Support pollinator conservation

Pollinators provide an essential ecological service. In many places their populations are declining due to habitat loss, pesticide use and disease but you can help them in your own backyard.

What's the issue?

Pesticides & Neonicotinoids

Pesticides are a significant problem for honey bees and other insect pollinators. While often not the target of pesticide use, it threatens honey bees’ food supply and can even kill them on contact.
Neonicotinoids are part of a special grouping of pesticides referred to as systemic pesticides, so called because they are absorbed through the root system and affect the entire plant structure, including the leaves, pollen and nectar.
When bees and other pollinators eat and collect the nectar, the pesticide affects their nervous system, hindering their ability to navigate and fly and can often even result in death.
When honey bees do manage to return home with pollen or nectar from a plant treated with neonicotinoids, they can put the entire hive at risk.

Crop monocultures

Crop monocultures are the created by the process of converting large areas of land growing a single crop (e.g. wheat, corn, almonds, etc.). When the plant doesn’t require animal pollination (e.g. wheat and corn), these monocultures result in large food deserts for bees and other pollinators.

Varroa mites

Varroa mites (Varroa destructor) are a parasitic mite originally from Asia and is a devastating problem for bee populations. Today, it is recognized as the most damaging pest of the western honey bee in the world.
Varroa mites are relatively large (can be seen without magnification) and parasitizes both adult bees as well as their brood.
- - The varroa mite life cycle starts when a female mite enters an uncapped brood cell before it is ready to be capped to go through metamorphosis.
  - When the cell is capped, the female mite chews a wound into the abdomen of the pupa and lays several eggs near the site of the wound.
  - The mite eggs will hatch, feed on the developing bee, mate and repeat the cycle while they original mite continues to keep the wound open.
  - If the bee survives to adulthood, it will chew through the cell capping allowing the mites to spread to other cells and spread the mites to other bees it comes in contact.
  - Since the reproductive cycle of the Varroa mites can grow to be exponentially quicker than the bees, treatment and intervention by beekeepers is required to save a colony.
Today varroa mites can be found everywhere in the world that honey bees are except for Australia and a handful of isolated islands in the pacific.
Apiarists (beekeepers) have been able to selectively breed for a specific trait called Varroa Sensitive Hygiene, or VSH. The VSH trait provokes worker bee offspring to search out and remove larva and pupa that have been infested with varroa mites. By removing the offspring at these stages, they disrupt the reproductive cycle of the mites and offset the exponential growth rate for the mite population. Thanks to the haplodiploidy nature of the western honey bee, 100% of the queen’s genes are passed on to drones, including the VSH gene. When the drones then mate with a virgin queen, they can pass on the gene to other honey bee populations.

Impacts on Human Communities

Bees play the largest role in animal pollination. Approximately 75% of flowering plants require the help of an animal pollinator to reproduce. Insect pollination, including bees, accounts for about 35% of the food we consume – that’s about 1 in 3 bites of food.
Today, there a number of crops that are heavily dependent on honey bees to produce a sellable crop including almonds, apples, strawberries, melons and many others.

What is zoo Atlanta doing to help?

Zoo Atlanta’s Horticulture Department utilizes pollinator-friendly plants and pest management practices that help establish pollinator-safe habitats on the Zoo’s grounds. The Horticulture Department also maintains a pollinator garden on grounds where guests can often observe native bees, butterflies, moths and other pollinators in their natural environment.
Since 2015, Zoo Atlanta has served as a community partner with the Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project. Through the project, Zoo Atlanta hosts and cares for several honey bee hives on top the Action Resource Center. In addition to providing pollination services to the Zoo’s grounds and the surrounding neighborhood, the hives at the Zoo also provide research opportunities for undergraduate students to explore their own question through scientific research and discovery.
Zoo Atlanta partnered with The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to support pollinator conservation as one of our Quarters for Conservation projects for the 2020-2021 program year. The Xerces Society’s Pollinator Conservation Program works to restore and expand pollinator habitat by advancing sustainable crop production and providing region-specific educational resources to engage communities in pollinator conservation.

