Secret Pollinators

Do Native Bees Make Better American Olive Oil?

The US olive oil market is worth nearly three billion dollars — and 95 percent of it is imported. But across seven American states, a small, quality-focused domestic industry is growing. And native bees, without invitation or management, are showing up in those groves every spring and doing something that a landmark 2013 study in Science confirmed: improving crop fruit set in ways that honey bees alone cannot match. Episode 41 follows olive trees from California's Central Valley to Georgia's coastal plain, and the native bee communities — mining bees, sweat bees, carpenter bees — that found them. Secret Pollinators is a solo narration science podcast about native and wild bees and the lesser-known pollinators shaping the world around us. www.secretpollinators.com [www.secretpollinators.com] #SecretPollinators #NativeBees #OliveOil #AmericanOliveOil #WildBees #Pollinators #MiningBees #SweatBees #CarpenterBee #OliveGrove #ExtraVirginOliveOil #BeePodcast #NaturePodcast #SciencePodcast #Pollination #BeeScience #GeorgiaOlives #CaliforniaOliveOil #GroveToTable #FoodScience #WildBees

Bumble Bees Have Their Own Air Conditioning? Scientists Just Found Out!

A brand-new study — published this week in the Journal of Animal Ecology — just revealed something remarkable about bumble bee colonies: they function as living thermostats, maintaining their brood at a precise 30 to 33 degrees Celsius, which is 86 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit, using only the bodies of their workers. When temperatures drop, bees vibrate their flight muscles to heat the nest. When it gets too hot, they fan their wings — a living air conditioning system. And when heat events become extreme, the entire colony redirects its labor away from foraging to cooling, with cascading effects on pollination. Kelly breaks down the science of bumble bee thermoregulation, the critical role of underground nest sites, and what this research means for how we think about wild bumble bee habitat. It's not just about flowers. It's about what's happening below the surface. www.secretpollinators.com [www.secretpollinators.com] #BumbleBees #BumbleBeeSciece #BeeScience #NativeBees #WildBees #Pollinators #PollinatorScience #BeeNesting #GroundNestingBees #BeeHabitat #Superorganism #ColonyBehavior #InsectThermoregulation #BeeConservation #NativeBeeHabitat #BombusImpatiens #SecretPollinators #NaturePodcast #SciencePodcast #WildlifeScience #NatureLovers #EntomologyNerd #Entomology #BeeResearch #NewResearch #JournalOfAnimalEcology #AuburnUniversity #NCState #PollinatorProtection #SaveTheBees #BackyardBees #BeeNerd #InsectScience #MindBlown #ScienceIsAmazing #LivingThermostat #UndergroundBees

Do Wild Bees Eat Lawn Grass Pollen? Surprising Science Says Yes

Everybody knows grasses are wind-pollinated. Right? RIGHT?? Turns out the textbooks have been quietly leaving something out. Bees — honeybees, bumblebees, sweat bees, mining bees — are visiting grass flowers and combing pale yellow pollen straight off the anthers. And they're doing it without the usual floral road signs: no nectar, no big colorful petals, no UV bullseyes. So how on earth are they finding it? In this episode we dig into the surprising science of grass pollen as bee food, the new (and shockingly recent) research showing five genera of bees collecting pollen from a single turfgrass species, what cues bees use to spot grass anthers in a sea of green, and why the lawn under your feet might be quietly feeding the bees you're trying so hard to save with your wildflowers. Spoiler: the cemetery bees from Episode 37 were in on this all along. www.secretpollinators.com [www.secretpollinators.com] #SecretPollinators #NativePollinators #NativeBees #PollinatorScience #BeeScience #LawnsForBees #NoMowMay #PollinatorPodcast #NaturePodcast #SciencePodcast #PlantTheSpecies #LetItBeWild #LeaveTheLeaves #GrassPollen #WildBees #SolitaryBees #Andrena #Bumblebees #HoneyBees #SweatBees #PollinatorConservation #NativePlants #PrairieGrasses #BeeFriendlyLawn #UrbanEcology #BackyardScience #PollinatorGarden #Entomology #Apidae #BeeFacts #WildBees #Lawn #Pollen

Was That a Bee, Wasp, Fly… or Superman?

It's spring. Things are emerging. Something just buzzed past your ear, and your shoulders went up to your eyeballs. But was it a bee? A wasp? A fly? A genuinely surprising number of the "bees" in your garden are actually flies wearing a very convincing costume. In this episode, Kelly walks you through a five-second checklist — wings, antennae, eyes, waist, hair — that'll make you the most confident pollinator ID-er on your block. Plus, the hoverflies fooling everyone, the bee flies zooming over your dirt banks, and why bees are basically wasps that went vegetarian 125 million years ago. How to tell if your pollinator is a bee, wasp or fly | The Great Sunflower Project [https://www.greatsunflower.org/node/1000250] Bee Guides | Pollinator.org [https://www.pollinator.org/bee-guides] www.secretpollinators.com [www.secretpollinators.com] #SecretPollinators #PollinatorPodcast #NativeBees #Pollinators #BeeID #Hoverflies #BeeFly #Bombyliidae #Syrphidae #NativePollinators #BeeOrNot #PollinatorEducation #BackyardScience #CitizenScience #PollinatorGarden #SavetheBees #MontanaPollinators #SpringPollinators #WildBees #NatureNerd #EntomologyPodcast #SciencePodcast #NaturePodcast #MimicryInNature #PlantTheSpecies #LetItBeeWild #Flies #Wasp #Bumblebee #NativeBees

5 Million Bees Under a Cemetery: Your Dead Relatives Are Saving Native Bees!

In 2021, researchers noticed something unusual about the northeast corner of a cemetery in Ithaca, New York. The ground was full of tiny holes. A Cornell University team set up emergence traps and counted what came out. The answer: 5.6 million solitary bees, emerging from beneath the headstones every spring, quietly pollinating a university apple orchard 600 meters away. Then the same team found 651,440 more bees in a suburban lawn — collecting grass pollen nobody knew they wanted. These populations are hiding everywhere in plain sight, in the patches of ground we've never thought to study. And the safest place a wild bee can nest might just be the one piece of land nobody ever builds on. www.secretpollinators.com [www.secretpollinators.com] #SecretPollinators #5MillionBees #CemeteryBees #AndreaBees #AndenaRegularis #NativeBees #GroundNestingBees #SolitaryBees #BeeDiscovery #HiddenBees #EastLawnCemetery #CornellUniversity #PollinatorScience #WildBees #BeeConservation #ApplePollination #MelissodesBimaculatus #TwoSpottedLonghornBee #GrassPollen #BeeResearch #NativeBeeResearch #PollinatorConservation #SaveTheBees #BeeNerd #BeeFacts #InsectScience #SciencePodcast #NaturePodcast #NatureLovers #EntomologyNerd #Entomology #DidYouKnow #MindBlown #ScienceIsAmazing #HiddenNature #UnexpectedNature #BeesOfInstagram #PollinatorHabitat #SacredGround #TheDeadAreKeepingBees #NewEpisode #Ghosts #Dead #Cemetery #headstones #wildbees