Farming for Pollinators

Most native bees are unlikely to sting. The yellow jackets and other wasps you see eating rotting fruit and hanging around picnics are not bees, nor are they significant pollinators. The Xerces Society is a non-profit organization that protects biological diversity through the conservation of invertebrates. The Natural Resources Conservation Service is a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency that helps people help the land. From “Farming for Pollinators” published by the Xerces Society, copyright 2005, funding provided by Norcross Foundation, CS Fund, Goldman Foundation, and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Illustrations by Andrew Holder.

Native Bees and Your Crops

Native bees are valuable crop pollinators. Wild bees help increase crop yields and may serve as important insurance when honey bees are hard to come by.

There are simple, inexpensive ways you can increase the number of native bees living on your land. Any work you do on behalf of pollinators will support other beneficial insects and wildlife. Improvements to pollinator habitat also may be eligible for financial support from government programs.

Principles of Farming for Crop Pollinators

1. Know the habitat on your farm. Using the illustration as a guide, look for areas on and around your land that can support native bees.

2. Protect flowering plants and nest sites. Once you know where bees are living and foraging, do what you can to protect these resources from disturbance and pesticides.

3. Enhance habitat with flowering plants and additional nest sites. Adding flowers, leaving some ground untilled, and providing bee blocks (tunnels drilled into wood) are all ways to increase the number of native bees on your farm.

Critical Requirements of Native Bees

Food. Bees eat only pollen and nectar. In the process of gathering these resources, they move pollen from one flower to another, and thus pollinate your crops. Bees rely upon an abundance and variety of flowers, and need blooming plants throughout the growing season. Native plant species are particularly valuable.

Shelter. Native bees don’t build the wax or paper structures we associate with honey bees or wasps, but they do need places to nest, which vary depending on the species.

• Wood-nesting bees are solitary, often making individual nests in beetle tunnels in standing dead trees.
• Ground-nesting bees include solitary species that construct nest tunnels under the ground.
• Cavity-nesting social species—bumble bees—make use of small spaces, such as abandoned rodent burrows, wherever they can find them.

Protection from pesticides. Most insecticides are deadly to bees, and unnecessary herbicide use can remove many of the flowers that they need for food.

Getting Started

Here are two things that you can do to begin improving habitat for native bees on your land:

Minimize tillage. Many of our best crop pollinators live underground for most of the year, sometimes at the base of the very plants they pollinate. To protect them, turn over soil only where you need to.

Allow crops to bolt. If possible, allow leafy crops, like lettuce, to flower if they don’t need to be tilled right away. This gives bees additional food sources.

Going Further

If you want to do more to increase the number of native bees pollinating your crops, you can plant hedgerows or windbreaks with a variety of flowering plants and shrubs, reduce or eliminate your use of pesticides, or work with your neighbors to protect natural areas around your farm.

Exercising Care with Insecticides

If you use insecticides, choose targeted ingredients (for example, Btk for pests such as leaf rollers) and the least harmful formulations (granules or solutions). Spray on calm, dry evenings—and do so soon after dark, when bees are not active. Keep in mind that even when crops are not in bloom, some of your best pollinators are visiting nearby flowers, where they may be killed by drifting chemicals.

Further information about pollinators and what you can do to improve pollinator habitat is available through the North American Pollinator Protection Web site at: http://www.pollinator.org and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation at www.xerces.org.

Related Links

“NRCS This Week” article about pollinators and pollinator habitat protection in Montana: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/NEWS/thisweek/2005/113005/techtip11.30.05.html

NRCS Wildlife Habitat Management Institute brochure on Native Pollinators

U.S. Postal Service article about the Pollination Stamps unveiling at the USDA Invasive Species Symposium: http://www.usps.com/communications/news/stamps/2006/sr06_048.htm 

National Biological Information Infrastructure pollinator site: http://pollinators.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt 

Forest Service "Celebrating Wildflowers" site: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/index.shtml 

U.S. Senate resolution of June 24-30, 2007 as National Pollinator Week: http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/_repository/2005/plantbee/pdf/Senate%20Resolution%20580.pdf 

The National Agroforestry Center's Agroforestry Notes features several articles on pollinators:
http://www.unl.edu/nac/agroforestrynotes.htm

Xerces Society Publications about Pollinators:
http://www.xerces.org/Pollinator_Insect_Conservation/xerces_publications.htm#Agriculture