Next Time You Eat a Kiwifruit, Don’t Thank a Bee
Honey bees and bumble bees excel at pollinating wide varieties of plants and crops, but kiwifruit is not one of them. A study investigating kiwifruit pollination methods found fruit developed on barely 3 percent of bee-pollinated flowers, leaving artificial pollination (by human hand) as the primary choice for kiwifruit growers.
A Tale of Two Pollinators: More Evidence of Neonicotinoids’ Effect on Wild Bees
Separate studies on bumble bees and mason bees exposed to imidacloprid add to the body of evidence that wild bees may be particularly vulnerable to neonicotinoid insecticides.
Even Moderate Drought Conditions are Bad for Bees
A new study finds that reduced water availability—even if not quite drought conditions—lessens the quality of floral resources for honey bees and bumble bees, in turn negatively affecting their survival and reproduction rates.
Wild Pollinators Get the Job Done
Wild pollinators have the potential to play a bigger part in pollinating specialty crops, according to a new study.