Conserving Wild Bees

The New Year has begun and the gardening catalogs are arriving. Please consider wild bees as you plan your 2010 gardening. Penn State has a new free pamphlet titled Conserving Wild Bees in Pennsylvania. This pamphlet discusses 5 ways you can enhance wild bee populations. The 5 ways are conserving natural bee habitats, planting flowers, providing access to water, preserving or building nesting sites, and reducing bee exposure to pesticides. Landscaping with perennial native flowering plants is discussed and a chart of their bloom periods is included. Beautiful color pictures of each plant are shown. Finally, there are color pictures of some of the common wild bees in Pennsylvania. You may be surprised to find that some of those insects you thought were pests are actually wild bees providing pollination.

Get your own copy of Conserving Wild Bees in Pennsylvania and think about what you can do to conserve and enhance wild bees and other pollinators. I plan to plant some perennial flowers along one border of my vegetable garden and include some herbs like dill within my vegetable rows. What will you plan to do? Tell us about it... we'd like to hear from you!

For more information contact your local extension office. In Lackawanna County call 963-6842 or email LackawannaMG@psu.edu


John Esslinger, Extension Educator
Penn State Cooperative Extension
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