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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] bumble bees

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  • From: Hélène Dessureault <interverbis@videotron.ca>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] bumble bees
  • Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:16:48 -0500

Like Ginda, we have lots of bumble bees. There are also other types of wild pollination insect which I have not identified, one in particular that live in a larger group like bees. They are bigger and look a bit like caucasian bees and live in the ground, which I noticed for the first time last Spring and have not identified. They are more territorial and more aggressive than bumble bees. I have not tried their sting. Like Ginda, we keep our environment pesticide and herbicide free, because it is a choice to make.

How can one intervene selectively, when we understand so little about what is really happening out there...

There use to be domestic bees around, but I have not seen them last year. We had a beekeeper keeping bees at our place for many years but he gave up after having his hives destroyed by a very nasty big black bear, desperate enough to be indifferent to electric fences.

My pear trees were polinated last Spring by a very tiny insect looking more like a little wasp. There were many of them and I could not believe that such a small insect could pollinate effectively, but apparently they can do the job as I did not see any other. These little wasps were out in colder weather than bees and bumble bees.

Hélène, zone 3-4, north of Ottawa






----- Original Message ----- From: "Ginda Fisher" <list@ginda.us>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] bumble bees


No, I've never 'raised' bumble bees, but I have lots of wild ones. I plant
a variety of things that flower throughout the year, and am very careful to
avoid spraying anything in bloom. This seems to work to maintain a good
population, and I have good fruit set in everything insect-pollinated.
(currants, strawberries, apricots, blueberries, apples, raspberries.) in
the early fall I harvest raspberries as the bumbles work the blossoms. I
can pick within inches of the placid bees and have never been stung. I'm a
big fan of bumblebees.
___
Ginda
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