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Bee Banter, part 1 – Honey Bees vs. Native Pollinators

Posted on February 20, 2026 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island Leave a comment

The importance of Supporting Ecological Diversity

*Hemaris thetis* moth nectaring at Catmint *(Nepeta sp*.)

With spring around the corner, I thought it might be a good time to write up a post about bees. For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been a San Juan Island resident now for over 17 years. When I was finishing my Masters Degree in Entomology and Nematology, I was required to take bee keeping as part of my advanced Apiculture coursework.

I won’t lie, I did enjoy the bees. I had one of the hives under a bedroom window, and it smelled so wonderful to open that window and smell the bees in the house. In my studies, I learned a lot about social insects. The other thing I learned was bee keeping sure is an expensive endeavor.

Why? Well mostly because the bees had to be replaced every year after they died over the winter from starvation. They didn’t always starve, but in the 6 years or so of keeping bees on the island, I think my longest surviving hive lasted about 4 seasons. That one, I can assure you, only lasted that long because I fed them sugar water. I was feeding the bees a quart of sugar water at least twice a day. They had all of that, and I never took any honey from my hives. All the costs added up. They also sting.

In my experience, I concluded honey bees weren’t exactly the best pollinators here either. As I spent more and more time in my study of insects and moved to a property with an old orchard (plums and apple trees), I saw the insects doing most of the pollination were flies. We have some incredibly cool species of flies too! At night, the insects pollinating these trees included many moths. Just an FYI, flies and moths are particularly attracted to the color white (same color as early flowering fruit trees).

Honestly, I am not much of a food gardener, but I do love watching for insects in our garden and observing the relationships that exist. Not just between the insects and the plants, but also the relationships between different species of insects (and I’ll lump spiders in here too).

Every year, I watch our resident chickadees and nuthatches glean insects off twigs and branches. Nature’s pest control. The little tree frogs gobble bugs off garden plants. Those same frogs are also food for a species of female mosquito. Yes, you might detest mosquitoes, but even mosquitoes are pollinators. Go out at night with a flashlight and look at those fruit tree flowers!

Culex territans mosquito feeding on tree frog

Even now, in February, I watch our year round, Anna’s hummingbirds zip along eaves of our home taking spider webbing to glue their nests together. They also eat many small bugs like fungus gnats and other small flies, even spiders!

If you just take a moment to look closely, there are many varied relationships between species at all trophic levels going on around us that have evolved to work in balance in our island ecosystem. Native species usually have multiple roles in the ecosystem. Some are pollinators, but also pest predators. Others we may consider pests, but they are also predators of pests. Most are food for some other organism in the food chain. Remember too, that just as we are healthier with a diverse diet, other organisms also stay healthy from sourcing nutrients from an assortment of food. When we lose diversity, we all suffer. We need a complex working ecosystem, and that comes from nature!

Some of our island native bee pollinators include bumble bees, sweat bees, alkali bees, blood bees, orchard bees, leaf cutter bees, nomad bees, digger bees, fairy bees, and others. These bees may not produce honey, but they are pollinators of immensely great value.

Golden Furrow Bees Subgenus Seladoniaa member of Furrow Bees Genus Halictus

In fact, research over the past decade is illuminating just how critical these native bees and other native pollinators are for biodiversity. Biodiversity that is disappearing from our world due to habitat loss, land use changes, agricultural practices, and competition over resources with non-native species (like honey bees). You don’t have to take my word for it though. The Washington Native Bee Society and the Xerces Society will give you similar information.

Melissodes microstictus Small Long-horned Bee

Try Googling a bit on your own and you might find some pretty cool statistics about how native bees are actually better pollinators than honey bees, AND that their pollination services can yield larger, healthier fruits (like blueberries and strawberries for example). Competition over resources and displacement of native bees due to honey bee keeping isn’t limited to our island or our state. It’s been something happening world wide where honey bees are used for agricultural practices, whether for pollination or honey production. The encouraging news is that supporting native pollinators is gaining momentum. I’ve compiled a resource list for you to look at, read, and share if you are inclined.

