PolliNation Podcast

Beekeepers across North America depend on an acaricide containing amitraz to manage varroa mites, the most challenging pest problem bees face. In this episode we learn of a large scale effort to determine whether the mites are still susceptible to the treatments and what beekeepers can do if they face amitraz resistant mites.

It is often assumed that a single blend of flowers could serve all bees equally. In this episode we hear about some new research that considers how it might make sense to tailor resource availability in restored habitats to bee preference in an area.  

Much of what we know about the life history of mason bees is based on very few observations. This week we hear from a new study that shows how many of our assumptions about these bees have underestimated these amazing bees.

Blueberries are a big crop in the Pacific Northwest, but the question of how blueberry yield might benefit from outcrossing among cultivars (like apples and cherries) is not clear. This week we hear about research to determine the benefits of outcrossing in blueberries. 

If you are interested in native bees and a member of the public where do you go? Washington has a new approach, namely the formation of a native bee society, which enables people across a wide range of interests to get together and work towards the preservation of the bees of the Evergreen State.

Gardening and landscaping for urban wild bees is growing. While there is a lot of attention to the flowers to help bees, what else drives diversity? Also, how is diversity measured? In this episode we learn about the broader factors that determine diversity and the biases involved with measuring bee diversity with pan traps.  

As water pipelines are buried to conserve water, this leaves a lot of land that could be converted to pollinator habitat. In this episode we learn of an initiative from Hood River County in Oregon. 

Urban farms are becoming more common on school grounds. In this episode we hear how bees can be a critical part of student experience at school urban farms. 

2022 was the year we were able to get back out to public events to talk to the public about pollinators. Some of us were a little rusty. In this episode we hear about how to pull off an excellent event and how to involve Master Gardeners.

The Canadian prairie region is home to the bulk of that country's colonies. Last year it suffered crippling losses to varroa mites. In this episode we see what we can learn from these periodic heavy varroa infestation years. 

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a key dimension of pollinator protection. This week we head to Chispas Farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico on how they use an integrated method to protect their plants from pests and encourage pollinators.

Varroa resistant bees have been on the horizon for over a decade. This week we learned how close these lines are to being used commercially through a recent study of the POL line.

A new study uses machine learning to classify whether a pesticide is toxic to bees or not. 

Central to honey bee mating are drone congregation areas (DCAs). In this episode we learn how to locate DCAs using unmanned aerial devises (aka, drones).

It's been a cold and wet spring across the Pacific Northwest region. In this episode we learn about what impacts it may have had on cocoon production and what you can do to ensure you maintain bee productivity across a range of spring conditions.

Honey bees have complex societies, which makes their response to environmental stressors difficult to understand. Consequently, the ways in which pesticide risk is assessed for bees can be complicated, nuanced and overwhelming. In this episode we cut through the tangle of all this complexity through a new extension publication.

Grasslands are often overlooked in terms of pollinator habitat. But they are key to many of the bee and butterfly species in the U.S. In this episode we hear about programs from the World Wildlife Foundation Fund to preserve grassland habitat in Montana.

British Columbia beekeepers have made a major investment in preparing for the future in launching a tech transfer program. Hear about this program and the challenges it hopes to address for beekeepers in BC.

The Western monarch butterfly population appears to have recovered from a tremendously low number of butterflies returning to overwintering grounds a few years ago. In this episode we try to understand what still remains unknown about this remarkable migrating butterfly species.

There has been a long tradition of people working together to help bees across state and provincial boundaries in the Pacific Northwest region. In this episode we discover where this cooperative approach came from.

The federal Endangered Species Act is almost 50 years old and it has been a key mechanism for assisting the recovery of many insect pollinators and plant species they depend on. In this episode we get a crash course on how the Act works.

This week the tables get turned on the host of PolliNation as guest host Miranda Jones asks how did Andony get into bees in the first place.  

The holy grail of beekeeping is taking mated queens from the summer and banking them so that they are available the following spring, at a time when queen supply is tight. This week we hear about work underway to figure out how to bank queens through the winter in Oregon.  

Creating habitat for beneficial insects is a key part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). In this episode we hear how an Oregon blueberry farm has gone large scale in creating pollinator hedgerows.

The data we have on the natural history of birds, as well as their ranges, is far richer than for insect pollinators. This week we learned about an innovative approach to use bird data to inform what we know about insect pollinator populations.