The Bee Report Podcast

Thank you very much for allowing me an additional week to work on the many projects I have going on right now, including today’s story for the podcast. Never a dull moment here.
I promised you a story about flowers, pathogens and bees, and that’s exactly what I have to share with you today. I had the incredible good fortune of speaking with both Lynn Adler from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Laura Figueroa from Cornell University on the exact same day about the role flowers play in spreading disease among bees. It was like binge watching everything we currently know about this aspect of the bee-flower relationship. Lots of information. Very satisfying. And I will do my best to summarize it all in four key points.
Lynn Adler
• Disease where you dine: plant species and floral traits associated with pathogen transmission in bumble bees (2018) https://bit.ly/3h26nzt
• Flowering plant composition shapes pathogen infection intensity and reproduction in bumble bee colonies (2020) https://bit.ly/2z7zUqq
• Science Poetry @Science_Poetry
Laura Figueroa
• Landscape simplification shapes pathogen prevalence in plant-pollinator networks (2020) https://bit.ly/2XE3EVa
WEEKLY UPDATE
#BlackInNature #BlackInSTEM #DiversityInSTEM #BlackEcologists #BlackBirdersWeek
Being black while in nature: 'You’re an endangered species' (The Guardian) https://bit.ly/3gVd7iG
Black Ecologists statement (Twitter @BEcologists) https://bit.ly/2BE2PDv
Why black lives matter to entomology (Entomological Society of America) https://bit.ly/377GwBy
We speak their names: statement of solidarity for racial justice (Xerces Society) https://bit.ly/2A6LyCu
Judge rejects Trump administration attempt to toss endangered species lawsuit (The Hill)
https://bit.ly/3eYQfx5
Trump administration makes major changes to protections for endangered species (NPR) https://n.pr/2UgF3Uy
17 states sue feds over Endangered Species Act rules (AP) https://bit.ly/3dyJUYK
Bees grooming each other can boost colony immunity (EurekAlert/University College of London) https://bit.ly/30cbLdl
Once is enough for long-term memory formation in bees (The Scientist) https://bit.ly/2UihjiV
A call to refocus away from bowl traps and towards more effective methods of bee monitoring (Annals of the Entomological Society of America) https://bit.ly/2XE2V6o
STAY CONNECTED
Subscribe to the Bee Report Podcast. Leave a 5-star rating and review.
Visit TheBeeReport.com to sign up for the weekly newsletter.
Hit me up on Twitter and Instagram @bymattkelly.
Get in touch at [email protected].

This week on the podcast we're talking about mowing lawns - or rather not mowing lawns - and the impact it can have on urban bees.

You may have heard about No Mow May, an initiative from Plantlife in the United Kingdom which encourages people to stop mowing for the entire month. One of the communities participating in the initiative was Appleton, Wisconsin.

And Israel Del Toro, an assistant professor at Lawrence University, went out and surveyed the bees of Appleton at the end of No Mow May. So he and I chat about the fieldwork, the results and what it was like working with the city government to make this happen.

Israel Del Toro
• Twitter @IsraelDelToro

WEEKLY UPDATE
• Leafcutter bee video (Twitter, Hella Bee Nerd @sfbaybees) https://bit.ly/3g5h5UR

• Is #PollinatorWeek just #beewashing? (Twitter, Charlotte de Keyzer @cwdekeyzer) https://bit.ly/2Yzw2Z7

• EPA signs first ever Pollinator Week Proclamation (Environmental Protection Agency) https://bit.ly/3dBRFMN

• ‘National nature service’ needed for green recovery in England (The Guardian) https://bit.ly/3i59Wpl

• Entomological Society of America donates 100 two-year memberships to EntoPOC (Twitter, Entomologists of Color @EntoPOC) https://bit.ly/31ig1Zy

• Database being assembled for early career pollination ecologists (Twitter, John Mola @_JohnMola) https://bit.ly/3eAWmb4
- Enter info at https://bit.ly/2YwHzbN
- Database at https://bit.ly/3i3h6ug

• Scientists decode honey bee queen toots and quacks in hive (BBC) https://bbc.in/381nDkp

• Soap bubbles could assist with pollination (CNN) https://cnn.it/3g23WLU

STAY CONNECTED
Subscribe to the Bee Report Podcast. Leave a 5-star rating and review.

Visit TheBeeReport.com to sign up for the weekly newsletter.

Connect with me on Twitter and Instagram @bymattkelly.

Get in touch at [email protected].