If you are still dead set on setting up a honey bee hive, I’m happy to walk you through it. I can give you a list of everything you’ll need, provide the cost of all those supplies, and advise you on how not to get stung, why you should never eat a banana near your bee hive, what problems you can anticipate with pests and pathogens, and how to avoid losing your bees due to swarming. I will also tell you that if you set up a honey bee hive, you must file and register your colony with WSDA per state law. Hopefully, you will make your way to the same conclusion as I have. It’s cheaper and also ethically responsible to support native pollinators and conserve habitat in your own yard for pollinator diversity. It’s also quite fun and rewarding to watch and learn about native bees and the bugs you probably never even knew existed.

References and Further Reading

Anderson, H. L. D. (2024). Nocturnal moth communities and potential pollinators of berry agroecosystems in British Columbia (T). University of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0447737

Brast, C. 2024. Where are all the Bees? Bugging You From San Juan Island. https://buggingyoufromsanjuanisland.com/category/bees/

Brast, C. 2022. Musings on the complicated topic of native pollinators, food production, and climate change. https://buggingyoufromsanjuanisland.com/2022/08/17/musings-on-the-complicated-topic-of-native-pollinators-food-production-and-climate-change/

Brast, C. 2025. Fantastic Fly Friday. https://buggingyoufromsanjuanisland.com/2025/04/11/fantastic-fly-friday/

Dlugo, J. 2022. Seven Native Bees to Know in Washington State. Washington Native Bee Society. https://www.wanativebeesociety.org/post/seven-native-bees-to-know-in-washington-state

Hatfield, R. And M. Shepherd. 2025. Want to save the bees? Focus on habitat, not honey bees. Xerces Society. https://www.xerces.org/blog/want-to-save-bees-focus-on-habitat-not-honey-bees

Hatfield, R., S. Jepsen, M. Vaughan, S. Black, and E. Lee-Mäder. 2018. An Overview of the Potential Impacts of Honey Bees to Native Bees, Plant Communities , and Ecosystems in Wild Landscapes: Recommendations for Land Managers. 12pp. Portland, OR: The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. https://www.xerces.org/publications/guidelines/overview-of-potential-impacts-of-honey-bees-to-native-bees-plant

KEARNS, C. A. 2001. North American dipteran pollinators: assessing their value and conservation status. Conservation Ecology 5(1): 5. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss1/art5/

MacInnis, G, Forrest, JRK. 2019. Pollination by wild bees yields larger strawberries than pollination by honey bees. J Appl Ecol. 56: 824– 832. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13344

Mallinger, R.E. and Gratton, C., 2015. Species richness of wild bees, but not the use of managed honeybees, increases fruit set of a pollinator-dependent crop. J Appl Ecol. 52: 323-330. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12377

Angelella GM, McCullough CT, O’Rourke ME. 2021. Honey bee hives decrease wild bee abundance, species richness, and fruit count on farms regardless of wildflower strips. Sci Rep. Feb 5;11(1):3202. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-81967-1. Erratum in: Sci Rep. 2021 Aug 17;11(1):17043. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-95368-x. PMID: 33547371; PMCID: PMC7865060. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7865060/

Page, Maureen L., and Neal M. Williams. 2023. “ Honey Bee Introductions Displace Native Bees and Decrease Pollination of a Native Wildflower.” Ecology 104(2): e3939. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3939

Lorenzo Pasquali, Claudia Bruschini, Fulvia Benetello, Marco Bonifacino, Francesca Giannini, Elisa Monterastelli, Marco Penco, Sabrina Pesarini, Vania Salvati, Giulia Simbula, Marta Skowron Volponi, Stefania Smargiassi, Elia van Tongeren, Giorgio Vicari, Alessandro Cini, Leonardo Dapporto. 2025. Island-wide removal of honeybees reveals exploitative trophic competition with strongly declining wild bee populations. Current Biology. 35(7) : 1576-1590.e12,
ISSN 0960-9822, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.02.048 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225002623

Thomson, D. (2004), COMPETITIVE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE INVASIVE EUROPEAN HONEY BEE AND NATIVE BUMBLE BEES. Ecology, 85: 458-470. https://doi.org/10.1890/02-0626

