The insect world is mysterious. It is amazing to see how insects fit into the pattern of this planned world. We soon discover that some are friends and others are foes. Wild and domesticated bees are friends.
Besides the fact that a bee stings, what else do we know about this insect which has such an important part in the scheme of things?
The wild bee constructs underground burrows or nests in shells, hollow trees, holes in porous rocks, or hollow-stemmed plants. Plowing for crops, clean cultivation of fence rows, and burning of woods and wastelands have destroyed many nesting sites.
Concentrated planting of large acreages to one crop has left them nothing for food when that supply is exhausted. As a result, wild bees have decreased greatly in numbers.
Living Habits Of Bees
Wild bees live alone or in small groups and have no cooperative way of living, such as the domesticated bee (honeybee) and, to a certain extent, the bumblebee, have.
Bumblebees live in colonies in the ground or a hollow tree.
Honey Bees are kept in hives except those that escape by swarming. A hive may contain 20,000 to 200,000 bees. The division of work among colony members is like an assembly line in a well-organized factory.
The complex yet orderly activity in a beehive is all a part of producing the bees without which we could not successfully grow orchard fruits, legumes, or certain flower seeds and tasty vegetables.
Tasks Of Workers
Those who have delved into the secret of the hives tell us that a queen bee may live three to five years. The life of a worker (except the less active winter ones) is limited to six or seven weeks. Young bees are constantly hatched to replace those that die.
Workers gather the nectar and pollen, produce wax to make the cells, attend to the queen and feed her royal jelly, clean and air the hives, and seal honey cells. There are other tasks, all completed so efficiently that comprehending is bewildering.
What does all this activity in the hive and a bee’s way of life do with the fruit on our trees, the seeds we grow, and the well-filled bean pods in our gardens? Bees require nectar and pollen to feed the young and to make wax, royal jelly, and honey.
The workers speed to our fruit trees, flowers, and vegetables to get nectar to take back to the hive. Each bee has two “baskets” (part of their hind legs) in which to carry pollen.
Usefulness In Pollination
Flowers, on the other hand, have to be pollinated to set fruit and develop seeds—the pollen from the anthers must be transferred to the stigma on the pistil. As a result, many plants depend entirely on insects such as wild bees, bumblebees, and honeybees to pollinate their blossoms.
The honeybee dives into the blossom for the hidden nectar. Some of the pollen brushes off onto his hairy body as he leaves.
When the bee stops at the next blossom, some of the pollen on its body falls on the pistil of that blossom, and thus the flower is pollinated. This coordination between insect and plant has been expertly designed.
A bee on one trip visits only one kind of flower. If his first nectar and pollen are from an apple blossom, he will continue with apple blossoms until his nectar and pollen baskets have been filled.
Sprays May Harm Bees
It is easy to see how important bees are and how vital it is to protect them. But unfortunately, each year, deadly insecticides are used over wide areas to kill injurious insects, fleas, and other helpful insects like ladybugs and praying mantes.
Unfortunately, certain wasps are also susceptible to these poisons, and many are killed, thus drastically reducing their numbers.
Avoid using poison sprays whenever another method will do the work. If you must use a highly toxic spray, practice great caution for the sake of your welfare and your insect friends.
44659 by Olga Rolf Tiemann