Questions & Answers

There are approximately 200,000 different species of animals around the world that act as pollinators. Of these, about 1,000 are vertebrates, such as birds, bats, and small mammals, and the rest are invertebrates, including flies, beetles, butterflies, moths, and bees.

The European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an exotic species that was introduced into the Australian environment over 180 years ago. Honey bees were used to pollinate plants grown by early settlers for food - a task that was previously done by hand.

European honey bees can outcompete native fauna for floral resources, disrupt natural pollination processes and displace endemic wildlife from tree hollows.

Managed hives of European honey bees form the basis of an industry that provides significant crop pollination services around Australia. These services are necessary for crops to produce necessary produce.

Of Australia's more than 1,700 species of native bees, less than 2% are stingless! However, a native bee can sting more than once and it is possible to be allergic to the sting of a native bee.

Honey bees collect pollen and nectar as food for the entire colony, and as they do, they pollinate plants. Nectar stored within their stomachs is passed from one worker to the next until the water within it diminishes. At this point, the nectar becomes honey, which workers store in the cells of the honeycomb.

Animals collect and distribute pollen in a variety of different ways. Some animals have evolved changes in their bodies and behaviours to assist with the movement of pollen. The images here show a variety of pollinators with pollen attached to their bodies.

Pollen is a mass of microspores in a seed plant appearing usually as a fine dust. Each pollen grain is a minute body, of varying shape and structure.

Source: Britanica.com

Wind-pollinated plants produce lots of lightweight, smooth pollen. However, insect-pollinated plants don't produce as much pollen and the pollen is heavy and sticky. When an insect visits a flower for food, the pollen gets caught in hairs for easy transport to another flower.

The grey-headed flying-fox and little red flying-fox are endemic to Australia which means they are found only in Australia.

If you find a flying fox alone, on the ground or entangled in power lines, it is probably injured and you should report it to the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES).

Call WIRES 1300 094 737

One of the main reasons for the decline in bee numbers is a destruction of habitat and food sources. Native bushland is being cleared for residential and commercial areas. therefore the things bees need to survive ie food, water and habitats are decreasing.

The second contributing factor to the decrease in the number of bees is the extensive use of pesticides. Pesticides are now very commonly used by people in their own gardens and these pesticides can impact on beneficial insects such as bees.

What’s a bee to do when there are very few flowers available and it needs a sugar fix? Wild bees may be responding to climate change and urban expansion by relying on insects to get the sweet stuff.

Climate change has caused some flower species to bloom at different times than they have in the past. This causes a potential mismatch in bees and flowers meeting at the right time. With urban development also reducing the number of wildflower habitats, wild bees could come out of the ground to find very little food available to them.

When this happens, scientists discovered that some wild bees turn to plant-feeding insects for food. The plant-feeding insects suck out nutrients from their host plant, and then secrete a nutrient-rich carbohydrate known as honeydew that is similar to nectar sugar.

Source: BLOGS.IFAS2

If all of the world's bees died off, there would be major rippling effects throughout ecosystems. A number of plants are pollinated exclusively by specific bees, and they would die off without human intervention. This would alter the composition of their habitats and affect the food webs they are part of and would likely trigger additional extinctions or declines of dependent organisms. Without bees, they would set fewer seeds and would have lower reproductive success. This too would alter ecosystems. Beyond plants, many animals would lose their prey in the event of a die-off, and this would also impact natural systems and food webs.

In terms of agriculture, the loss of bees would dramatically alter human food systems but would not likely lead to famine. The majority of human calories still come from cereal grains, which are wind-pollinated and are therefore unaffected by bee populations. Many fruits and vegetables, however, are insect-pollinated and could not be grown at such a large scale, or so cheaply, without bees.

There are around 20,000 species of bees in the world.

The answer to this question is tricky as there are so many different types of bees with so many different types of living requirements also what do you consider in captivity?

If you consider Honey Bees, many of these are in a type of captivity with bee homes (hives) looked after by people. Bees are kept safe from pesticides and fed by being given access to pollinating plants and trees. Some apiarists will even feed their bees a sugar solution if there is limited natural food available.

As we discovered in our webinars some native bees such as the Tetragonula carbonaria are sometimes rescued and placed into bee hives when their native habitat is destroyed.

Basically bees need 3 things – food, water, and shelter. For food, bees eat pollen, nectar, and honey. They gather water as needed. The bees shelter must have room for brood, protection from rain, and adequate ventilation. If you could give the bee all 3 of its needs then it may survive in captivity.

Solitary bees do not live in colonies, do not serve a queen or make honey. ... Some solitary bee species nest in large groups, and a few have evolved social behaviour rather like bumblebees_, but they generally build individual nests and work alone.

By 'solitary' we mean that a single female – after she emerges from her pupae and is mated by a male – constructs, provisions and lays an egg in each cell in a nest by herself. She does not share the caring for or feeding of the eggs, larvae or pupae with a mate or colony.