Fantastic Fly Friday

Posted on April 11, 2025 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island Leave a comment

I thought I’d write up a short post about all the wonderful flies (and a few others) pollinating our plum trees in this cool spring weather. Why feature the flies? Well, for starters, the plum tree blossoms are white and flies love the color white. Another reason to feature the flies is because they are under-recognized and under appreciated, but very important pollinators. Some fly larvae even serve as pest predators, eating aphids. Others, like the tachinid fly below, use caterpillars that defoliate trees as hosts for their larvae to develop. Flies are also awesome because they do not sting! Some even “dance!” My favorite fly hasn’t shown up yet. It’s a Conopid Fly. More about that one later though…

Tachinid Fly (Epalpus signifier)

This past week in the media, there have been so many posts about the decline in honey bees. While there are some (unwanted) honey bees showing up on days when the temperatures climb above 50 degrees, honey bees aren’t active if it is cooler. Flies, on the other hand, are quite busy at work pollinating and do just fine when it might only be 40 outside. Flies are awesome! They need our support and appreciation.

I’d like to add (and I do know something about this because of my entomology background), that honey bees are just not necessary on San Juan Island. In fact, they might even be a very bad thing. They showed up at our plum tree as the temperature warmed up the other day, and as they arrived in increasing numbers, they kicked off ALL of the native pollinators that I had been observing. 😦

For honey bees to fly out of the hive and forage, they need temperatures above 50 degrees. In my experience keeping bees (as part of my graduate school work), they typically do not survive well on the island unless they are fed supplemental sugar water. Think about the ecological footprint of growing sugar to feed the bees!

Feeding honey bees attracts (and supports) the buildup of yellow jacket populations which are attracted to honey bee hive resources (including eating the honey bee brood developing in the hive), and honey bees also bring pests and pathogens that impact native bees (especially bumble bees). One more thing! If you are growing tomatoes, bumble bees are your pollinators, not honey bees.

I hope you will read and consider this recent study published about how honey bees were negatively impacting native pollinators on Giannutri Island in Italy. They were causing a decline in the populations of wild bees. In fact, the study cited an “alarming 80% decline in wild bee abundance over 4 years” (Pasquali et al. 2025). You can access this study to read it yourself here: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdfExtended/S0960-9822(25)00262-3

Enjoy the gallery of the native pollinators that I was fortunate to photograph and be able to share. Be a fly fan! Be a native bee fan! Learn about our unseen, but important night time pollinators (moths), and PLEASE LEAVE THE HONEY PIGS for the mainland industrial farm operations.

Golden Dung Fly (*Scathophaga stercoraria*)

(*Melanostoma mellinum* )Variable Duskyface Fly

Sericomyia chalcopyga Western Pond Fly

Bibionid Fly (Bibio sp.) and Hybotidae Dance Fly (Bicellaria sp.)

(Melanostoma mellinum) Variable Duskyface Fly

References

KEARNS, C. A. 2001. North American dipteran pollinators: assessing their value and conservation status. Conservation Ecology 5(1): 5. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss1/art5/

Pasquali, Lorenzo & Bruschini, Claudia & Benetello, Fulvia & Bonifacino, Marco & Giannini, Francesca & Monterastelli, Elisa & Penco, Marco & Salvati, Vania & Simbula, Giulia & Skowron Volponi, Marta & Smargiassi, Stefania & van Tongeren, Elia & Vicari, Giorgio & Cini, Alessandro & Dapporto, Leonardo. (2025). Island-Wide Removal of Honey Bees Reveals Exploitative Trophic Competition with Strongly Declining Wild Bee Populations. 10.2139/ssrn.5081459. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225002623#:~:text=Article-,Island%2Dwide%20removal%20of%20honeybees%20reveals%20exploitative%20trophic%20competition,strongly%20declining%20wild%20bee%20populations

Ssymank, A., Kearns, Bonn & Carol. Flies – Pollinators on two wings. The Diptera Site. https://diptera.myspecies.info/diptera/content/flies-–pollinators-two-wings

Diptera

Is our fear of murder hornets turning us into the real murderers?

