Exploring Native Bees Unveiling the Secret World of Fuzzy Pollinators

Bees. Love them or swat at them. One thing is certain, you need them. But did you know that honeybees are just the tip of the iceberg? With nearly 4,000 native bee species in North America, many of these fuzzy pollinators fly under the radar, often mistaken for wasps, flies, or are overlooked entirely. Hey there, welcome to Naturealogies by DIY Nature. This video is part one of a two-part series on native bees. In part one, while I'm absorbing a ladybug, it's all about us exploring the secret world of native bees, uncovering their fascinating behaviors, diversity, and vital role in our ecosystems. Stay tuned for part two where we'll dive into how to garden for bees, providing practical tips on creating a bee-friendly habitat in your own yard. With spring right around the corner, it's the perfect time to create a buzzing, flowering bee garden. Whether you crave vibrant colors, a peaceful retreat for yourself, or a thriving edible oasis, your garden can become a haven for these essential pollinators once you understand their unique needs. So let's dig in and see what all the buzz is about. While it's probably the drab, reddish-brown honeybee that pops up as the default image when you hear the word bee, these creatures are in fact extremely diverse. And unlike the well-known behavior of the non-native honeybee, there is much more that we don't know about our native bees. In fact, many insects are mistakenly labeled as bees when they're actually wasps or even flies. A quick note before moving on, bees do not aggressively chase down human prey. The best approach if there are bees flying near you is to be calm and don't touch them. Bees only sting to defend themselves or their nests. Individual bees tend to need firm contact with their bodies, such as being squeezed in an armpit or stepped on, before they will attempt to sting. Panicking, slapping, and swatting when bees are around will actually increase your chances of being stung. Even though bees are common in most neighborhoods, frequently seen on hikes, walks, or even around residential city parks, it's hard to tell whether an insect buzzing nearby is a bee or something else. Because bees have the ability to sting, resembling one is a successful strategy. Mostly for vulnerable insects. So what exactly is the bee then, and how can we tell the difference? Well, bees are a type of insect, and out of the approximately 900,000 known insect species on Earth, around 20,000 or so are bees. In North America alone, there are about 4,000 native bee species. They vary greatly in size, from the tiny Perdida minima, the world's smallest bee, at just two millimeters, to the large kumquat-sized carpenter bees. Bees also come in a stunning variety of shapes and colors, much like the flowers they pollinate. Anatomy. Bee bodies come in a stunning array of shapes, sizes, and textures. They can be tiny or extremely large, hairy, or super sleek, bright colored, or black all over. But they, like all insects, are comprised of three main sections. The head, the thorax, and the abdomen. Scientists who study bees, known as melatologists, generally refer to these sections as the head, mesosoma, and metasoma, because the abdomen in bees actually includes part of their thorax. Head. Their head houses many important appendages, including the antenna, the mouth, mandibles, and two sets of eyes. If you look at a bee's antenna under a microscope, you can see that they have little hairs and tiny pits called sensilla, which act like tiny sensors capable of processing the many chemical compounds in the air, especially the fragrances produced by flowers. Notes. Smell pollution is a real thing. Mouth. Bee mouths are complex apparatuses. Their glossa, the closest mouth part they have to a true tongue, and their labial palms that run next to the glossa, which are used for tasting. Bees fall into two categories when it comes to their mouths, short-tongued and long-tongued. These characteristics play a huge role in what type of bees your garden attracts, depending on the types of flowers you plant. Mandibles. Since bees don't have opposable thumbs, evolution gave them mandibles, as a pair of these jaws are like small pinchers used for sparring with enemies, building nests, carrying things like leaves and even pebbles, or holding on to plant stems during a quick snooze. Eyes. A bee has two types of eyes. Near the top of their head are three simple eyes, ocelli, meaning they have just one lens each, two near the rear and one just to the front of them. These eyes are used for orientation, triangulating the position of the sun in the sky, and ultimately for GPS. The compound eyes of bees are more visible to the average onlooker. Each compound eye is made up of thousands of lenses. Bees can see shapes, colors, and even colors in the air that we can't see. Fun fact, a bee couldn't see Dorothy's ruby red slippers. Bees perceive solid red colors very poorly. In turn, those flowers that