Supporting Bees in Your Garden and on Your Farm

Bees are critical pollinators of 2/3 of the crops we eat and of most of the world's flowering plant species. The honeybee, while exceptionally important to commercial agriculture, is just one of 20,000 species of bees around the world, the great majority of which are wild (see Bee Diversity, below). These wild bees are industrious pollinators, working alongside honeybees to pollinate both crops and wild plants. In fact, many crops depend as much on wild bees as they do on honeybees, and abundant populations of wild bees can significantly increase crop production.

Unfortunately, wild bees and honeybees alike face considerable threats from pesticides, disease, and loss of habitat, and have experienced marked declines. For example, a once-common pollinator of cranberry crops in New Jersey, the Rusty Patched Bumblebee, has disappeared from more than 80% of its range and was listed as endangered in 2017. This fact sheet provides information on how you can help combat threats to bees by establishing safe, high-quality bee habitat in your garden or on your farm.

Planting Flowers for Bees

Most bee species require pollen and nectar from multiple plant species. Additionally, different bee species are active at different times of the year and require flowers that bloom throughout the season. For these reasons, it is important to plant pollinator habitat with at least three different kinds of flowers blooming concurrently in spring, summer, and fall (see Bloom Calendar, below.). Prioritize native plants over non-natives to minimize the risk of introducing weedy species. When choosing plants or seeds from a native plant nursery, make sure they have not been treated with insecticides.

Flowering Meadows vs. Woody Plants

Pollinator seed mixes are readily available from native seed suppliers and are easy to plant. Note, however, that flowers planted from seed may take a few years to provide abundant blooms and large meadows require site preparations and ongoing maintenance such as mowing. Installing flowering shrubs and trees is more expensive than using seed, but these plantings require less long-term maintenance and can produce flowers immediately. While most herbs bloom in the summer and fall, many shrubs and trees bloom in the spring, providing critical resources for early spring bees.

Flowering Lawns and Crops

You can also support bees by modifying how you manage your lawn or farm. Establishing a flowering lawn with low-growing flowers can provide food for bees without planting new garden beds. Flowering crops, including cover crops such as buckwheat or clover, and many food crops, such as stone fruits, apples, melons, and squashes, also provide significant floral resources for bees. Diverse crop systems are better than monocultures at providing the variety of flowers that bees need.

Resources

Established Plantings

1. Pollinator Plants: Mid-Atlantic Region (from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation) (PDF)
2. Incorporating Native Plants in Your Residential Landscape (from Rutgers NJAES)
3. Conservataion Cover for Pollinators: New Jersey Installation Guide and Job Sheet (from Rutgers Winfree Lab/Xerces) (PDF), which includes a list of NJ native plant nurseries.

Flowering Lawns

1. Flowering Bee Lawns (from The University of Minnesota).

Woody Plants

1. Hedgerow Planting for Pollinators: New Jersey Installation Guide and Job Sheet (from The Xerces Society) (PDF)
2. Edge Feathering (from The Kentucky Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources) (PDF)

Providing Nesting Habitat

About 70% of wild bee species construct their nests in the ground, digging tunnels into which they deposit pollen and lay their eggs. To support ground-nesting bees, leave bare patches of sand or soil in sunny, well-drained areas near pollinator plantings. Farmers should be aware that tilling can damage nests; following reduced tillage practices or no-till strategies can mitigate or prevent damage.

Most other wild bee species nest above ground, chewing tunnels in dead wood or using cavities such as beetle holes and hollow plant stems. To support cavity-nesters, avoid removing dead trees, stumps, and brush piles. You can also purchase or build your own 'nest boxes' to place in sunny areas within or near plantings.

Resources

Providing Nesting Habitat

1. Nests for Native Bees (from the Xerces Society) (PDF).

Tilling Practices

1. Conservation Assistance for Healthy Soils in Connecticut - Reduced Tillage (from NRCS) (PDF)
2. Frequently Asked Questions on Reduced Tillage Systems in Vegetables (from Cornell University)
3. An Introduction to Weed Management for Conservation Tillage Systems (from Penn State Extension)
4. Crop Rotations and Conservation Tillage (from Penn State Extension)

Minimizing Insecticides

While insecticides can be convenient tools for managing unwanted garden visitors, they can also be harmful to bees. Some insecticides can kill bees outright, while others can reduce offspring production and bees' abilities to forage and navigate. Bees can come in contact with insecticides at the time they are sprayed, but they are more often exposed to residues that persist in the environment after application. The best way to protect pollinators from insecticides is to stop using them entirely. Strategies for managing pests without insecticides range from simple solutions such as covering plants to more complex practices like integrated pest management (IPM), which emphasizes the use of monitoring and biological control over insecticides.

If you have exhausted other pest-control strategies and determine insecticide use is necessary, you can follow these guidelines to minimize your impact on pollinators:

What to Apply

• Use targeted insecticides (e.g., Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) for caterpillars), which are targeted to specific insects and are less harmful to bees. Broad-spectrum insecticides are made to kill all insects and are the worst for bees. These include neonicotinoids, organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroids. Note that even organic insecticides (e.g., Pyrethrin and spinosad) can be harmful.
• Granular insecticides are the least harmful to bees, while micro-encapsulated insecticides and powders are the most harmful as they stick to bees like pollen.

Where, When, and How to Apply

• Avoid applying insecticides on or near plants that are blooming, and apply at night or late in the evening when bees are inactive.
• Apply at night when bees are inactive, but avoid cold or dewy nights, and conditions characteristic of temperature inversion: clear, still nights, with low fog near sunrise or sunset. Cold temperatures and dew can both increase the period of toxicity, and inversion can cause spray droplets to drift via ground-level moisture.
• Follow label guidelines and do not apply more than recommended.
• Minimize drift. If using liquid sprays, spray low to the ground and in low wind. Use sprays with large droplets. Protect pollinator habitat by using windbreaks or hedgerows.

Resources

IPM

1. Integrated Pest Management (from Rutgers NAJES)
2. Pest Management and Education (from Penn State Extension)
3. UC IPM (from University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources)
4. Manage Insects on Your Farm (from Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education)

Insecticide Use

1. Sustainable Pest Management (from The Xerces Society)
2. How to Reduce Bee Poisoning from Pesticides (from Pacific Northwest Extension) (PDF) (includes a list of insecticides ranked by toxicity)
3. Organic Pesticides (from The Xerces Society)

Organic Land Management

1. Organic Land Care (from Rutgers NAJES)

Photo Credits: Fig. 1: Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org; Fig. 2: Ansel Oommen, Bugwood.org; Fig. 3: David Cappaert, Bugwood.org; Fig. 4: Nacho Bartomeus; Fig. 5: Barry Rosenthal; Fig. 6: Valerie Giles; Fig 7: Michael Roswell; Fig. 8: Julia Criscione; Fig. 9: Sarah Foltz Jordan, Xerces Society; Fig. 10: maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com.

November 2017