Posted on July 24, 2020 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island Leave a comment

A neighbor sent me this video footage late last night. She asks, “Why are all the black and yellow bumble bees on the ground dying?” This occurred locally at an island lavender farm where the bumble bees are LOVED and no one is applying any pesticides. In the video you can certainly see the bees she refers to. Why only those?

The dying bees are the lovely Yellow-Faced bumble bees, Bombus vosnesenskii. I personally appreciate these because not only are they avid tomato pollinators, but they have such adorably chubby and fuzzy bodies with a yellow face and a yellow band around their little black bottom.

*Bombus vosnesenskii*, Yellow-faced Bumble Bee

Bumble bees are cavity nesters. Many will select an empty mouse burrow in the ground to create their nest. The fertilized queen overwinters and begins her colony in late March or early April, foraging for herself and the eggs she laid that would soon hatch into larvae needing to be fed.

Bumble bee nest on San Juan Island, WA 2010

In order to obtain nutrients necessary for survival, bumble bee foragers can travel long distances (up to 11 miles), especially here as our growing season ends in summer. Right now, they are visiting the lavender in bloom.

These poor bees are most likely victims of pesticide. The fact that all of them are the same species, at the same location, indicates to me that someone applied pesticide at their nest site, likely a property owner within foraging distance of the worker bees visiting the lavender farm. The workers dispersed from the nest to try to do what they are programmed to do (forage for food), but simply succumbed to the toxic residues that some fearful homeowner applied.

“I can’t have bees in my yard!” “I’m allergic.” “I have pets.” “I hate insects.” “It could be murder hornets.”

Do you want to have food?

If you, as a homeowner, continue spraying your yard every time you see a bee and can’t learn to live with them, you are going to be the end of all of us. Bumble bees are some of our most important agricultural pollinators. More important than honey bees!

The dying bees in this video are native bees. “Native” means they are adapted to this environment. They have the ability to survive here better than European honey bees (Apis mellifera) which are not native. Honey bees were transported to North America by Europeans who brought sheep, cattle, swine, and other domesticated species to this continent.

Back to the over-sensationalized “murder hornets.” This term makes me angry! 😡 The media hype is much like the hype over the mantids that are going to eat our hummingbirds ! Just because it is printed in the paper doesn’t mean it is the whole truth or entirely accurate. The primary reason the Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa mandarinia) is of concern is their ability to kill European honey bees (Apis mellifera), an agricultural commodity. To read some of the news stories, you’d think we were dealing with Africanized Bees…remember those?

It is possible Vespa mandarinia will not survive here. They aren’t native. They will be susceptible to parasites, and viral, bacterial, and fungal diseases (not unlike the same problems our non-native European honey bees face) potentially making it difficult for populations to establish themselves. We could also, as many Asians do, learn to eat them. Yes, do read the publication about them in my references section!

Please put that can of pesticide away. Don’t spray. If you are truly afraid of bees, then educate yourself about how to live alongside them. First off, don’t wear shades of blue or black colors when you’re near an area that has bees. Bumble bees and honey bees are attracted to these colors. Avoid wearing fragrances. Wash your clothing in unscented detergent and avoid using those noxious, heavily scented dryer sheets. Finally, if you do see an insect that you believe is the Asian Giant Hornet, take a photo or collect the specimen if it is already dead and contact WSU following these guidelines.

In Washington State only, people should report potential sightings of the AGH through the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s website. Outside of Washington, contact your state apiary inspector. If it is safe to do so, take a photo or collect a dead specimen of the pest to help experts identify the insect.

In the meantime, please don’t fall victim to media hype and do your best not to murder innocent bumble bees!

References and further reading:

Bombus vosnesenskii. Bugguide.net https://bugguide.net/node/view/19538

John M. Mola, Neal M. Williams. (2019) A review of methods for the study of bumble bee movement. Apidologie 56.

