There are around 4,000 bee species in the US and over 400 in Pennsylvania (Figure 1). With so many species it’s very difficult to know what’s going on with each species and any collection of species that co-occur at any given location. There’s growing concern that bees are declining because of a variety of stressors such as habitat loss, pesticides, invasive species, and climate change. While there is good evidence that some bumble bee species […]
I visit pumpkin farms across Pennsylvania to investigate host-pathogen dynamics in bee communities. In pumpkin fields, we typically see three bee species foraging – honey bees, wild bumble bees and wild squash bees. Haven’t heard of squash bees before? These are incredibly important, solitary bees that specialize on the pollen of pumpkin and squash. In fact, they are some of the best pollinators for pumpkin crops in Pennsylvania! Unlike social honey bees and bumble bees […]
Wednesdays @3PM (EST) – 1h 15 min via zoom Join us for the Pollinator Webinar Series organized moderated by Tom Butzler and Dr. Margarita Lopez-Uribe from Penn State Extension. These eight webinars will cover a whole range of topics from beekeeping management to wild bee biodiversity and how to create habitat for pollinators. Webinars will take place on consecutive Wednesdays, starting on June 3rd at 3 PM (EST), 2 PM (CST), 1 PM (MST), and […]