Do that many veggies, trees, or plants even need the pollination of bees?

No, they do not. Those that do depend upon insect pollination versus being self fertile or wind pollinated have many more bugs than bees to get the job done.

This isn't to be calloused regarding whatever issues honey bee keepers may or may not be having, it is to (try to) be honest.

This whole issue of bee decline started with the organization for honey bee keepers starting to keep better records. As they did this they noticed that many colonies of honey bees didn't survive even a year. This wasn't anything new, they just started to pay attention to it as they kept better records. They sent out the alarm that the rate of honey bee collapse was on the increase even though they didn't have records to show this was the case (they rely upon voluntary submissions rather than any formal monitoring). the motive is pretty obvious, buy more honey bees and supplies and memberships to combat the 'problem'.

This then got media attention. Attention from the same media that likes to talk about shark attacks. It became a scare story. Bogus, ill informed quotes from 'experts' in unrelated fields got drudged up like the one about humans going extinct within a few generations of the bees.

Then anecdotes took over and people (some of them anyway) noticed an off year for some bees in their yard and reported it in discussion groups and amongst their friends. Friends often agreed since most people's friends live in the same geographical area. Weather patterns which result in decreased presence of an insect tend to be the same in close geographical proximity.

The whole thing took on a life of it's own even though by any objective measure populations of all bees are normal.

Thankfully the U of W had the guts to say so. Instead of jumping on the fear bandwagon they actually surveyed bee populations and found them to not be in decline.

Yes, insect populations wax and wane and yes an odd weather year can see and abundance or absence of a particular insect, but this doesn't make a trend or a problem no matter what the scare you into watching 'news' media tell you.

Sure hope you're right 'cause the other insects are doing a crummy job of pollinating my tomatoes. The few honeybees around this year certainly lack vigor & I see them either dead or nearly so on the bee plants like the Russian Sage mentioned above. Hopefully its some temporary bee blight & things will be back to normal in a year or 2. I am more than casually concerned.

Bob, tomatos do not require insect pollination, they are self fertile having perfect flowers. If you are having tomato issues this year, join the club. It has been a bad year in most of Wisc for tomatos. Many of us are just now getting ripe fruits from early varieties and some of us are looking 'forward' to frost with bushes loaded with green balls.

Here in West Allis I am loaded with both bees and green tomatoes or, on some plants, few tomatoes. Justaguy2 is right. Any kind of vibration (i.e. wind) is enough to pollinate a tomato flower.

tj

Thanks jg2. I think we all needed that educational information. Next Spring, all those russian sage plants will be planted in the far back garden.
Pondy

Well, the perfect flowers on my toms are unusually imperfect this year. We're actually discussing getting a few bushels from the farmers mkt to freeze. Wait 'til next year tho. Tomatoes the size of basketballs. Funny how every year is different.

Very informative post!

Actually, I'm not terribly concerned about the lack of honeybees (European), since they were introduced by the early European colonists. What occured in nature BEFORE they arrived, anyway? Native plants were pollinated by native insects.

I just wanted to throw my 2¢ in here and say that I've seen no honey bees here this season, but many Bumble bees...not hordes of them, but rather lone B-bees here and there, more so in this late summer season. A few wasps, less lady bugs, less earwigs, less Japanese Beetles, less slugs, more ants, and waaaaaaaaaay too many mosquitoes - STILL!

To quote Bob, "Funny how every year is different."

Julie