((PKG)) THE IMPORTANCE OF POLLINATORS
((TRT: 08:36))
((Topic Banner: The Importance of Pollinators))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: Jeff Swicord))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((Main characters: 1 female; 2 male))
((NATS/Music))
((William Hahn
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
Pollinators writ large, bees, butterflies, many other insect groups are threatened on a global or local scale due to habitat loss or destruction. So, when we convert a forest into a cornfield, you lose practically every native pollinator you started with in that forest.
So, the Western honeybee, semi-domesticated animal that we farm, that we manage in boxes, is not in decline globally.
((NATS: William Hahn))
You should get rid of that fence.
((William Hahn
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
I got interested in honeybees originally because a colleague of mine was into urban beekeeping.
I started that way with just one hive and failed miserably the first year, so after a few years of failure, I finally succeeded and kind of took off from there.
Honeybees were first brought over from Europe in about 1622 is the best estimate. They’re agricultural animals just like cattle or sheeps or goats or chickens, and as a result, I think you need to think about them in such terms.
((William Hahn
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
This is a pretty typical hive here. You can see the honeybees are congregating around the front. This is a screen that’s put in to allow for ventilation but to keep others from coming in and robbing them out. So, they are not bringing in nectar. They’re losing it this time of year. So, they’re more than happy to go and rob another colony if it’s too weak.
In the U.S., pollinator services are actually more highly valued than is honey production. And crops like cherries and apples and squash and blueberries and most notably almonds benefit from having honeybees brought to the orchard or to the field.
((William Hahn
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
This one’s got a lot of honey on it. And this sticky stuff that’s holding it together is called propolis. It’s plant sap. This is capped honey and you can eat it right as is. And this is wax honeycomb around it.
These are drones that are emerging. They are much larger than the worker bees. So, there are some drones walking around. Here’s a drone right here. This one is a little darker. Drones don’t have stingers, so you can pick them up in your bare hands and they can’t do anything to you.
The drone has one purpose in life, to go out and mate with a queen. And once it does that, it dies.
In a typical colony, you’ll have one queen, although that’s not universal. You’ll have upwards of 40,000 workers in that hive, depending on the time of year, and anywhere from zero up to a few thousand drones.
((William Hahn
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
Oh, there she is. So, we mark our queens so that they’re easier to find. This year happens to be yellow, right there, kind of a smallish queen but she’s doing a good job, so.
((William Hahn
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
The queen provides certain signaling, especially through pheromones but also through some tactile or touch stimulation, in which communication goes on and the workers collectively decide whether or not they want to keep that queen. So, if they queen is healthy, laying eggs, she’s putting out a strong pheromone profile, the bees can touch her and sense that everything is okay, they’ll just continue to do their job and defend the colony against intruders and predators.
((NATS/Music))
((William Hahn
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
Globally, yes, pollinators writ large in many instances are in decline. The western honeybee, there are real threats. But just as with any farm animal, there are parasites. There are predators. There are pathogens. And we just need to deal with them.
((NATS/Music))
((Edward Barrows
Associate Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
I’ve always been interested in little creatures and plants. I grew up in a small farm in southern Michigan.
A native pollinator is an animal that has been in this area before humans. You know, pollinators are not just bees but they’re also beetles, some type of moths, butterflies. I think there is probably about 400 species in the Georgetown University area.
((Edward Barrows
Associate Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
We do have some bumblebees today. These look like the eastern bumblebee, bombus impatiens, and they are putting their tongues into the front of the flower. They’re going from flower to flower and it actually looks like they are getting nectar.
((NATS/Music))
((Edward Barrows
Associate Professor of Biology, Georgetown University))
Basically, they are part of the food web. Lots of things eat them and they’re also helping plants produce seeds. Without pollinators, you are not going to have a lot of plant reproduction.
Well, this is a huge flower that’s very good for showing people things about pollination. The idea in pollination is if an animal or the wind or whatever takes pollen from a stamen and deposits it on these stigmas, you can see some pollen grains dropped off here.
The things that threaten pollinators, habitat loss and then pesticides and also climate change. If you took all the pollinators out of this area, you’d see a shift in the ecosystem, you know, maybe less plant growth. Some plants might die out. It would just reach a new equilibrium.
((NATS/Music))
((Adriane Fugh-Berman
Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, Georgetown University Medical Center))
I’ve always been interested in plants. After I went through medical training, I ended up in an alternative medicine clinic and was able to use knowledge of herbs and dietary supplements in my practice.
We are losing a lot of wild spaces but you don’t need much space to create some, a little bit of wild space in your backyard. You can create a haven for pollinators.
((Adriane Fugh-Berman
Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, Georgetown University Medical Center))
So, some of the plants that I have here are salvia. This is a black and blue salvia, and agastache or licorice mint. Very good for tea and, of course, the mints are very good for tea. But mints are really great for pollinators.
When you grow a variety of plants, it will attract different kinds of insects, different kinds of pollinators. People will sometimes plant plants that butterflies like, but then they’ll kill the caterpillars or not have host plants. Taking care of the babies is just as important as taking care of the adults. So, it’s not enough to just have nectar plants and pollen plants. You also want to have plants that caterpillars can feast on.
((Adriane Fugh-Berman
Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, Georgetown University Medical Center))
There’s often places that could have plants where people have just put weed barrier and rocks, for example, or have just put evergreen plants and lawn that they mow. That doesn’t feed anything. It’s just dead space as far as an ecosystem goes.
Plant flowers, plant host plants, and you’ll be rewarded with a plethora of insect life.
((NATS))
