What most of America doesn't know - every single time you bite into a tomato, you're tasting the work of a pollinator that ISN'T a honeybee. In fact, honeybees are about as useful for tomato pollination as I am at parallel parking."

The fun podcast revealing secret pollinator heroes who are really feeding America. Spoiler: It's not honeybees - but we do love honey!

www.secretpollinators.com

Buzz pollination mechanics

• De Luca, P. A., & Vallejo-Marín, M. (2013). What's the buzz about? The ecology and evolutionary significance of buzz-pollination. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 16(4), 429–435. DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2013.05.002
• Vallejo-Marín, M. (2019). Buzz pollination: studying bee vibrations on flowers. New Phytologist, 224(3), 1068–1074. DOI: 10.1111/nph.15666
• Vallejo-Marín, M. (2022). How and why do bees buzz? Implications for buzz pollination. Journal of Experimental Botany, 73(4), 1080–1092.
• Arroyo-Correa, B., Beattie, C. E., & Vallejo-Marín, M. (2019). Bee and floral traits affect the characteristics of the vibrations experienced by flowers during buzz pollination. Journal of Experimental Biology, 222: jeb198176.
• King, M. J., & Buchmann, S. L. (2003). Floral sonication by bees: mesosomal vibration by Bombus and Xylocopa, but not Apis, ejects pollen from poricidal anthers. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 76(2), 295–305.
• Rosi-Denadai, C. A., et al. (2020). Buzz-pollination in Neotropical bees: genus-dependent frequencies and lack of optimal frequency for pollen release. Insect Science, 27(1), 133–142.

Tomato pollination and yield

• Cooley, H., & Vallejo-Marín, M. (2021). Buzz-pollinated crops: a global review and meta-analysis of the effects of supplemental bee pollination in tomato. Journal of Economic Entomology, 114(2), 505–519. DOI: 10.1093/jee/toab009 — meta-analysis of 71 experiments; supplemental buzz pollination increased tomato fruit weight by about 65% over no-pollination controls, and open pollination including buzz-capable bees by about 85%.
• Ohio State University Extension, ENT-0092, Bumble Bee Pollination in Tomato Greenhouses. ohioline.osu.edu — honey bees do not perform buzz pollination; five commonly reared Bombus species worldwide, with B. impatiens most widely used in North America.
• Banda, H. J., & Paxton, R. J. (1991). Pollination of greenhouse tomatoes by bees. Acta Horticulturae, 228, 194–198.
• Velthuis, H. H. W., & van Doorn, A. (2006). A century of advances in bumblebee domestication and the economic and environmental aspects of its commercialization for pollination. Apidologie, 37(4), 421–451.

Blueberries and other buzz-pollinated crops

• Javorek, S. K., Mackenzie, K. E., & Vander Kloet, S. P. (2002). Comparative pollination effectiveness among bees on lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium). Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 95(3), 345–351.
• Isaacs, R., & Kirk, A. K. (2010). Pollination services provided to small and large highbush blueberry fields by wild and managed bees. Journal of Applied Ecology, 47(4), 841–849.

#GardenTruth #PollinatorFacts #MindBlown

#secretpollinators #nativebees #bumblebees #pollinatorpartnership #tomatoes #buzzpollination #gardens #wildbees

Those mysterious holes in your lawn are evidence of an underground pollinator civilization! Discover the mining bees who've been building tiny cities beneath your feet and pollinating fruit trees with Swiss watch precision. You'll never look at a lawn the same way again.

www.secretpollinators.com

Mining bee biology and nesting

• Michener, C. D. (2007). The Bees of the World, 2nd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press — Andrenidae.
• Danforth, B. N., Minckley, R. L., & Neff, J. L. (2019). The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation. Princeton University Press.
• Schrader, M. N., & LaBerge, W. E. (1978). The nest biology of the bees Andrena (Melandrena) regularis Malloch and Andrena (Melandrena) carlini Cockerell. Illinois Natural History Survey Biological Notes 108 — nest depths of six to seven inches for a bee roughly half an inch long, equivalent to twelve to fifteen body lengths.
• Missouri Department of Conservation, Andrenid Bees (Miner Bees) — each female's tunnel typically branches with a brood cell at the end of each branch; some species secrete a substance to plaster and waterproof cell walls.
• Iowa State University Yard and Garden, Mining Bees — bees are ¼ to ½ inch long; tunnel entrances are disruptive to lawns but not usually damaging; grass is generally thin before the bees arrive, not because of them; sting risk is highly overrated.
• NC State Extension, Bees in Turf. content.ces.ncsu.edu
• Cane, J. H. (1991). Soils of ground-nesting bees: texture, moisture, cell depth and climate. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 64(4), 406–413.

