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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, you think you know what

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Speaker 1: bees are all about. They make honey and live in

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Speaker 1: hives with a queen, and if you agitate them, they

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Speaker 1: might sting you. Right. Well, this is all true about

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Speaker 1: some bees, but just as there are lots of different

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Speaker 1: kinds of rodents, big ones and small ones, species that

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Speaker 1: live in trees, and species that live underground, some that

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Speaker 1: love to nest together, and others that just want to

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Speaker 1: be left alone. Earth is home to approximately twenty thousand

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Speaker 1: species of bees, and they're all a little different. Bees

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Speaker 1: are our most important pollinators, and a lot of places

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Speaker 1: in the world are home to you social bees like

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Speaker 1: the ubiquitous western honey bee, which was probably originally native

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Speaker 1: to Asia, but over the centuries has spread to every

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Speaker 1: continent except Antarctica. Industrial agriculture spends millions of dollars or

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Speaker 1: is every year renting hives to pollinate crops to increase yield.

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Speaker 1: Honey Bees live in hives with a queen that's in

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Speaker 1: charge of procreation within the colony, but most bees on

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Speaker 1: the planet are not honey bees. In fact, there are

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Speaker 1: only a handful of honey bee species in the world. However,

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Speaker 1: every continent has its own native bees, from the Arctic

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Speaker 1: to deserts, tropical forests, grasslands, and most places in between.

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Speaker 1: In North America, there are around four thousand native bee species,

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Speaker 1: with new species being discovered all the time, and perhaps surprisingly,

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Speaker 1: most bees are solitary, meaning that each mother bee provides

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Speaker 1: for her own nest, and about sevent of native bees

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Speaker 1: live in the ground. For the article, this episode is

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Speaker 1: based on how Stuff Works. Spoke with Clay Bolt, a

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Speaker 1: natural history and conservation photographer specializing in native bees. He

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Speaker 1: said you could think of solitary bees as hard working

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Speaker 1: single moms working non stop from set up to sundown

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Speaker 1: to provide pollen and nectar in the form of little

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Speaker 1: loaves that they provide for their young. Ground nesting bees

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Speaker 1: can prefer a variety of different ground types, but most

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Speaker 1: often they nest in dry, hard packed soil, similar to

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Speaker 1: places where you might see an ant's nest. Bolts said

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Speaker 1: they will often be seen along the sides of paths

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Speaker 1: or bare patches of soil that most people take for granted.

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Speaker 1: They can also nest beneath leaves, an important reminder of

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Speaker 1: why homeowners should leave a patch of leaves in their

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Speaker 1: yard or in rotting wood. Most don't destroy wood or

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Speaker 1: excavate cavities in wood, but rather use pre existing insect burrows.

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Speaker 1: A solitary bee nest will be a tube about six

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Speaker 1: inches or fifteen centimeters long, excavated in dry soil by

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Speaker 1: a female bee. And there are many challenges that come

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Speaker 1: from nesting in the ground. Predators, moisture and flooding, intense heat,

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Speaker 1: the challenges of overwintering nest, disturbance by people, vehicles and

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Speaker 1: other large animals, and pesticides, just to name a few.

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Speaker 1: To deal with the natural threats that ground nesting bees face,

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Speaker 1: they've developed many strategies to protect their young. Bees will

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Speaker 1: line their nests with things like hard packed soil, bits

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Speaker 1: of cut leaves, and masticated flower petals. One genus of

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Speaker 1: ground nesting bee is known as cellophane bees for the clear,

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Speaker 1: waterproof stuff they paint onto the walls of their nests.

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Speaker 1: Whatever the material, nest linings keep the young sufficiently dry

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Speaker 1: and retain the integrity of the nest. Because most of

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Speaker 1: us associate bees with a honey bees propensity to sting,

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Speaker 1: we often try to get rid of bees or yellow jackets,

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Speaker 1: which are actually a type of wasp when we find

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Speaker 1: them in our yards and around our houses. However, ground

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Speaker 1: nesting bees aren't dangerous. Many solitary bees are very tiny,

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Speaker 1: smaller than a grain of rice, and therefore too small

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Speaker 1: to sting. Even if they are able to sting, their

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Speaker 1: venom is too weak to do much damage. Bolts said,

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Speaker 1: solitary bees rarely sting. The most aggressive of all bees

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Speaker 1: are honey bees, because they have a hive to defend.

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Speaker 1: Solitary bees, on the other hand, have everything to lose

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Speaker 1: if they sting someone or something and get killed in

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Speaker 1: the process. If the mother dies before the young has

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Speaker 1: been provisioned, then her lineage ends and the bees most

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Speaker 1: commonly seen circling around solitary bee nests are most likely males,

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Speaker 1: which actually can't sting. We should note that no male

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Speaker 1: bees can sting. A stinger is a modified egg laying

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Speaker 1: apparatus that's only found in female bees. It's difficult to

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Speaker 1: be a solitary bee in a world full of manicured lawns.

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Speaker 1: Homeowners often view these ground nesters as a nuisance and

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Speaker 1: use pesticides to get rid of them, But killing these

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Speaker 1: pollinators with pesticides is dangerous for their populations, which are

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Speaker 1: already dwindling. It's important to note that solitary bees are

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Speaker 1: not much of a threat to lawns and turf. You

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Speaker 1: can continue you to mow your lawn, play and picnic

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Speaker 1: as usual right next to the bees, but if there

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Speaker 1: are many nests in an area, you might want to

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Speaker 1: avoid that spot for one or two months while the

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Speaker 1: bees are nesting. If you must dissuade the bees from nesting,

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Speaker 1: we don't use a pesticide. Heavy watering can encourage them

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Speaker 1: to pack up and pick another spot. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: based on the article ground nesting bees are solitary and

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Speaker 1: often stingless on how stuff works dot Com, written by

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Speaker 1: Jescelin Shields. Brain Stuff is production off i Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it

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Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts on my

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Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.