 Well, good afternoon. We're going to change moderators as well as speakers. So I am Rob Meyers with the USDA Sustainable Ag Research and Education Program on base tier in Columbia, Missouri at the university. And I'll serve as the moderator for our last few presentations. We do have a slight change in our program. Amy Allish, who was scheduled to talk about pollinators for cucurbits, was not able to make it. Fortunately, we have another excellent speaker, Nadia Navaret-Tindall, who is going to speak about native pollinators a little more generally, not specifically on cucurbits. But she's got a lot of experience with native plants and the insects that pollinate some of our plants in Missouri. So Nadia. Hello everyone. Yeah, I'm going to try to fit in the presentation that was supposed to be instead of this one. But I think you will find it interesting. I'm sure that if you hear the presentation, the main speaker in the morning, it's all related. We are all related. Everything isn't integrated. And I don't separate a native bee from a honey bee and native plants and even some of the non-native species. That sometimes can be good for pollinators. So my presentation will be mainly about who the pollinators are and I'll briefly talk about the difference between bees and other pollinators and how they pollinate and some of the threats to pollinators, their habitat needs and how to protect them. And if we have time, I will cover some of the native plants that are good for pollinators. If we don't, because it's really the time is very short, I have a handout for you. I don't think I have enough for everyone because I just hear about this, doing this presentation yesterday in the afternoon. So I didn't have time to print too many things. But if you want any of these handouts, please sign your name and I'll be happy to send it by email. We have a patient back. For those of you who don't know me, the accent is from El Salvador, is why I sound funny. And if you don't understand me, please let me know because I'll be happy to repeat. So the first thing is I want to mention who the pollinators are. I'm sure everybody here knows at least most of them. We have native bees, two wasps, flies, butterflies and moths and beetles, and even the occasional hummingbird. Native bees are more efficient than any other pollinator, including honeybees. But sometimes we confuse them. Sometimes the flies might look like bees. The one way to separate them is that flies have two wings and bees have four wings. It's one characteristic. Another thing that is why bees are more effective pollinators is because they have pollen sacs in their legs and they have fussy bodies. You can read there and it sounds funny. So what happens is that the pollen, they are able to carry pollen in their body, too. In case of flies, they might have some hairs, but the pollen doesn't stick as easy as some bees in general. Beep pollination is very effective on apples, sunflowers, like even white roses, alfalfa and other legumes, orchids and pensements, just as a few examples. Beetles require, or mainly because their bodies, they are kind of clumsy insects. So they look for very open flowers. Like in this case, you're looking at a wire rose and they like what they like, lots of, they eat the pollen, but can also feed on the flower. So they happen to be pollinators because they like the flowers. And you can find them in magnolias, for example, and lotus flowers, they lilies, and any other plant in the rose family, like wild plum. Fly pollination, as I mentioned before, they do consume pollen, the flies. They can eat the flower, but they don't necessarily look for nectar. So they, and also another characteristic of flies is that they like flowers that have a strong odor. And one example is the Aristolokias, it's like Dutchman type, it's one native plant. And they also like flowers that have brown colors. Native flies are attracted to plants, to flowers that produce lots of nectar, like plants in the sunflower family. And hummingbirds look for flowers that are tubular, like this pectoral weed. We have all here about the problems that honeybees are facing. At this point, I'm sure many of you, how many doesn't know what's happening with honeybees, so haven't heard anything about honeybees? Everybody knows about it. So when we have, you probably have seen that there are honeybees, like in the wild, that are still around there. And we can see that in our gardens. At Lincoln University, we have created some native plant outdoor laboratories, different, we have a diversity of flowers, and we see the honeybees coming to us all the time. Right now, it's a very healthy looking population of honeybees in our gardens. We have a, the asters are the ones that are blooming, even with this funny weather is still warm, so they are pretty abundant. One interesting fact about native bees is that they are most diverse in their abundant, more abundant pollinators. We have about 4,400, more than 4,400 species of native bees in the States, including 45 species of bumblebees, and many are found in Missouri. We have about 