rely on bees for pollination are rarely shades of burgundy or crimson. Bee-pollinated flowers are usually shades of purple, yellow, or orange. Thorax. The midsection of a bee is its thorax. A bee's thorax is the powerhouse of its body, responsible for movement and flight. This middle segment connects the head and abdomen and houses the bee's powerful flight muscles, which control its two pairs of wings. The thorax also supports six segmented legs, each adapted for different tasks, such as clinging to flowers, collecting pollen, and grooming. Many bees, especially honeybees and bumblebees, have specialized structures on their legs, like the pollen basket, corbicula, or dense hairs, copaia, which help them gather and transport pollen back to their hive or nest. The thorax is strong and muscular, allowing bees to beat their wings rapidly, sometimes up to 200 times per second, giving them the agility to hover, dart between flowers, and maintain stability in flight. Abdomen. A bee's abdomen is a segmented structure that plays a vital role in its survival and function. It houses essential organs, including the digestive system, reproductive organs, and in female bees, the venom gland and stinger. The abdomen is covered in fine hairs that help collect and transport pollen, aiding in pollination. Unlike wasps, most bees have a more rounded and fuzzy abdomen, which enhances their ability to carry pollen efficiently. The segments of the abdomen also allow for flexibility, enabling bees to bend and maneuver while foraging, defending their hive or caring for their colony. In special bee species like honeybees, the abdomen is where worker bees store nectar before transferring it to the hive. Wasps or bees. Now that we have some idea about what a bee is, how can we tell if what we're looking at is a bee versus some other flying insect? Bees are in the order Hemenoptera, a large group of insects including an evolutionary history with ants, wasps, hornets, and sawflies. Within the order Hemenoptera, bees are most closely related to apeoid wasps, which is why many people confuse bees and wasps. The most telling difference between wasps and bees are their mannerisms and day-to-day behaviors, the most important being that bees are vegetarian while wasps are omnivores. Both visit flowers for nectar, the energy drink of the insect world, but bees also visit flowers to collect pollen for their young. On the contrary, wasps pursue other insects and drag them back to their nests for their offspring to devour. Yeah, nature is wild. It is this dietary difference that has resulted in the very different bearings for bees and wasps. To aid in the gathering of pollen, bees are usually hairy little fuzz balls. On the other hand, you have wasps that look a lot like Olympic swimmers, devoid of all hair, being wasted, and with long spindly legs. Do note that there are exceptions to nearly every rule in nature. The differences between bees and wasps are no exception. Bee or fly? Surprisingly, many people mislabel not only flies for bees but bees for flies. Though not close relatives of bees the way that wasps are, many flies mimic the bee look. Flies have several important characteristics that can help separate them from bees. First, flies only have two wings while bees have four. Second, flies usually have two short blunt antennae that emerge from nearly the same place on their faces. Bee antennae are longer and more widely spaced on their noggin. Native bees are diverse, coming in all sorts of colors from the usual black and yellow to bright iridescent blues and greens. Big or tiny, native bees tend to be solitary and establish their own nests, never living in a colony or hive. For example, leaf cutter bees nest in hollow plant stems and other cavities. Squash bees can be found sleeping in squash blossoms early in the morning. Apparently, they don't care to commute to work. Bumble bees are large fuzzy bees that you've probably spotted in your garden, but what you may not have known is that there are 250 species of bumble bee in the world, 46 of which are right here in North America. Carpenter bees are the ones usually causing mischief with the tunnels that they drill in soft unpainted wood when creating their nests. They don't discriminate. So long as they can get to the bare wood, they'll drill into it. That could include a deck, outdoor furniture, sheds, barns, dog houses, etc. Storing outdoor lumber? Yep, that's a great nesting spot for carpenter bees. Life cycle. All bees go through a series of developmental stages and follow a pattern of metamorphosis similar to that of moths and butterflies. They start as an egg that hatches into a larva, which goes through a pupal stage before emerging as an adult. For most species, these periods of when the bee is in their nest is the majority of their lifetime. Not surprisingly, female bees have it all put together. The emergence of the female is usually tied to the blooming time of the plants she needs to visit in order to gather pollen and