Restoring the Landscape with Native Plants Article Grass-carrying Wasps ~ Isodontia spp.

Grass-carrying wasps are a flower-visiting solitary wasp, common in late summer and early fall. Because they are solitary-nesting, and not colonial like yellowjackets or hornets, they do not sting humans to defend their nests. It's an important distinction to make with wasps in our landscapes, so many are solitary and not aggressive.

They perform important ecosystem services, pollinating the plants in our landscape, and preying on foliage eating insects, crickets and katydids in particular.

Females look for prey, stinging them several times to paralyze and immobilize them. They carry their prey back to their nests, which are preexisting cavities such as hollow stems or holes bored in wood.

The paralyzed prey are stocked for their developing larvae to feed upon. Using nearby grasses, nests are divided into sections with pieces of grass, they also close the end of nest with grass.

If you erect a mason bee nest board (board with nesting holes drilled in it), grass-carrying wasps will sometimes build nests in the cavities. Look for pieces of grass sticking out the ends of the board holes or plant stems.

I have several different variations of stem nests hung in the yard for solitary bees (and wasps), this one in particular has been utilized almost exclusively by grass-carrying wasps. Cup plant and pale Indian plantain stems work extremely well, both are hollow.

Here's a cross-section of one of those stems with the wasp larvae and stocked prey. In my yard, the grass-carrying wasps like to use little blue stem to seal off the cavities.

Look for grass-carrying wasps in late summer. In my yard, they like to visit stiff goldenrod, common boneset and pale Indian plantain flowers for nectar.













Article Posted From Restoring The Landscape Website

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Patterns of Widespread Decline in North American Bumble Bees

by
Sydney A. Cameron, Jeffrey D. Lozier, James P. Strange, Jonathan B. Kochb , Nils Cordesa, Leellen F. Solter, and Terry L. Griswold

Bumble bees (Bombus) are vitally important pollinators of wild plants and agricultural crops worldwide. Fragmentary observations, however, have suggested population declines in several North American species. Despite rising concern over these observations in the United States, highlighted in a recent National Academy of Sciences report, a national assessment of the geographic scope and possible causal factors of bumble bee decline is lacking. Here, we report results of a 3-y interdisciplinary study of changing distributions, population genetic structure, and levels of pathogen infection
in bumble bee populations across the United States. We compare current and historical distributions of eight species, compiling a database of >73,000 museum records for comparison with data from intensive nationwide surveys of >16,000 specimens. We show that
the relative abundances of four species have declined by up to 96% and that their surveyed geographic ranges have contracted by 23– 87%, some within the last 20 y. We also show that declining populations have significantly higher infection levels of the microsporidian
pathogen Nosemabombi and lower genetic diversity compared with co-occurring populations of the stable (nondeclining) species. Higher pathogen prevalence and reduced genetic diversity are, thus, realistic predictors of these alarming patterns of decline in North America, although cause and effect remain uncertain.

The first author wishes me to point out that the bees have undergone reduction of genetic diversity (loss of genes because of shrinking populations), not inbreeding.

James C. Trager, Ph. D.

Biologist - Naturalist

Shaw Nature Reserve

P.O. Box 38

Gray Summit MO 63039

636-451-3512 ext. 6002

Soybean Pollination Experiment

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of the honeybee pollination in the production and quality of soybean seeds (Glycine max L. Merril). Seed production was higher (P=0.0001) in covered areas with honeybee colonies (50.64%) and uncovered areas (57.73%) than in covered areas without honeybee colonies. It could be concluded that honeybees were responsible for 95.5% of the pollination accomplished by insects. The pod number in covered treatment with honeybees was 61.38% higher (P=0.0002) than in the covered treatment without honeybees. The average weight of 100 seeds was larger (P=0.0001) in the area covered without honeybees, and reached 17.8 g. The medium content of crude protein in grains was 36.7% and the average oil content was 20.2%. The germination test did not show differences (P>0.05) among the seeds in different treatments. It was concluded that the honeybee pollination in the soybean increased the seeds production.

Taken from Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology

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National Pollinator Week

Did you know that one out of every third bite of food comes to us
thanks to pollinators? From beautiful butterflies to busy bees, it’s
clear that pollinators are essential to life on our planet.

But, declines in pollinators in North America and around the world
pose what could be a significant threat to biodiversity, global food
webs and human health.

Help pollinators in your neighborhood during National
Pollinator Week (June 22-28) by taking one or more of
these five simple actions:
1. Use Native Plants
2. Hang Hummingbird Feeders
3. Build a Bee House
4. Plant a Butterfly Garden
5. Certify Your Yard with National Wildlife Federation

Pollinators This Spring

This is a continuation of our last post.

This is not hard science by any means, but it appears to me that the colder than normal temperatures are having a direct bearing on the number of insects present. We have noticed that our large colonies of bluebells are have been in flower nearly twice as long as in years when the daily temperatures are higher. Another indication of the cold temperatures is how little planted corn has emerged and what has emerged is very small compared to past years. We are just starting to see a few butterflies and they tend to be in the most protected areas.
My night-time back door surveys of moths and other nocturnal insects also seem to directly implicate that low temperatures are having a negative effect on numbers. I can recall only one warm evening so far this season, and that night there were a few moths, most evenings, there have been none or just one or two. Another indication is the general absence of mosquitos, I have yet to encounter, but one in the
woods. I am not defending the use of agricultural insecticides, but
we need to remember insects like heat and we have not had much of it this spring.

Carl

On May 20, 2008, at 4:59 PM, Richard G wrote:

> I have noticed that as well. Despite prodigious flowering of apple
> trees, plums, and other fruit trees, I fear that the lack of
> pollinators may lead to another down year in local fruit production.
>
> Dick

Why Flowers Have Lost Their Scent

Pollution is stifling the fragrance of plants and preventing bees from pollinating them – endangering one of the most essential cycles of nature, writes Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean
Researchers say that pollution is dramatically cutting the distance travelled by the scent of flowers
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Pollution is dulling the scent of flowers and impeding some of the most basic processes of nature, disrupting insect life and imperilling food supplies, a new study suggests.
The potentially hugely significant research – funded by the blue-chip US National Science Foundation – has found that gases mainly formed from the emissions of car exhausts prevent flowers from attracting bees and other insects in order to pollinate them. And the scientists who have conducted the study fear that insects' ability to repel enemies and attract mates may also be impeded.
The researchers – at the University of Virginia – say that pollution is dramatically cutting the distance travelled by the scent of flowers. Professor Jose Fuentes, who led the study, said: "Scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 metres. But today they may travel only 200 to 300 metres. This makes it increasingly difficult for bees and other insects to locate the flowers."
The researchers – who worked on the scent given off by snapdragons – found that the molecules are volatile, and quickly bond with pollutants such as ozone and nitrate radicals, mainly formed from vehicle emissions. This chemically alters the molecules so that they no longer smell like flowers. A vicious cycle is therefore set up where insects struggle to get enough food and the plants do not get pollinated enough to proliferate.
Already bees – which pollinate most of the world's crops – are in unprecedented decline in Britain and across much of the globe. At least a quarter of America's 2.5 million honey bee colonies have been mysteriously wiped out by colony collapse disorder (CCD), where hives are found suddenly deserted.
The crisis has now spread to Europe. Politicians insist that CCD has not yet been found in Britain, but the insects have been declining here too, and the agriculture minister Lord Rooker has warned that "the honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years".
The researchers do not believe that they have found the cause of CCD, but say that pollution is making life more difficult for bees and other insects in many ways."