This week on the podcast I'm joined by Kristen Brochu, a postdoctoral researcher at Penn State University. We discuss her recently published work about how harmful pumpkin and squash pollen is for bumble bees. But why is this? And what exactly can we learn from this? Kristen and I talk about what we currently know (and don't know) about bee nutrition, and how understanding species-specific nutritional needs could be another tool for assessing which bees are at the greatest risk in our climate-changing, urbanizing world.
Kristen Brochu:
• Pollen defenses negatively impact foraging and fitness in a generalist bee (Bombus impatiens: Apidae) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58274-2
• Twitter @bugAdvocate
• Instagram @bugAdvocate
• Website https://www.kristenbrochu.com/
WEEKLY UPDATE
• What is the Asian hornet invasion going to cost Europe? (EurekAlert/Pensoft Publishers) https://bit.ly/2UWUBxv
• WSU scientists enlist citizens in hunt for giant, bee-killing hornet (Washington State University) https://bit.ly/3edk2Cn
• Photographing insects in the field: basic tips for success (Entomology Today) https://bit.ly/39YhFQG
• Small subject matter, big impact! (Australian Geographic) https://bit.ly/2JW3pgN
SURVEY RESULTS
• Has the novel coronavirus affected the research you had planned for this year? https://bit.ly/39XjwoL
Please subscribe to the Bee Report Podcast. Leave a 5-star rating and review. And visit TheBeeReport.com to sign up for the newsletter to stay connected to the world of bees.
Thoughts, questions or comments? Get in touch at [email protected].

This week on the podcast I'm talking with Karin Gastreich, professor of biology at Avila University. Her recent work surveying the native bee communities in the remnant prairies around Kansas City was just published in the March issue of Ecological Restoration. She and I chat about the bees, the prairie ecosystems of yesterday and today, and the difference between restoration and reconstruction.
If you haven't yet spent time in the gently-waving tall grass of a modern prairie, surrounded by the buzzing of life, with blue sky touching the horizon in every direction – put it on your list! It is truly magical.
Karin Gastreich:
• Twitter @EolynChronicles
• Website krgastreich.com
Remnant Prairies and Organic Gardens Provide Complementary Habitat for Native Bees Within a Midwestern Urban Matrix (Ecological Restoration) er.uwpress.org/content/38/1/3.refs
WEEKLY UPDATE
• California attorney general calls out insufficient regulation of insecticide (Santa Barbara Independent) https://bit.ly/2wbSPPz
• The letter from the California attorney general https://bit.ly/3bcTcZ2
• Monsanto’s secret funding for weedkiller studies (The Guardian) https://bit.ly/2WtdeKz
• The pesticide industry’s playbook for poisoning the Earth (The Intercept) https://bit.ly/2U2fdUt
• Pesticide seed coatings are widespread but underreported (Penn State) https://bit.ly/2xdcVc4
• Bees are the Best: USU biologist publishes new children's book (Utah State University)
https://bit.ly/2QxaM1L
EXTRA
• The free digital version of Eolyn:
- Google Books https://bit.ly/2Qy6bfP
- Barnes & Noble https://bit.ly/2WsQf2j
- Smashwords https://bit.ly/390xcyN
• Pollinator License Plate online auction starts March 21 https://www.32auctions.com/
• There and Back Again (Radiolab) https://bit.ly/3bfXmiv
Please subscribe to the Bee Report Podcast. Leave a 5-star rating and review. And visit TheBeeReport.com to sign up for the newsletter to stay connected to the world of bees.
Thoughts, questions or comments? Get in touch at [email protected].

This week on the podcast I have a conversation with Peter Soroye, a Ph.D. student at the University of Ottawa and the lead author of a recent paper in Science Magazine that provides evidence of rapid and widespread declines in bumble bee populations across North America and Europe. This work received plenty of news coverage, and you may have seen some of the headlines that painted a rather grim picture.
However, the real purpose of this research by Peter, Tim Newbold and Jeremy Kerr, was to test a new method for assessing the risk of local extinction for a species – which, ideally, would lead to the creation of more effective conservation efforts through a better understanding of what animals are at the greatest risk in different locations.
• Climate change contributes to widespread declines among bumble bees across continents (Science) https://bit.ly/3a8PCyq
Peter Soroye:
• Twitter @PeterSoroye
• Instagram @puffypete
• Website www.petersoroye.com
WEEKLY UPDATE
• Why the next threat to bees is organized crime (The Guardian) https://bit.ly/2wakZKo
• Minnesota cities could get the power to ban pesticides (The Star Tribune) http://strib.mn/2Vv8P9s
• Maine bill would limit use of neonicotinoids (Maine Public) https://bit.ly/2PyEVNU
• Bumble bees can create mental imagery, a 'building block of consciousness' (ABC) https://ab.co/2T5SRkE
• Honey bees forage less efficiently in high winds (The Guardian) https://bit.ly/2w8qR6O
EXTRA
• Bee Better Certified Production Standards https://bit.ly/397CkC6
Please subscribe to the Bee Report Podcast. Leave a 5-star rating and review. And visit TheBeeReport.com to sign up for the newsletter to stay connected to the world of bees.
Questions or comments about the show? You can get in touch with me at tbr at bymattkelly dot com.