PolliNation Podcast

There has been a lot of demand for nursery plants that are good for pollinators, but also confusion on whether these plants have been grown using practices that minimize impacts to pollinators. This week we hear from Sharon Selvaggio, Program Director at Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP), about a pilot study to see what consumers respond to when labeling pollinator plants around the practices they were grown under.

For the 100th Episode of PolliNation we assembled our crack team of OSU pollinator faculty together to answer your burning questions.

Commercial bee pollination is an integral part of food production in the US. In this episode we catch up with Adam Allington, a reporter with Bloomberg Environment, about a new podcast "The Business of Bees" that explores how the food system has evolved to become dependent on bees, and the future consequences of this dependency.

Pollinator strips are exceedingly tricky to establish. This week we drop by Washington County Master Gardener and Master Beekeeper Bob Falconer's house to see how he establish magnificent strips of Phacelia and clover.

Not all bee communities across a region might use the same flowers. But how might gardeners be better informed about what local bees like? Also, do regional bee communities confront different disease pressures. Hear how Hannah Levenson is addressing these issues in a project taking place at North Carolina State University.

How do you measure the success of restoration projects for bees? Dr. Mia Park from North Dakota State University catches us up on work she is doing around urban prairie restoration. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/05/13/mia-park

Listen in to learn the role of the Oregon Bee Atlas, how it has grown in only a year, and which plants are best for pollinator biodiversity in Oregon. "It's easy to document common species; it's really difficult to assess the extreme biodiversity that exists here." - Lincoln Best. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/04/29/oregon-bee-atlas

Listen in to learn what native plants are best for your garden, both for increasing the health of local pollinators and adding beauty to your garden. "There have been very few studies that have been done on the relative attractiveness of different plants to pollinators, especially in a garden-type setting." - Aaron Anderson. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/04/15/aaron-anderson #fpshows

Listen in to learn how growers can improve their pollinator effectiveness, the benefits of certain overwintering solutions, and the key to great queens. "I know there's a lot of talk about letting natural selection do it's thing, but we have to think about what we're doing. When we put the bee colony into a hive, it's no longer considered to be, in my mind, natural. So I think they definitely need some help." - Dr. Elina L Niño. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/04/08/dr-elina-l-nino/

Listen in to learn about the two key pollinators of alfalfa seed: the alfalfa leafcutter bee and alkali bee. "If [alfalfa] bloomed in the spring, there would not be enough hours in the day for a female bee to complete a nest cell for one offspring." – Jim Cane. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/04/01/jim-cane/

Listen in to learn all about pollen: how to collect and identify it, how it can be used in forensics, and the tools that researchers have developed to source it from particular plants. "The fun thing about pollen and why palynology is a thing is that every species of plant will produce a unique pollen grain to that species. We can play CSI and forensics here: when you look at the pollen that honey bees collect, you can trace it back to the plant that they were actually visiting." – Pierre Lau. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/03/25/pierre-lau/

Listen in to learn about Dr. Delphia's bee atlas projects, why Montana is a "black hole" of bee data, and where to find the coolest native bees of Montana. "It's really great to be working on bees in Montana and it's also not so great. It's great because there are so many things to discover and it's also not so great because there are so many things to discover." – Dr. Casey Delphia. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/03/18/dr-casey-delphia/

Learn how Kim Flottum is taking beekeeping education into the future, and how he is following in legendary beekeeping educator Amos Root's footsteps. "We have gone from pencil-writing answers to letters, to the electronic age, and it has opened the door to anybody and everybody who wants to talk about anything." - Kim Flottum. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/03/11/kim-flottum/

Listen in to learn how golf courses can better serve pollinators and their habitats through curating their plants, flowers, and maintenance schedule. "Golf courses are these really unique islands of vegetation within these urban lands." - Rebecca Perry. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/03/04/rebecca-perry-and-grace-cope/

Listen in to learn Steve's experience in making and maintaining mason bee nesting blocks, and why he advocates using a wood laminate in its construction. "I've always been interested in that you can raise these bees and sort of have a lower input in terms of having to put them into cold storage so soon." - Steve Peterson. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/02/25/steve-peterson/

Listen in to learn the importance of sterols in honeybee health, why they are so important, and the research Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti has done on them. "[Sterols] are building blocks of cellular membranes. That is why we are trying to focus on them, because without these sterols, you would basically have a dead bee." - Dr. Priyadarshini Chakrabarti. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/02/18/dr-priyadarshini-chakrabarti/

Listen in to learn how Heritage Seedlings aids in restoration sites and pollinator health as a Flagship Farm, and the best native plants for your garden. "We have around 560 native prairie plant species, and the majority of them also have pollinator species that utilize both for flowering resources and for cover." - Lynda Boyer. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/02/04/lynda-boyer/

Learn how Iwasaki Bros. has reduced their environmental impact through Integrated Pest Management (IPM), bee monitoring, and the flagship farm program. "The Iwasaki's have always been interested in sustainability, so [becoming a flagship farm] was something that came very natural to them." - Kathleen Baughman. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/01/28/kathleen-baughman/