nectar for her offspring. Habitat. The needs of native bees are simple. Food and a home. Secondarily, accents for the home can aid in nesting success. First on the list is food and a bit of water. Native bees feed on and require both nectar and pollen. The nectar is for energy and the pollen provides protein and other nutrients. Unlike honeybees, many native bee species have specific floral preferences, often favoring native wildflowers that have evolved alongside them. Native bees eat by using their specialized mouthparts to collect nectar and pollen from flowers. As a bee lands on a flower, it extends its proboscis into the flower's nectar-producing glands called nectaries, which are typically found at the base of the petals. Meanwhile, pollen sticks to the bee's hairy body, especially the curly hairs on its legs, as it brushes against the anthers, the part of the flower that produces pollen. Some bees, like bumblebees, use a technique called buzz pollination, vibrating their bodies to release pollen from tightly closed anthers on plants such as the tomato plant. Once collected, nectar is either swallowed for energy or stored in a special compartment in the bee's body called the crop. While pollen is often packed onto specialized hairs or structures on their legs or abdomen for transport back to their nest. Different types of bees have unique nesting requirements. For example, ground nesting bees burrow into bare, well-drained soil, while twig nesting bees seek out hollow stems or pre-existing tunnels in wood. Each species relies on specific materials and conditions to build a suitable home. I'll dive deeper into bee habitats in part two, how to garden for bees. If you're interested in building a bee block or bee hotel, click the link to view my in-depth how-to video or visit diynature.org slash bees. Pollination. The bottom line is you need bees. I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but it's the truth. Bees are keystone organisms, meaning entire ecosystems depend on them for survival. Say if a keystone species disappears, the ecosystem begins to collapse. Do you enjoy seeing native flowers and plants thrive in your neighborhood? Think about the foods you love. A hot cup of coffee, a juicy peach or crisp apple, creamy almonds, rich dates, plump cashews, vine-ripened tomatoes, tacos. See, even you depend on pollinators. Wherever flowering plants flourish, pollinating bees, birds, moths, butterflies, bats, and other animals are hard at work. In North America, about 75 percent of plant species rely on insects, primarily bees, to transfer pollen between flowers. More than 30 percent of our food crops depend on bees for fruit and seed production, and 70 percent of the foods we eat benefit from pollination. So what exactly is pollination? It's the process of moving pollen from the anther, the male part, to the stigma, the female part, of a flower, allowing plants to reproduce seeds and fruit. Native bees are the most important insect pollinators for many crops, including squash, tomatoes, cherries, blueberries, and cranberries. While European honeybees were introduced by colonists, native bees were here first, and they're often better at pollinating plants that evolved in the Americas. For example, blue orchard bees are far more efficient than honeybees at pollinating certain crops. In fact, native bees pollinate about 80 percent of flowering plants worldwide. But here's where things get even more critical. Up to 45 percent of native bees are pollen specialists, meaning they rely on a single plant species or genus for survival. If that plant disappears, so does the bee. And if the bee disappears, the plant is at risk too. Some of these specialist bees pollinate plants we rely on for food, like squash, pumpkins, gourds, and some types of sunflowers. So yes, you need bees. And in return, they need us to protect their habitats and ensure they have the plants they depend on to survive, losing our native bees. The loss of diverse native habitats, woodlands, fields, and meadows, to agriculture, housing, and commercial development, has led to a sharp decline in native bee populations. When these habitats disappear, so do the native flowering plants that the bees rely on for pollen and nectar. In many cases, the native plants are replaced by crappy non-native species, or even invasive weeds, which usually doesn't provide the same nutritional benefits for bees. One factor that you may not have thought about regarding bee conservation is the fact that air pollution and chemical pollutants can interfere with a bee's ability to locate flowers by masking their natural scents. This disruption can make it harder for bees to find food, further stressing their populations. Reducing the use of pesticides, opting for organic or natural gardening methods, and not letting your car idle can help protect these fuzzy essential pollinators. You can even help reverse some of the habitat decline by planting and maintaining native plants in your yard and property, creating