400 in counting. The research has been increased recently after the prowness with honeybees, so we are learning more and more about native bees. It's very important to know that native bees nest, or at least most of the native bees nest in the ground, and others make tunnels in stems or hollow stems or structures. Most are solitary. However, many are social, like bumblebees and sweatbees, but most are solitary. So we need to be sure that we are providing habitat for all of them, because they are so diverse. They're very tiny, they're very robust, from one that is called perdita, perdita in Spanish was close, it means lost, like perdita, because it's so tiny, it's very hard to see. We have the large ones as carpenter bees, even them being so large are pollinators. Some of you might have seen this poster that has the different kinds of native bees. It has been put together by a series of agencies. It's actually available from the Forest Service, and you can see, it's hard to see from the back, but you can see the diversity, see the big size and shapes. Even the sweatbees that sometimes we don't like are very good pollinators. Well, we are annoyed by them, but if you remember that they are pollinators, then you'll be happy that they are around you. Here is one of the sweatbees, and it's actually a bumblebee that you are seeing here. This is in my backyard. I live in Colombia, in the middle of the city, but we have a native plant garden in the front yard and backyard. We provide all kinds of habitat as much as we can, and of course, in being sure that we please the neighbors. But neighbors have become a little bit more appreciative of what we have through the years. We have problems before, like they call the city, for example, one time. And then some of them, even our neighbor, didn't like the way he was seeing, but now he's, well, they probably got used to us, mainly. So another thing that I'd like to point out, what is comparing native bees versus honeybees is that native bees can be more efficient to pollinate fruits and crops. Fewer native bees are required per acre, and it depends on the species, of course. Now we'll mention some examples later on. Native bees also forage earlier in the day and also later in the day than honeybees. And they visit flowers even during wet and cold conditions, and they don't need maintenance. They don't need hives. Unless you provide your own artificial nesting, then you have to clean them, but it's very minor. So everybody knows about the importance of pollinators just to point out, fruit and seed production depends on pollinators. 70 to 80 percent of flowering plants depend on pollinators to produce fruits and seed. And first I had my number 70, but I was reading an article yesterday where they are talking about being 120 crops, main crops depend on pollinators or native bees. And pollinators can also be the source of food for other wildlife. So let's think about the integration. We are, it's a life cycle. For example, native bees can be food for quail, for those that are interested in raising quail. So in general terms, we're maintaining diversity in ecosystems with their presence. Some commercial crops that depend on honeybees and native bees are all the berries that I could think of. Passion fruit, that's a native passion fruit that grows in Missouri, in Gooseberry, and of course cherries, plums, and almonds. These are some of the fruits that I mentioned. And the cucurbits are really depending on native bees for pollination, as well as vegetables. And you probably have here the tomatoes, even though they can be pollinated by air, by the wind, by the presence of pollinators, production increases. And the same thing with cucurbits, they do need native bees. And I found this information in a website. This was just, I thought it was pretty appropriate for the presentation. This is a study done by the Cersei Society. And I want to show you this book. If you haven't seen it yet, it is really a very, very important book. And it gives you all kinds of information from native bees, native pollinators in general, and shows you what to do to protect them. So in there are other things like this handle that is very easy to follow. It just gives you very simple information, easy to follow. So what I found during this study is that they actually found that there were 23 species of native bees that were visiting watermelon. But these five were the most common. And that includes two bamboo bees, a squash bee, a squash bee that is actually depending on cucurbits, and long horn bees as well as sweat bees. So diversity was their key for a good production. They found that pollination by bees was very critical for the watermelon crop. And even though the European honey bee was often very effective, and in this case they're giving exact numbers, two hives per acre, native bees were also very significant pollinators. And they show that in one county in California, native bees provided all the pollination needed. Probably honey bees were not present. And what I mentioned before, that on a bee per bee basis, they are more