Listen in to learn Harry's effective communication methods, how he builds bridges with others in agriculture, and what he's done for pollinators in the PNW. "We're really all working hard and trying to make a living at the same time, and working together is the answer to that." - Harry Vanderpool. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/01/21/harry-vanderpool/

Listen in to learn how Sarah and the Flagship Farms program work with farmers to create sustainable ecosystems for pollinators, and how you can participate. "We're a specialty crop state and many of those depend on pollination, and if they depend on pollination, that means they provide a resource for the bees themselves." - Sarah Kincaid. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PolliNation-82

Listen in to learn the intersection between changing tropical climates, pollinator habitats, and the coffee crop, and the impact of mines on pollinators. "For a lot of species, we don't know if they'll be able to successfully move fast enough northward, so the other potential could be that we would just see loss of species in a particular location or maybe declining pollinator population numbers." - Dr. Valerie Peters. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2019/01/07/dr-valerie-peters/

Listen in to learn the relationship of pollinators with native flora and fauna of Hawaii, and what is being done to aid local agriculture and beekeeping. "A lot of the plants [in Hawaii] evolved with bird and beetle pollinators, there's only one native genus of bee." - Dr. Christina Mogren. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2018/12/31/dr-christina-mogren/

Listen in to today's episode to learn how hybrid systems work and the steps vegetable seed growers are taking to keep bees healthy during pollination. "It's a labor intensive crop, especially if you're doing it transplanted." - Robyn Shephard. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2018/12/24/robyn-shephard/

Emily Erickson talks about the role of garden plants in bee conservation and how plant breeding may be changing the attractiveness of garden plants to bees. "This [data] gives us a really cool system where we can isolate these single traits in the context of the whole flower. So we can keep everything else consistent and then ask, 'what if it was red instead of orange? Does that matter?'." - Emily Erickson. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2018/12/13/emily-erickson/

In this episode, we hear about the City of Fife's initiative to increase the amount of blooming clover available to bees on their city properties. "Clover attracts bees and other pollinators, so it benefits the ecology of the area." - David Cantlin. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2018/12/10/david-cantlin/

Listen in to learn how different bees divide up the responsibilities of finding and gathering food, and why they developed this method of foraging. "I can only imagine if in my neighborhood, every couple of days the grocery store closed and popped up somewhere else. How would you deal with that?" - Dr. Chelsea Cook. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2018/12/02/dr-chelsea-cook/

Listen in to learn more about eco-lawns, what brought Amy into this business, and what makes eco-lawns ideal for all different kinds of home owners. "I think I've always wanted to something that helped other people, and that's turned into something that can not only help people, but animals, insects, and the environment." - Amy Cox. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2018/11/26/amy-cox/

Listen in to learn more about what drew Lila to Osmia lignaria, and how she is finding the effect of these bees on their landscape, and vice versa. "[Osmia] are really easy to work with, they're easy to buy, which is rare for a native bee source, and they're really easy systems to put in different places, so it was almost easier [for me to get into] than bumblebees." - Lila Westreich. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/2018/11/19/lila-westreich/

Learn more about the recent research studying the effects of glyphosate on honeybees, and how glyphosate can indirectly affect their gut homogenate. "Those lactobacillus bacteria are supposed to not be sensitive to the glyphosate, so it's weird that the single dose would affect them, but when there's a double dose, there seems to be no change." - Addision DeBoer. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PolliNation-73

Listen in to learn how Garth Mulkey helped develop the bee protection protocol for specialty seed growers, and why specialty seed growers need bees. "[The bees] are even more critical in our hybrid productions, because the females in this production do not produce their own pollen, so if we don't have bees, we don't harvest seed." - Garth Mulkey Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PolliNation-72

Listen in to learn how the small fungus Nosema affects bee colonies, how and where it thrives, and what is being done to stop it in the research community. "Nosema is kind of a tough nut to crack. There have been many people besides ourselves that have worked on alternative treatements to Nosema over the years and have largely proved unsuccessful." - Dr. Steve Pernal Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-MacInnis-and-Pernal

Listen in to learn how forests are managed, how it affects pollinator habitat, and how bioassays gather essential insights into improving pollinator health. "Out West in general, and especially in places like Oregon, because so much of our land has potential pollinator habitat, and if we manage it properly, I think we could really support pollinators like wild bees." - Dr. Sara Galbraith. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Dr-Sara-Galbraith

Listen in to learn how viruses affect pollinators, how virologists study them, and which ways beekeepers can best protect their colonies from infection. "When you think about a bee colony, it's a great place for viral infections. They're really crowded, if you think of honeybees, there's over 40,000 individuals crawling all over each other." - Michelle Flenniken. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Michelle-Flenniken

Listen in to learn how Project Apis m. has accomplished sustained valuable research for both pollinators and the agriculture and beekeeping industries. "What it takes to make the change on the ground is to show and prove what is happening, and then outreach to educate on the alternatives, and change those practices." - Danielle Downey. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Project-Apis-M

