Chandra Clarke

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Seeing is bee-lieving

June 23, 2014 By Chandra Clarke Leave a Comment

Bee Happy
Bee Happy (Photo credit: Treesha Duncan)

You’ve probably read a lot of articles in the last year about colony collapse disorder—sudden massive bee hive die-offs. There are a number of different theories about the problem (although nothing has been agreed upon yet), including pesticide use, fungal infection, and disease. What many of the stories have failed to note, however, is that bee populations were in trouble before the disorder made headlines.

In the UK, it is estimated that 97% of wildflower meadows have disappeared in the past 60 years and some 20 species of bees have gone extinct. To get a better idea of which bee populations are currently struggling and which ones are thriving, researchers want you to participate in The Great British Bee Count.

Don’t worry, actually poking around in a hive isn’t required. All you need to do is record when and where you see a bee, either using your phone or tablet, with free apps available for either iOS or Android. You’ll be shown a number of bee species, asked to move a slider under the right picture to indicate how many you saw, and then note the habitat (e.g., garden, park), and rough location (e.g., whether you’re in Abderdeenshire or East Sussex). Project organizers are hoping you’ll record bees whenever you see them over the summer. Don’t have a smart phone or tablet? No problem. You can access the “Seen a bee?” link on your desktop computer.

You can also help conserve bees by planting a lavender border, starting a “bee cafe,” (planting a garden for bees), sow wildflower seeds, or build a “bee hotel” for solitary bees and wasps.

As Professor Dave Goulson notes, “The Great British Bee Count is a great excuse to get outside in the sunshine and watch bees going about their business.”

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You ought to bee in pictures

June 27, 2013 By Chandra Clarke Leave a Comment

If you ever needed proof that bees were important, and that bee-related citizen science projects were hot right now, then look no further. Waitrose, a grocery chain the UK, and in association with The Crown Estate has recently backed a “bee app” by the Earthwatch Institute.

The app, called “Bee-friend Your Garden” wants you to record the insects that visit your garden to build an understanding of which plants are most attractive to these insects.

The app allows you to photograph and record details of the pollinating insects, plot these results to see which of your plants is the most popular, and most importantly, upload the data to a central database.

The app is available to iPhone and iPad users and to Android users as well.

The data will go to researchers at University of Sussex, specifically the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI).

Photo by Roberto Lopez on Unsplash

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Urban Pollination

November 20, 2012 By Chandra Clarke Leave a Comment

English: A pack of organic cherry tomatoes, fr...
Cherry tomato yields will help tell the bumblebee story. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve written in this space before about the importance of bees to our food supply, and I’m pleased to find another project dedicated to learning more about how we can help protect them.

The Urban Pollination Project is a University of Washington initiative designed to learn more about urban bee populations and how they affect urban garden yields. Volunteers grow three cherry tomato plants (one self-pollinated, one open-pollinated, and one that receives extra buzz-pollination with a tuning fork) and measure plant yield.

By comparing open versus self-pollinated plants, researchers will be able to tell how many more tomatoes are produced when plants have the available bumblebees visiting them. By comparing open versus tuning fork-pollinated plants, researchers will be able to tell whether more pollinator activity would increase tomato production.

Currently located only in the Seattle area, the project needs plant growers, as well as coordinating volunteers and administrators. You can also donate to the project at the Microryza website. For more information, contact urbanpollinationproject [at] gmail.com.

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To bee or not to bee

October 2, 2012 By Chandra Clarke Leave a Comment

While the sight of a bee may freak some people out, it gladdens a farmer’s heart. That’s because bees are vital to agriculture, where they play a key role in pollinating our crops.

Unfortunately, North American bee populations have been under a lot of pressure lately. In addition to the so-called colony collapse disorder, which is still befuddling bee keepers, a type of fly known as the zombie fly (Apocephalus borealis) has taken to parasitizing honey bees in California and South Dakota, turning them into … you guessed it, zombees.

Female zombie flies will  lay their eggs in live honey bees. The egg hatches into a larva (maggot), and the maggots begin feeding on the bee. After  a number of days, an infected honey bee  will abandon its hive during the night and fly toward a source of light, where it will die. Once the maggots finish eating the bee, they exit the bee and form pupae. In two to four weeks, the pupae hatch into adult flies, and it all starts again.

ZomBee Watch is a citizen science project sponsored by the San Francisco State University Department of Biology, the San Francisco State University Center for Computing for Life Sciences, and the Natural History Museum of LA County. The goal is to find out how much of a threat these flies are, by determining where honey bees are being parasitized. To participate, you’ll need to create a light trap near a bee hive, (carefully) collect any bees that collect near the light, and do a pupae count if zombie flies emerge, and send photos of your data to the Zombee Watch website. There’s a complete tutorial here.

In this project, it’s important to note that reporting dead bees that don’t have any pupae emerging is just as important as reporting when they do emerge. This is because it gives researchers a more accurate picture of how far the new zombie fly habit has spread, and it may also give further clues as to the cause of colony collapse disorder.

Ready to get started? Here’s where you can register.

Photo by Dmitry Grigoriev on Unsplash

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