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bee forage • wild bees and native bees

What blooms in your September garden?

6 years ago

65 Comments

pollinator habitat

How does your garden grow?

8 years ago

28 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

gardening for bees • how to

How to make a straw-bale pollinator garden

9 years ago

11 Comments

attracting wild pollinators

15 ways to quickly attract pollinators to your yard

12 years ago

6 Comments

White crocus. Attract bees to your garden by selecting a variety of plants.

attracting wild pollinators • bee forage • how to

8 ways to attract bees to your garden

12 years ago

5 Comments

attracting wild pollinators • bee forage • pollen

Native bee forage: bird’s eyes

12 years ago

3 Comments

attracting wild pollinators • bee forage

Five favorite plants for the bee garden

13 years ago

5 Comments

attracting wild pollinators • bee forage • honey

Goldenrod: a fabulous feast for late-summer bee...

13 years ago

15 Comments

infrequently asked questions • plant-pollinator mutualisms • pollination

Pollinators and vegetable gardens

14 years ago

4 Comments

attracting wild pollinators • wild bees and native bees

Pollinator-friendly plants

14 years ago

2 Comments

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This book started zillions of people on their path to beekeeping. If you haven't read it, you should.

QueenSpotting: Meet the Remarkable Queen Bee and Discover the Drama at the Heart of the Hive by Hilary Kearney. You have to be a scrooge not to love this book. It even includes 48 queenspotting challenges.

The Bees in Your Backyard by Wilson & Carril. If you have any interest at all in the "other bees," you need this book. These are the bees we need to save.

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass

The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:

Arkansas
Georgia
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

Minnesota now has a state bee as well as a state insect. Bombus affinis, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee, has been so honored. Good work, Minnesota!

Connecticut’s state insect is the European “praying” mantis. Although they are beneficial insects, they are not native to North America.