North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mullins@gaelicmysts.com]

This is quite cool!  Anybody have any 'bee house' designs.  I used to work
as an entomology aid (but my focus was beetles)  at a college.  Some of my
buddies were into apiaries, but they were just using single cardboard
tubes for collection purposes.

-Robert C. Mullins M.S. IT




> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
> Date: April 4, 2008 6:48:07 AM PDT
> Subject: Creating Homes for Wild Bees
> Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
>
> STORY LEAD:
> Creating Homes that Please America's Wild Bees
> ___________________________________________
>
> ARS News Service
> Agricultural Research Service, USDA
> Marcia Wood, (301) 504-1662, marcia.wood@ars.usda.gov
> April 4, 2008
> --View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at
> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
> ___________________________________________
>
> Just like people who are looking for a perfect place to live, some
> female bees search for the ideal place to build their nests.
>
> Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist Theresa L.
> Pitts-Singer is discovering more about the "nesting cues" that
> influence wild bees' house-hunting decisions. It's information that may
> help entice more of the hardworking pollinators to take up residence in
> new, ready-to-occupy nesting structures that growers and beekeepers
> provide.
>
> Some bees like living in snug, dark recesses called "nesting cavities."
> These range from deep holes drilled into wooden boards, to bundles of
> cardboard tubes or hollow reeds. Growers and beekeepers place bee
> housing in orchards and fields where they need the bees to live and
> work.
>
> Wild bees augment the work of the European honey bee, currently plagued
> by a puzzling problem known as colony collapse disorder.  That's
> according to Pitts-Singer, with the ARS Pollinating Insect Biology,
> Management and Systematics Research Unit in Logan, Utah.
>
> Scientists already know that female blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria)
> and certain other wild bees prefer to nest in cavities that other
> females of their species once occupied. That's problematical because
> old nests may be contaminated with disease-causing spores.
>
> To find out what's making old nests alluring, Pitts-Singer is
> investigating components from the old homes, including old pollen,
> leaves, mud, and a fluid bees apply to cavity walls.
>
> In one test, Pitts-Singer and colleagues used glass tubes to
> approximate drilled nesting holes, then collected the now-dry fluid
> that bees had left on walls. The scientists are using sophisticated
> laboratory instruments to glean some of the first-ever information
> about the chemical composition of the fluid.
>
> Perhaps secreted by bees to differentiate one home from another, the
> fluid may also add to the overall appeal of a previously occupied
> nesting site. If that's the case, Pitts-Singer's investigations might
> lead to using synthetic versions of the fluid to make tomorrow's new
> nesting structures more inviting.
>
> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
> agency.
>
> ___________________________________________
>
> This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
> subscribers on weekdays. Send feedback and questions to the ARS News
> Service at NewsService@ars.usda.gov.
>
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> them or to subscribe, please contact the ARS News Service or visit
> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/lists.htm.
> __________________________________________
> ARS News Service, Information Staff, Agricultural Research Service
> 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD 20705-5128
> NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
> Phone (301) 504-1636 | fax (301) 504-1486
>
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