month I did visitor programs at the Oakland Museum of
California (OMCA) where adult or family groups made small bundles of hollow
plant tube nesting "hotels." From the research, it sounds like the hotels
are not providing a boost to the bee population on their own. But as an
educator, the bee hotel program is a very effective way to introduce the
public to the existence of native bees--most people have never heard of
such a thing, but because of CCD, the public is primed and is very curious
about what they can do to help bees. A public lecture about native bees and
gardens by Gordon Frankie (he authored a California native bee book
published last year) was *standing room only* filled with gardeners to want
to do the right thing and make a difference.

The general museum and gardening public is very aware that there are issues
for honeybees, but most are unaware that providing forage and non-hotel
ground nesting sites are easy and valuable actions they can take. The
hands-on activity I led was a super effective learning situation; through
the conversation and activity people's awareness is transformed and they
primed to learn more. They are blown away by photos of native bees--the
beauty and diversity. People become very motivated to plant native plants
for native bee foraging and they learn that they should not mulch their
whole yard. The opposite of what they have been told for years.

The California Academy of Sciences came last year to learn about the
program so they could run them at their museum and this year, educators
from the Sonoma Children's Museum came to learn too. I encourage more
studies on private bee habitat gardens or research partnerships with
informal science learning institutions about the value of creating bee
habitat in private or public lands.  As most land is privately owned,
helping the public understand about native bees and the best methods for
helping them could collectively make a difference. In the OMCA gallery we
have a yard sign that says "change the world, plant natives!"
Thanks for listening.

Mary Jo Sutton
mjmatrix at gmail.com

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 11:22 AM, Peter Bernhardt <bernhap2 at slu.edu> wrote:

> A colleague sent the attached this morning.  You may find this of
> interest. In the past, I have found the research of Dr Packer very
> dependable.
>
> Peter Bernhardt
>
> --
> Gerardo R Camilo, Ph.D.
> Assoc. Professor of Biology
> Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
>    & International Studies
> Conservation Fellow, St. Louis Zoo
>
>
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> Pollinator at lists.sonic.net
> https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator
>
>
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