effective than honey bees. And they forage, like before I'm repeating some of that, but I think it's important that they forage earlier in the day and transfer the pollin more efficiently than they introduce honey bee. And in the right situation, if you are providing habitat and all the appropriate nesting grounds, you might have a healthy population of native bees. And this is just fun for me to show you because I mentioned that we have native plants at Lincoln University. We planted this watermelon in the middle of the native plant garden. And it was, this watermelon was the sweetest I ever had. And it was full of seeds, so that tells me that there were lots of pollinators. And we did it again this year. And these are some of the vegetables that depend on native bees for seed production. Even though some, you don't need the native pollinators to produce them, but you need the seed for propagation. And I have a few fruit trees, of course. My specialty is native plants, so you see the influence. I like to show all the native plants. And like papa is one native fruit that depends actually on flies for pollination. And that fruit is becoming more popular. We have others, like persimmon. They do depend on native bees, those specific types of native bees. And wild plums do depend on native bees for pollination. They're visited by honey bees, too. I like to mention these because their bees are threatened, not only honey bees. Bees, other beneficial insects, are threatened by all these situations, very maybe extensive agricultural practices. If you attended the presentation in the morning, just remember before you do something in your farm that would affect the rest of your farm or the ones next to you. So we have development land fragmentation. It's hard to do things. Hard to go against it. It's happening. Light pollution keeps happening. And that brings introduced species, diseases, climate stabilization. And that we can do something about this. And I will mention that. And this is another book that is pretty popular at this moment. And I'm hoping how many of you are familiar with this bringing nature home. Nobody knows it. I'll be happy to. I'll put it in the back if you would like to look at it and again talk about it. We actually brought the author of this book at Lincoln University. We had about 300 people. It will be happy to bring him again because it's very inspirational. And that his more focus on the problems that beneficial insects are having in urban areas or in semi-urban areas. Okay, pesticides. I want to mention this because this is a fact that came from that book from the Cersei Society. This one. It's true that there are more pesticides present in urban streams than in rural areas. And the reason for that is that we have, there are more regulations in rural agriculture operations than in urban areas. We have a little lawn that is bombarded with more pesticides than the average feel in rural areas. So a solution could be to look for alternative and less damaging herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals. And I'm sure we have here some of you that are already doing organic farming. So you are doing your part already. Do you have any questions so far and how much time do we have? Five minutes? Okay. And I just want to mention briefly about some of the things that we can do to protect habitat. Initially, first you have to identify habitat that is already present in your farm. You might leave a soil where you cannot grow anything alone. Try not to mow too much. Or if you just leave an area alone and you'll be providing habitat. And think about biodiversity. Sometimes we don't think about the butterflies that they do need host plants for their caterpillars. Like an example, a very specific example is a spice bush. There is a swallowtail that depend on spice bush for their caterpillar to grow. And there are many other examples. And diversify, add wildflowers, grasses, woody plants. And also blooming plants that are available throughout the year. The reason for that is that some of the bumblebees have not only one but up to three broods throughout the year. So they need the wildflowers for food. So you can think about it. And also I mentioned already about providing nesting sites. Leave areas alone. You don't have to crap everything. Just leave areas bare that are good for ground nesting bees. And let me see if I can find some more and do some planting groupings. It's another easy way to do it. And add shrubs to provide cover not only for your insects, for your native bees, but also create gardens that even include grasses. They provide cover and protection for your native bees. And if you have a piece of land where you are trying to provide habitat for quail, like with brush piles, you're already providing habitat to your wild bees. Water sources, of course, are very important. And let me just skip these. This is one example of artificial nests for bees. And simple things are living debris, living leaves that will provide habitat for your insects. And protection, especially in wintertime, don't clean too much. Just