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When most people think of bees they think of black and yellow striped honey bees. Honey bees are beloved insects in our culture because of their vital role in our agricultural system and, of course, because we love to eat the sweet honey that they produce. Our history with honey bees goes so far back that there are cave paintings of early humans collecting honey from wild honey bees and many civilizations, such as the Egyptians and Greeks, included honey bees in their art, spiritual beliefs and even on currencies. Europeans thought honey bees were so important that they were some of the first livestock animals brought to America in the 1620s.
That’s right, the honey bees that we have in America started as imports from Europe! So, for June, which is National Pollinator Month, let’s expand our bee knowledge beyond our imported honey bees to learn about and celebrate the native bees of the United States. And we have a lot of native bees to celebrate! In fact, there are more than 4,000 native bee species live in the U.S., with about 950 of those species in Colorado and even more being discovered! So, who are all these bees if they are not honey bees? What do they do? Where do they live? And why are they so often overlooked?
Colorado’s native bees come in many colors and sizes. You’ve likely seen a few of our 26 native bumble bee species pollinating flowers in spring. We especially connect with bumble bees because they are big, fuzzy, and very charismatic. But did you know that they provide a special type of pollination that many other bees cannot? They perform buzz pollination, meaning that they make extraordinarily strong vibrations when they visit a flower to knock pollen loose. Certain foods like tomatoes, eggplants, and blueberries need buzz pollination from these specialized bees to spread their pollen and grow fruits! Honey bees cannot perform buzz pollination, so our native bees that can “buzz” are especially important for these plants.
If you look closer into flowers, you will see the tiny hidden gems that are our other native bees. Metallic, glistening emerald sweat bees are common bees that you will find in Colorado right now. Sweat bees may be small, but they carry a substantial portion of the pollination burden for our ecosystems. Along with sweat bees, there’s velvety blue orchard bees which pollinate our fruit trees, fluffy squash bees which specialize in pollinating gourds, even some of the smallest bees in the world, fairy bees, are here busily pollinating wildflowers! From our high alpine wildflowers to our desert cacti, there’s native bees specialized in keeping Colorado’s landscapes colorfully blooming. And while native bees do not produce honey in the same way that honey bees do, they still provide huge benefits to our agriculture system. Colorado’s famous Palisade peaches, Rocky Ford melons, and Pueblo green chilies are just a few examples of crops that are pollinated in-part by native bees.
Why don’t we notice these bees more often? Unlike honey and bumble bees which live in colonies of hundreds to thousands of workers, most of our native bees live solitary lives. They usually nest in the ground or in hollow plant stems and do not live in colonies. They forage on their own and many of them are as small as ants, so they easily go unnoticed or are misidentified as flies. Our native bees also almost never sting, so we are not watching out for them like we do wasps and honey bees.
So, if these bees are so important, what can we do to ensure that they are always protected in Colorado? Like honey bees, native bees are also facing population declines due to habitat loss, pesticide use, and poor nutrition. To protect all bees, we should plant native and diverse vegetation in our yards and communities, and leave areas of bare ground, logs, and leaves for bees to overwinter in, and reduce harmful pesticide use. There are also many national and local community science programs which you can join to help scientists collect data about native bees.
So, this June during National Pollinator Month, take some extra time on a warm, sunny day to take a closer look inside open flowers and appreciate our colorful native bees!
