[Pollinator] [beemonitoring] Should we tell them?

[J. Scott MacIvor]

I agree with Jack.

Although bee hotels are used by more than just bees, they are valuable
tools in outreach, monitoring, and of course, research :)

Wasps are an added bonus. Most using bee hotels collect pests or hyper
abundant inverts in urban areas.

All the best,

Scott

On Sunday, April 26, 2015, Jack Neff jlnatctmi at yahoo.com [beemonitoring] <
beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

>
>
> I see nothing wrong with setting out "bee hotels" as they are a step to
> increasing awareness.  If nest sites aren't limiting in the area, they
> won't do much for bee populations but they won't hurt.  More likely various
> eumenines, pompilids and sphecoids will set up shop and these are all
> generally considered beneficial (unless one is a big fan of caterpillars,
> spiders or crickets).  The only wasp predators of bees (Philanthus) are
> ground nesters.  Eventually such hotels will attract nest parasitoids and
> if unmanaged, become unsustainable,  but this happens at reused natural
> nest sites as well.
>
> best
>
> Jack
>
> John L. Neff
> Central Texas Melittological Institute
> 7307 Running Rope
> Austin,TX 78731 USA
> 512-345-7219
>
>
>
>   On Sunday, April 26, 2015 8:51 AM, "Peter Bernhardt bernhap2 at slu.edu
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','bernhap2 at slu.edu');> [beemonitoring]" <
> beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','beemonitoring-noreply at yahoogroups.com');>>
> wrote:
>
>
>
>  Has anyone been to a Whole Foods store in the last couple of weeks?  A
> week ago I went in to buy a piece of fish.  When I entered the vegetable
> section  I was greeted by two women who announced that "Pollinators are
> Endangered."  I was invited to make a "bug hotel" to attract them to my
> garden.  Yes, they were assembling twigs and broken stalks into balls
> secured by wire.  I told them that the most recent publication on these bee
> motels is that they were not good for bees (most are ground nesters) and
> were more likely to attract bee predators like certain wasps.  One of the
> Whole Food Employees was miffed.  She snapped, "Good, I love wasps."
>
> On the way out of the store more employees stood by a table offering tiny,
> shallow, pots the circumference of 50 cent pieces.  There was dry, potting
> medium in the pots and they threw seeds of some composite (probably a
> coreopsis) on the surface."Would you like to learn how to garden with
> wildflowers and help our pollinators?" one asked. "I already garden with
> wildflowers," I replied.
>
>  "Well," if you go inside they will show you how to make a bug hotel."  I
> repeated pretty much what I'd said to the hotel makers.  I also suggested
> they might join NAPPC and explained the acronym.  It seemed best to leave
> and not tell them that those seeds wouldn't do very well in such a tiny,
> shallow pot.
>
> Here in St. Louis, the Whole Foods employees are quite young and they are
> always full of advice.  Would it be possible for us to offer them accurate
> information?  Currently, the St. Louis Zoo does a very nice job educating
> its members about pollinators during pollinator week in June.  Our lab puts
> up posters, exhibits boxes of specimens. We sell some of our books and
> photos.
>
> Peter
>
>
>   __._,_.___
>   ------------------------------
> Posted by: Jack Neff <jlnatctmi at yahoo.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','jlnatctmi at yahoo.com');>>
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-- 
J. Scott MacIvor
PhD. Candidate
Biology Department
York University
Toronto ON
M3J 1P3
Mobile: (416) 844-8093
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