leave it alone and leave all the debris in the spring. So be sure you have flowering plants during the growing season. And during the spring, you can provide flowers from trees, shrubs, and woodland forbs. And also in the summer, there are so many plants, especially those that grow naturally in prairies or savannas, that require full sun. And in the fall, you have the golden rods, the asters, and even some very special plants like cloched junctions. This particular plant that you are seeing here depends entirely on a bamboo bee. Bamboo bees, you see, this is the shape of the plant, it's a cloched junction, a blue junction. The bamboo bee comes on top and gets in there. It's similar to the flowers of blueberries. They're kind of, they have their cup. So the bamboo bees get in, in pollination occurs. So we have two minutes. And I'll just show you some pretty plants, some native plants. If I can be, okay, you can establish your pollinators. Here's your wild plum. I say, make, make, I mean, I keep looking for the wild plum jams, because for me it's the best. But I don't find it very often. Maybe you can think about it if you have it in your yard or in your farm. Service Berry provides a blooming early in the year, as well as nine bark. This is a very special plant, sand flocks. It's actually blooming right now, will be blooming through the winter. And you still see it early in the spring. And we have it at Lincoln if you want to come and see it. And since like Columbine, we don't think too much about it because they are so common. But they can, they attract the bamboo bees in the spring. But in hummingbirds prefer these plants to the food that we put in the bird feeders. Another good plant is this legume. It's Baptisia, blue Baptisia, or a wild indigo. Bamboo bees just love them. And if you see in the back, this is the white Baptisia. This is in my, by the curb, in my front yard. So in the spring is very pretty. And if you are in the, I live on Grand Lane, so you ever see, you would probably be able to see who we are. I don't think that anybody else has native plants in that area. And we have a Rosverbina, who's very popular also for native bees. Blooms in the spring. And this is the, I mentioned, false-file indigo. This has been promoted for quail habitat in, but this plant in the spring, like early summer, May, June, is so loaded with little bees, tiny bees, all kinds of insects that you want to have it in your yard. So I'm going to stop with this. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. And we read something online a couple weeks ago about some of the native bees will actually attack our honey bees, like the yellow jacket. Do you know anything about that? Yellow jacket is not, if I say right, it's a wasp. It might be, because they also attack humans sometimes. If you are close to their nesting. But some other people have asked me if honey bees attack native bees. So I'm sure that it has to do with competing with habitat. So if you provide all kinds of flowers and all kinds of protection and cover, I expect that you won't have those problems. It's like creating a whole condo for different species. Any other questions? On the predators of these, this orange and black ant, very large, and they call it a calcular ant. Does it kill native bees? I don't know the answer. I'm sorry, he's talking about a type of ant. How do you call it? Well, I think it's native. It's a common name, it's calcular. It's supposed to have a very bad bite. Calcular ant. It's very large, and it's orange and black and furry. I've been told that it finds ground nesting bees and craze on them. So you wonder if they attack native bees? I grow them on my farm all the time, and I don't know if I'm supposed to be killing them. I try to eat them, and they usually do. But I've read and been told that they kill native bees, and I didn't know if you had heard of those. I don't know the answer for them. And if somebody asks me what if you should kill something, maybe I'm the wrong person to ask that question, because I'd really like to leave everything in the farm as possible. Because then you have diversity. Maybe somebody will come and eat your ant. Well, the ducks will eat it if they find it. Yes, but I'll try to find out the truth. I'm not an entomologist. I'm learning as you do, and I read a lot of books. But it's interesting to hear about those questions, because I never thought about it. But just think about diversity. The more diverse you are, there will be someone that would eat the next one, the largest insect. Is there an artificial structure, an artificial native, the structure that would attract the most bees? Yeah, he's talking about artificial nesting. I briefly show you a couple samples. And those are for a very specific type of bees, especially the ones that nest in tunnels. So I didn't show you some that are good for ground nesting bees. So they are different kinds. And actually, this booklet, you're welcome to see it. You'll see some examples, as well as in this book. So yeah, you can provide habitat, artificial habitat, for different kinds of bees.