Jha, Shalene, and Claire Kremen. (2019) Resource diversity and landscape-level homogeneity drive native bee foraging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 110,2: 555-8. doi:10.1073/pnas.1208682110

Sujaya Rao, George Hoffman, Julie Kirby & Danielle Horne (2019) Remarkable long-distance returns to a forage patch by artificially displaced wild bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Journal of Apicultural Research, 58:4, 522-530, DOI: 10.1080/00218839.2019.1584962

(Vespa mandarinia) Asian giant hornet. New Pest Response Guidelines. (2020) USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Plant Protection and Quarantine. https://cms.agr.wa.gov/WSDAKentico/Documents/PP/PestProgram/Vespa_mandarinia_NPRG_10Feb2020-(002).pdf

Uncategorized

Blue Orchard Bee ~ Osmia lignaria

Posted on April 13, 2018 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island Leave a comment

Sighted April 12, 2018, San Juan Island, WA. Blue Orchard Mason Bee (Osmia lignaria). These are important early (native) pollinators. Adults hibernate overwinter and emerge from March to May. Blue Orchard Mason Bees are being managed as orchard pollinators as they are excellent at pollinating fruit trees such as pear, cherry, plum, and apple, as well as quince and others, including blueberries. Blue Orchard Mason Bees and other solitary bees in the genus Megachilidae (like leaf-cutting bees) carry pollen on their bellies instead of special baskets on their hind legs like honey bees. The Blue Orchard Mason Bee use tubular cavities for nests, partitioning each brood cell with a wall of mud. Although similar in size, Blue Orchard bees are easy to distinguish from honey bees because they are metallic in coloring, often dark blue or blue-black.

Family: Megachilidae, Genus: Osmia (Mason bee)Osmia ligaria – Blue Orchard Bee

Family: Megachilidae, Genus: Osmia (Mason bee)

Osmia spp. (Osmia lignaria) mating ~ April 15, 2017

Read more about Blue Orchard Mason Bees (Osmia lignaria) here:

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/mason_bees.shtml

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/MISC/BEES/blue_orchard_bee.htm

Hopguard, Honey B Healthy and Yummy Smells of Lemon Balm

Posted on June 24, 2012 by "BUGGING" YOU FROM San Juan Island One comment

June 24, 2012

The sun is out today! We’ve had almost a whole month of gloomy weather that many on the island have dubbed the month “June-u-ary!” Perhaps the next few weeks will be warmer and the overcast skies will clear.

Last week when I checked my hive, I noticed I had the dreaded varroa mites. My new queen is doing fine though and the bees have cleared out all of the old drone brood that was the result of my first queen. I have no idea what became of her, but the operation in place now looks healthy…except for those mites!

Varroa mite

My day today is a full one. I have been baking and preparing food for my daughter’s high school graduation potluck supper this evening. While in the kitchen though, I thought I’d take care of some bee hive tasks as well. Since the jar of sugar syrup I have inside the hive was looking low, I made up a new batch. This one I made with a teaspoon of Honey B Healthy, a feeding stimulant that contains essential oils that “helps your hives to thrive!” Did I mention that the lemongrass oil in it made my kitchen smell ten times better than the brownies I was baking? No wonder my friend and bee mentor, Colleen, who recommended it, said that it makes the bees go crazy. This stuff smells so good I’d take a bath in it if I could! Maybe I’m turning into a bee? They say you end up looking like your pets. I suppose I might look like a bee when I get my new glasses!

I also got something called Hopguard from Colleen as well. Hopguard is a miticide made from organic acids in the hop plant, Humulus lupulus. It contains 16% potassium salt of hop beta acids and comes in these long gooey strips that are made from food-grade products. It is safe for my bees and the bee brood, so I don’t have to worry about dangerous chemicals. All you do is take a sticky strip and hang it over one of your frames draped like this:

I only hung one strip in my hive since I only have about 5 frames that have been drawn out. I plan to put in a new strip in about ten days, as the one I put in today won’t work as well as it dries out. You can read more and watch a video about controlling varroa mites with Hopguard when you visit these sites:

http://www.mannlakeltd.com/hopguard/

http://www.betatechopproducts.com/products/varroa-mite-control

I also put a sheet of sticky paper under the screen in my bottom board. The mites will fall off the bees and stick to the paper. It has a grid that makes it easier to count the number of mites, so I can see how heavily infested my bees are as well as an idea of how well the Hopguard strips are working. I will try a quick check perhaps tomorrow and then again before I put in a new strip.