Bee City USA

In 2017, Zoo Atlanta joined with several other community leaders and stakeholders including the Mayor’s Office of Resilience, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Emory University, and many others to establish the Bee City USA: Atlanta Planning Committee. The goal of the committee was to improve pollinator habitats in Atlanta, increase public awareness, and have Atlanta declared an official Bee City USA affiliate.
Bee City USA program is an initiative of The Xerces Society of Invertebrate Conservation, and is dedicated to raising awareness about pollinators, the roles they play in our communities and environment, and how we can help them in urban settings. The Bee City USA program endorses a set of commitments that must be signed by a city’s highest form of government (i.e. City Council and Mayor).
Through the work of the committee and the community, Atlanta became the 51st city in the United States, and 3rd city in Georgia, to be named a Bee City as part of the Bee City USA program.

Project Pollinator

Launched in 2017, Project Pollinator is an umbrella program for all pollinator-friendly initiatives that the Zoo participates in and supports, including Bee City USA-Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Urban Honey Bee Project.

What can you do to help?

Avoid the use of sprays and pesticides in your own yard and encourage others to do the same. While these may eliminate mosquitos and other pests, they can have deadly consequences for bees. Instead, try natural repellents like citronella oil to keep unwanted pests away. If you must use sprays to treat your yard, use them earlier in day or late in the evening. Since bees only forage during daylight this will help to avoid harming honey bees.
Plant a wide variety of native flowering plant species in any outdoor space you have available. Bees come in all shapes and sizes, so they need flowers that do as well in order to thrive.
Do your research before you buy and make informed purchases. Some stores may sell plants that are already treated with systemic pesticides, such as neonicotinoids. These pesticides get absorbed through the entire plant system, poisoning the nectar that pollinators rely on, and can last for months or even years.
Get involved with community conservation programs by helping to build a pollinator-safe community garden, joining a local beekeeper club to learn about honey bees and how to protect and care for them, and sharing what you know about bees and other pollinators with your friends and neighbors.
If you see a swarm of bees, do not disturb or try to remove them. Instead, search online for an apiarist in your area who can remove the swarm and help them develop a hive somewhere safe. For Georgia residents, check the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association or Georgia Beekeepers Association websites.

Additional Information

It is a common misconception that any pollinator can pollinate any plant. With such a variety in bees and flowering plant species, not all bees are well suited or able to pollinate every flowering plant. For example, the honey bee is not very efficient at pollinating the cherry tomato. However, several species of bumble bees are very effective at pollinating the cherry tomato plant.

Recommended resources for additional information

References

Delaplane, Keith S. (2007). First Lessons in Beekeeping. Hamilton, IL: Dadant &Sons Inc., 2007. ISBN 978-0-915698.
Sammataro, Diana and Avitabile, Alphonse. (2011). The Beekeeper's Handbook. 4th. Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8014-7694-5.
Wilson-Rich, Noah. (2014). The Bee: A Natural History. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-691-16135-8.
Catalogue of Life: honey bee (English). (2018). Catalogueoflife.org. Retrieved 13 July 2018, from http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/specie
Why Conserve Pollinators. (2018). BEE CITY USA | An Initiative of the Xerces Society. Retrieved 20 July 2018, from https://www.beecityusa.org/why-conserve-pollinators.html
Apis mellifera (Western Honey Bee). (2018). Iucnredlist.org. Retrieved 13 July 2018, from http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/42463639/1
Native Bee Pollination of Cherry Tomatoes (2018). Xerces.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018, from https://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/factsheet_cherry_tomato_pollination.pdf
The Waggle Dance of the Honeybee. (2018). Georgia Tech College of Computing (YouTube). Retrieved 20 July 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=bFDGPgXtK-U
The Xerces Society » Pollinator Conservation Resources – Southeast Region. (2018). Xerces.org. Retrieved 20 July 2018, from http://xerces.org/pollinators-southeast-region/
The Xerces Society » Pollinator Conservation Resources – US & Canada. (2018). Xerces.org. Retrieved 20 July 2018, from http://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation-resources-us-and-canada/
Pollinators in Peril (2018). Center for Biological Diversity Biologicaldiversity.org. Retrieved 20 July 2018, from https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/native_pollinators/pdfs/Pollinators_in_Peril.pdf

Updated May 2020

Page updated

Report abuse