St. Albert will be abuzz with activity next Wednesday as residents talk, walk, and workshop ways to support native bees.
The City of St. Albert will host a talk, a walk, and a workshop on native bees this June 18 to mark Pollinator Week, which runs from June 16-22. These events are meant to teach residents about the importance of native pollinators in this city, said city environmental co-ordinator Payton Homeak.
About 75 per cent of all flowering plants depend on pollinators such as bees to reproduce, Pollinator Partnership (the group behind Pollinator Week) reports. Native insects account for about a third of the pollination that happens on farms, making them responsible for about a third of all food and beverages.
Homeak said Ilan Domnich of the Alberta Native Bee Council will host a free Native Bees 101 talk at the St. Albert Botanic Park at 1 p.m., followed by a pollinator walk, where guests will try to identify pollinating insects hanging out in the park. Domnich will also host a workshop at Servus Credit Union Place at 5 p.m. where guests will get to build bee boxes. Tickets for the workshop are $35, with participants asked to bring their own drills and safety goggles.
Backyard bees
Alberta has about 370 native bee species, none of which are the ones used to make honey, Domnich said. All of Alberta’s honeybees are non-native livestock animals.
Alberta’s native bees come in many shapes and sizes and can sometimes be hard to identify them without the help of a microscope, Domnich said. They fall into one of five categories.
Bumblebees are the big, round, fuzzy, chunky ones that collect pollen on their legs. They are widespread and cold-resistant.
Leaf-cutter bees chew chunks out of leaves with which to line their nests. These bees collect pollen on their hairy bellies.
Sweat bees are the ones that try to drink your sweat — a source of minerals not found in nectar, Domnich said. These bees favour sandy regions, and sometimes look like shimmering emeralds in flight.
Mining bees are extremely varied, Domnich said. Look for bees that dig in the ground and have hairs next to their eyes.
Plaster bees waterproof their nests with a plaster-like coating made from their spit, Domnich said. You’re most likely to recognize the yellow-faced bee, which looks a lot like a wasp.
Many of Alberta’s native bees are solitary figures that nest in straws, holes, or underground, Domnich continued. Bumblebees might gather in up to a hundred per colony, but that’s nothing compared to honeybees, who hang out in the tens of thousands.
Native bees face many threats, including pesticides, habitat loss (such as the replacement of native plants with lawns), and climate change, the latter of which shifts habitat ranges, causes more extreme weather, and throws off the timing between flowering times and pollinator visits, Pollinator Partnership reports. Honeybees also transfer diseases to native bees and may put pressure on their food supply through their sheer numbers, Domnich said.
“Native bees pollinate all our native plants and are critical to the functioning of an ecosystem,” Domnich said.
Domnich said residents can support native bees by planting the native plants they feed upon; check the Alberta Native Plant Council for suggestions. Bee hotels, bumblebee boxes, and bare ground in your garden all create more bee habitat.
Visit stalbert.ca/city/environment/programs-events/native-bees for details on the Pollinator Week activities.
