Female squashbees have fuzzy back legs, while honeybee legs are smooth. AreSquashBeesGood for the Garden? Yes, squashbeesare not just good for your garden but critical if you grow vegetables. Squashbees (Eucera (Peponapis) pruinosa) occur throughout much of the United States and Mexico, where they are important pollinators of plants in the genus Cucurbita. This includes summer squash, winter squash, zucchini, pumpkins, and many gourds (but not cucumbers). Best Vegetables for Pollinators. Most beans and peas offer small pollen rewards to bumblebees willing to buzz them just the right way, but fava beans and runner beans are especially generous to bees and are worthy edibles for pollinator gardens. Both bees have real strong preferences for some of the plants in your gardens, sunflowers and squashes. And one of these bees also was newly discovered here in Oregon, the squashbee by Sarah Red-Laird from the Bee Girl organization and identified by Lincoln Best the... If you've got squash, pumpkins, or gourds in your garden, look for squashbees (Peponapis spp.) to pollinate your plants and help them set fruit. These pollen bees begin foraging just after sunrise since cucurbit flowers close in the afternoon sun. First, we should know the pollination efficacies of squashbees at the other squash species and sub-species (see table), although results with zucchini are probably a good first estimate. The best way to draw bees to your gardenis to provide ample nectar supplies in the closest proximity possible. Beesare tiny and expend a huge amount of energy collecting nectar. If they find a spot to collect all of the day’s nectar, they will return to that space faithfully. Squashbees (Peponapis pruinosa) play a crucial role in pollinating squash plants, having co-evolved with them for 30,000 years. While their populations face threats from farming practices, they thrive where squash grows, ensuring effective pollination. Squashbees’ nest in the ground near squash plants. The exterior of the nest may resemble a messy ant nest until you see a bee going in and out. Squashbee nests are a good reason to adopt no-till methods in your vegetable garden. Tilling destroys the nests and the bees in them. “And the bees have followed the squash plants. Squashbeesare amazingly mobile and able to find areas planted with these crops like farms, community gardens and backyards.” Squashbeesare more common in the desert southwest, where squash originated. Apidae (Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, Carpenter Bees, SquashBees, and Blueberry Bees): Apidae is the largest family of bees and includes Apis melifera, as well as a number of other honey bee species, none of which are native to the US. How goodaresquashbees at making pumpkins? So good that many farmers refused to believe it.P.S. If you want to get a close up look at a squashbee, one afternoon, late next summer, find a closed squash flower in a garden. If you apply a thick layer of wood mulch over the top of ground-nesting bees (70% of native beesare ground-nesting), or till your garden in spring or fall, then you’ve wiped out your best allies. That includes bees who emerge early in the spring to pollinate fruit trees and squashbees... Squashbees, like Xenoglossa strenua, pollinate cucurbit plants. USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab [public domain]/Flickr. The squashbeeis an exception to the rule that beesare daytime foragers.