Listen in to today's episode to learn how the PNW Bumble Bee Atlas is aiding in bee conservation, and how you can participate in pollinator habitat surveys. "I can tell you from the response that we've had that people are pretty excited. They've been having a really good time doing this. I love it, too, and it's good to know that other people can join you on this." - Rich Hatfield. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Rich-Hatfield

In this episode, we learn about the life cycle of Ceratina, and its peculiar strategy of turning the firstborn female into the a nursemaid of the nest. "We like to think of [Ceratina] as a bee on the brink of sociality." - Dr. Sarah Lawson. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Dr-Sarah-Lawson

In this episode, we learn how to create certified monarch waystations, and how Stewart Meadows integrated the monarch waystations into their golf course. "We want to put in more of these monarch waystations and pollinator habitats. To me, that is a wonderful next step, not only for the golf course, but for all the monarchs and our entire community." - Robert Coffin. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Coffin-Loy

Listen in as we talk about residential beekeeping, and the ways you can work with your local government to keep your local hives nuisance-free. "Residential beekeeping didn't really exist 30 or 40 years ago, so the cities have had to address it as problems have come up, so each [city] will vary each time it comes up with a problem." - Mike Rodia. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Mike-Rodia

Listen in to learn more about victory gardens, the cultural importance of bees over time, and how artists and scientists work together to educate the world. "If you want to grow food to feed yourself, you also need to feed the bees. We need to feed the bees." - Lori Weidenhammer. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Lori-Weidenhammer

Listen in to learn more about how to plant a garden for pollinators using non-native plants, and the complexities of pollinator research in the field. "The bigger picture I focus on is to emphasize that [we all] have a role to play in the saving of bees, and that it's not really an issue about Monsanto or chemical companies or some far off entity." - Sam Droege. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Sam-Droege

Listen in to this episode to learn how the Department of Agriculture handles suspected pesticide-related bee incidents, and what they do to prevent them. "I would like to encourage any citizens within the state of Oregon to report any suspected bee related incident. That information is valuable to the department and others involved in evaluating pollinator health." - Dale Mitchell. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Dale-Mitchell

Listen in to today's episode to learn about the uniqueness of leafcutting bees, how they're managed, and how to keep your bees safe in using pesticides. "When you look at an alfalfa field, if it has what looks like little metal or wooden sheds in the field, that's where hundreds and hundreds of thousands of leafcutting bees are doing their jobs." - Dr. Bob Peterson. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Dr-Bob-Peterson

Listen in to today's episode to learn about the bees that evolved in vastly different climates, and why Dr. Woodard's lab studies the way they have adapted. "In the bumblebee lineage, they have been social for so long now, that it's really difficult, in fact impossible, to definitively answer the question of why they evolved socially." - Dr. Hollis Woodard. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Dr-Hollis-Woodard

Listen in to this special episode to learn how young students can learn about pollinator science and health, and the way education is changing young minds. "It's so cool to see so many kids out here checking out pollinators, and how sophisticated they are and how they really do know a lot about these insects already." - Nicole Sanchez. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-OPW-2018

Listen to today's episode to find out what we can learn from bee dances, and how home gardeners can make a difference creating their own pollinator habitat. "The hypothesis would be that the hotspots the honeybees have indicated are good or bad will map very nicely with areas that either support abundant and diverse native bee communities and bumblebee colonies, or places and times that are hard for them." - Dr. Margaret Couvillon. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Drs-Couvillon-and-Schurch

On today's episode, learn how to keep your bees healthy and productive, what is most important in maintaining your bees, and how to prevent varroa mites. "Close to 50% of the nectar that [honeybees] bring in around the year is from blackberries." - Dr. Ramesh Sagili. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Dr-Ramesh-Sagili

Listen in to learn about Mimi's work studying the pollination of watermelon, and how farmers can improve their crop through cultivating pollinator systems. "Watermelon is one of those crops that is entirely dependent on pollinators in order to set fruit." - Mimi Jenkins. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Mimi-Jenkins

Listen in to learn the evolution of migratory beekeepers since the 1970's, and why Ron believes that our current pollination system isn't sustainable. "We can do more with fewer acres by using the honeybees, and they're being provided by commercial beekeepers." - Ron Miksha. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Ron-Miksha

Listen in to learn about National Pollinator Week, how the Pollinator Partnership helps the world's pollinator populations, and how you can take part. "Protect their lives, preserve ours." - Kelly Rourke. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Kelly-Rourke

Listen in to learn about how the ways that we maintain our lawns can help or hinder the abundance and diversity of bees, and affect pollinator health. "There are so many variables when you're considering lawns, like how big the lawn is, or where it is, and this study did an amazing job of trying to factor in all of the characteristics." - Addison DeBoer. Learn more about this episode of PolliNation at http://bit.ly/PN-Research-Retinue-Lawns