Aggregations and communal nesting

• Paxton, R. J., et al. Communal nesting in Andrena — multiple females sharing a single entrance while provisioning separate tunnels.
• Wild Pollinator Partners / Fletcher Wildlife Garden — Andrenids prefer bare soil with scattered vegetation and show a preference for the tops of slopes; tilling destroys nests and mulching makes the surface unattractive for nesting.

Emergence timing and early-spring pollination

• Cane, J. H. (2021). Global warming, advancing bloom and evidence for pollinator plasticity from long-term bee emergence monitoring. Insects, 12(5), 457. DOI: 10.3390/insects12050457
• Park, M. G., Blitzer, E. J., Gibbs, J., Losey, J. E., & Danforth, B. N. (2015). Negative effects of pesticides on wild bee communities can be buffered by landscape context. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282: 20150299 — Andrena diversity in apple orchards.
• Russo, L., Park, M. G., Blitzer, E. J., & Danforth, B. N. (2017). Flower handling behavior and abundance determine the relative contribution of pollinators to seed set in apple orchards. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 246, 102–108.
• Stone, G. N., & Willmer, P. G. (1989). Warm-up rates and body temperatures in bees. Journal of Experimental Biology, 147, 303–328.

Specialist mining bees and habitat

• Larkin, L. L., Neff, J. L., & Simpson, B. B. (2008). The evolution of a pollen diet: host choice and diet breadth of Andrena bees. Apidologie, 39, 133–145.
• Xerces Society (2017). Nesting & Overwintering Habitat for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects. xerces.org

#secretpollinators #nativebees #bumblebees #pollinatorpartnership

#GardenTruth #PollinatorFacts #MindBlown

Perfect semicircular cuts in your rose leaves look like vandalism. They aren't pest damage at all — they're evidence of one of the most precise construction projects in the insect world. Leafcutter bees shear pieces of leaf with toothed mandibles, carry them off, and use them to build overlapping, water-resistant nursery cells inside hollow stems and old beetle tunnels. This episode covers how to tell a leafcutter cut from actual pest damage, why the pollen brush on a leafcutter's abdomen makes her a more effective pollinator than a honey bee, when and where to watch for her, and why the genus Megachile includes both the largest bee on Earth and a non-native species now spreading across North America.

www.secretpollinators.com

Leafcutter bee biology and nesting

• Michener, C. D. (2007). The Bees of the World, 2nd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press — Megachilidae and Megachile.
• Sheffield, C. S., Ratti, C., Packer, L., & Griswold, T. (2011). Leafcutter and mason bees of the genus Megachile Latreille (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) in Canada and Alaska. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification, 18.
• USDA Forest Service, Leaf Cutting Bees (Megachile spp.). fs.usda.gov — about 242 Megachile species in North America; females carry pollen on the furry underside of the abdomen rather than in leg baskets.
• Oregon State University Extension, PNW 692, Megachilid Bees in the Pacific Northwest: An Introduction. extension.oregonstate.edu — mandibles are large and sharply toothed for chewing leaves; scopa on the underside of the abdomen is the key identification feature; some species have slightly upturned abdomens that aid pollen collection.
• NC State Extension, Leafcutter Bees. content.ces.ncsu.edu — females have a conspicuous abdominal scopa and pointed abdomens; males are smaller, with hairy faces, no scopa, and no stinger.
• Minnesota Bee Atlas, Megachile rotundata. minnesotabeeatlas.umn.edu — leaf pieces used for cells and nest plugs, with visible veins in overlapping plugs.
• Cane, J. H., Griswold, T., & Parker, F. D. (2007). Substrates and materials used for nesting by North American Osmia bees. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 100(3), 350–358.

Nest architecture and leaf use

• Horne, M. (1995). Leaf area and toughness: effects on nesting material preferences of Megachile rotundata. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 88(6), 868–875.
• MacIvor, J. S. (2016). DNA barcoding to identify leaf preference of leafcutting bees. Royal Society Open Science, 3(3), 150623. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150623

Pollination

• Pitts-Singer, T. L., & Cane, J. H. (2011). The alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata: the world's most intensively managed solitary bee. Annual Review of Entomology, 56, 221–237. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-ento-120709-144836
• Parker, F. D., Batra, S. W. T., & Tepedino, V. J. (1987). New pollinators for our crops. Agricultural Zoology Reviews, 2, 279–304.

Nesting habitat and bee hotels

• Xerces Society (2017). Nesting & Overwintering Habitat for Pollinators and Beneficial Insects. xerces.org
• MacIvor, J. S., & Packer, L. (2015). 'Bee hotels' as tools for native pollinator conservation: a premature verdict? PLOS ONE, 10(3): e0122126.

#SecretPollinators #NativeBees #LeafcutterBee #Megachile #WildBees #PollinatorGarden #NativePollinators #BeeFacts #SolitaryBees #GardenScience #Entomology #PollinatorHabitat #BeeIdentification #WallacesGiantBee