WEBVTT - Why Don't Ground Bees Sting? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.320 Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:10.560 brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, you think you know what 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.520 bees are all about. They make honey and live in 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.320 hives with a queen, and if you agitate them, they 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:20.560 might sting you. Right. Well, this is all true about 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.480 some bees, but just as there are lots of different 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.040 kinds of rodents, big ones and small ones, species that 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:30.120 live in trees, and species that live underground, some that 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:32.519 love to nest together, and others that just want to 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:36.879 be left alone. Earth is home to approximately twenty thousand 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:42.080 species of bees, and they're all a little different. Bees 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.520 are our most important pollinators, and a lot of places 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.080 in the world are home to you social bees like 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.080 the ubiquitous western honey bee, which was probably originally native 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.840 to Asia, but over the centuries has spread to every 0:00:54.880 --> 0:01:00.160 continent except Antarctica. Industrial agriculture spends millions of dollars or 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:03.720 is every year renting hives to pollinate crops to increase yield. 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.080 Honey Bees live in hives with a queen that's in 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.760 charge of procreation within the colony, but most bees on 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.560 the planet are not honey bees. In fact, there are 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.920 only a handful of honey bee species in the world. However, 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.240 every continent has its own native bees, from the Arctic 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.600 to deserts, tropical forests, grasslands, and most places in between. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:30.760 In North America, there are around four thousand native bee species, 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:35.320 with new species being discovered all the time, and perhaps surprisingly, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.520 most bees are solitary, meaning that each mother bee provides 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.960 for her own nest, and about sevent of native bees 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.920 live in the ground. For the article, this episode is 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.840 based on how Stuff Works. Spoke with Clay Bolt, a 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:54.880 natural history and conservation photographer specializing in native bees. He 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.240 said you could think of solitary bees as hard working 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.600 single moms working non stop from set up to sundown 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.280 to provide pollen and nectar in the form of little 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.880 loaves that they provide for their young. Ground nesting bees 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.120 can prefer a variety of different ground types, but most 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.480 often they nest in dry, hard packed soil, similar to 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.800 places where you might see an ant's nest. Bolts said 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.640 they will often be seen along the sides of paths 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.800 or bare patches of soil that most people take for granted. 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.280 They can also nest beneath leaves, an important reminder of 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.760 why homeowners should leave a patch of leaves in their 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.679 yard or in rotting wood. Most don't destroy wood or 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.079 excavate cavities in wood, but rather use pre existing insect burrows. 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.600 A solitary bee nest will be a tube about six 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.600 inches or fifteen centimeters long, excavated in dry soil by 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.160 a female bee. And there are many challenges that come 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:55.120 from nesting in the ground. Predators, moisture and flooding, intense heat, 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.760 the challenges of overwintering nest, disturbance by people, vehicles and 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.320 other large animals, and pesticides, just to name a few. 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.200 To deal with the natural threats that ground nesting bees face, 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.040 they've developed many strategies to protect their young. Bees will 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.080 line their nests with things like hard packed soil, bits 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.200 of cut leaves, and masticated flower petals. One genus of 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.760 ground nesting bee is known as cellophane bees for the clear, 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.960 waterproof stuff they paint onto the walls of their nests. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.320 Whatever the material, nest linings keep the young sufficiently dry 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:33.400 and retain the integrity of the nest. Because most of 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.400 us associate bees with a honey bees propensity to sting, 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.840 we often try to get rid of bees or yellow jackets, 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.080 which are actually a type of wasp when we find 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:46.040 them in our yards and around our houses. However, ground 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.680 nesting bees aren't dangerous. Many solitary bees are very tiny, 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.080 smaller than a grain of rice, and therefore too small 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.280 to sting. Even if they are able to sting, their 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.800 venom is too weak to do much damage. Bolts said, 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.800 solitary bees rarely sting. The most aggressive of all bees 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.600 are honey bees, because they have a hive to defend. 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.880 Solitary bees, on the other hand, have everything to lose 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:13.600 if they sting someone or something and get killed in 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:16.480 the process. If the mother dies before the young has 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.200 been provisioned, then her lineage ends and the bees most 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:24.240 commonly seen circling around solitary bee nests are most likely males, 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.560 which actually can't sting. We should note that no male 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:31.960 bees can sting. A stinger is a modified egg laying 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:36.839 apparatus that's only found in female bees. It's difficult to 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.760 be a solitary bee in a world full of manicured lawns. 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.800 Homeowners often view these ground nesters as a nuisance and 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.200 use pesticides to get rid of them, But killing these 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.720 pollinators with pesticides is dangerous for their populations, which are 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:56.600 already dwindling. It's important to note that solitary bees are 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.359 not much of a threat to lawns and turf. You 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.040 can continue you to mow your lawn, play and picnic 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.560 as usual right next to the bees, but if there 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.880 are many nests in an area, you might want to 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.039 avoid that spot for one or two months while the 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.600 bees are nesting. If you must dissuade the bees from nesting, 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.960 we don't use a pesticide. Heavy watering can encourage them 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:24.000 to pack up and pick another spot. Today's episode is 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.960 based on the article ground nesting bees are solitary and 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.640 often stingless on how stuff works dot Com, written by 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.679 Jescelin Shields. Brain Stuff is production off i Heart Radio 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.640 in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.680 is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts on my 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.720 heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:42.560 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.