pockets of habitats that support local pollinators. Bees are tiny. One bush or clump of perennials is often all it takes to foster native bees in your yard. Within a mile of your yard, urban or rural, there are at least over a hundred species of bees looking for the right plants. Attracting and tending these native bees on your property is all about planting the right flowers and flowering bushes. Although humans are causing a major habitat loss for our buzzing friends, we aren't their only threat. Predators. Enemies of bees fall into broad categories. Those that attack and kill adult bees are known as predators. A parasitoid, a parasite-like insect, feeds on the body of a living host, either from the inside or while attached to the outside, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Note these are not true parasites, as parasites don't kill their host. Other predators include the robber fly, bee wolves, assassin bugs, spiders, mammals, lizards, and birds. Interestingly, mice, skunks, weasels, badgers, voles, and other scavenger mammals will happily dig up bee larvae in the ground for a quick snack. Even armadillos have been seen brooding from bee nests. Bee predators are so insanely interesting that I decided to create a series of YouTube shorts to feature some of the craziest ones. Subscribe and click the bell to be notified when new videos are released. You won't want to miss learning about insects like the one that grows inside a bee larvae, only to grow with it and then eat its way out and devour the rest of the adult bee from the outside back in. I told you, these creatures are something else. But while predators play a fascinating role in the bee world, let's shift our focus back to the bees themselves. With thousands of native species across North America, you might be wondering which ones are in your area. A great way to find out is by checking resources like the Xerces Society or using apps like iNaturalist to identify local species. But to get you started, let's take a closer look at five of the most common native bee types you're likely to encounter. Bumblebees. Recognizable by their fuzzy bodies and usually black and yellow coloration, bumblebees are excellent pollinators. They use buzz pollination which helps release pollen from certain plants like tomatoes and blueberries. They often nest underground or in abandoned rodent burrows. Mason bees. Small metallic blue and green bees that are exceptional early season pollinators. Unlike honeybees, they are solitary and nest in pre-existing holes in wood or hollow stems. They are highly efficient at pollinating fruit trees. Leafcutter bees. Recognizable by the way they cut circular pieces from leaves to line their nests. They are solitary bees that build nests in hollow stems, wood crevices, or bee hotels. Great pollinators for gardens, especially for vegetables like peas and beans. Wet bees. Often metallic green or black and small in size. Some are attracted to human sweat, hence their name. They play a significant role in pollinating wildflowers and crops. Mining bees. Solitary ground nesting bees that are important early season pollinators. Often mistaken for honeybees but are smaller and fuzzier. They prefer sandy or loose soil for nesting. Now identifying native bees can be tricky but here's a few ways you can tell the difference between these five common genuses based on size, color, behavior, and nesting habits. Bumblebees. Their large fluffy bodies and slow deliberate flight distinguishes them from other bees. Mason bees. Their metallic blue green sheen and habit of nesting in small crevices make them stand out. Leaf cutter bees. Look for bees carrying pollen under their bodies and evidence of perfectly round cutouts and leaves. Sweat bees. If you see a small shiny green bee that seems interested in your sweat it's likely a sweat bee. I gotta say I've been stung by one of these and though they are tiny their sting hurts. Mining bees. If you see a fuzzy bee flying low to the ground and disappearing into a small hole it's likely a mining bee. Key takeaways to differentiate them. Big and fluffy usually means bumblebee. Metallic green or blue is usually a mason bee or sweat bee. Carrying pollen under belly, leaf cutter bee. Digging into soil, mining bee. Or attracted to sweat, sweat bee. Now that you know how to recognize some of the most common native bees the next step is figuring out how to support them. But creating a bee-friendly space isn't just about planting a few flowers. It's about designing a habitat that truly meets their needs. In part two I'll go beyond just recommending the best plants. I'll cover how to design a garden that works for you and the bees no matter your space. Whether it's a small container garden, a backyard meadow, or somewhere in between. We'll talk about layout, essential features like nesting sites and water sources, and how to make your space a buzzing hot spot for pollinators. Stay tuned and subscribe so you don't miss out. Thanks for watching!