PNW Insects - Introduction

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
—Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson’s prairie would be a very barren place without bees. Bees provide the energy necessary for the reproduction and survival of many plant species. There are about 3500 species of bees in North America, all of them collecting pollen and nectar to feed their young, thus becoming dependent on flowers, and through co-evolution, the flowers becoming dependent on bees. Most bees are solitary, but a few species—notably the honey bee—are social, dividing the work of the colony and cooperating in the care of the young.

The honey bee is not native to the United States, but was introduced during early European colonization. Because it has a wide host range and its colonies are easily manipulated, it has become a critical factor in the pollination of agricultural crops. In the U.S., honey bees pollinate over fifty agricultural crops. World-wide, they pollinate one-third of the human diet. Recently the media has drawn attention to the importance of bees with reports of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), in which seemingly healthy bees are abandoning their hives. A number of causes have been proposed for CCD but no single factor has been shown to be the cause (though a recent publication in Science showed that Israeli Acute Paralysis virus to be present in CCD colonies but absent in healthy colonies). Most entomologists look at CCD to be the result of a combination of factors affecting bee health—and pesticides are at the top of the list of mortality factors.

This issue of the PNW Insect Management Handbook celebrates the bee. We celebrate with a cover photo taken by Lynn Ketchum of Corvallis; with poetry; and with the recognition of our responsibility to protect bees, including honey bees, leafcutting bees, alkali bees, bumble bees, and the thousands of other bee species that pollinate our crops and flowering plants throughout the ecosystem. This year, in addition to the article, How to Reduce Bee Poisoning from Pesticides , we include a new section on controlling the pests of honey bees.

We offer our thanks to the over 50 contributors who reviewed the current management practices for crops in the Pacific Northwest. As in past years, Dr. Len Coop will post the PNW Insect Management Handbook on the internet at http://pnwpest.org/pnw/insects. The web version of the manual includes links to pest photographs, fact sheets and pesticide labels. Interest in the web version continues to be high: the 2007 web version of the manual received 80,033 hits.

The editors of this handbook are very interested to know how well it meets your needs, as well as how it might be improved. Also, while we take pains to deliver the most accurate information available and we proofread the text extensively, errors do occur. We welcome all relevant comments and suggestions. Please send these to chollingsworth@umext.umass.edu. It would be helpful if you include “PNW Insect Handbook” in the first part of the subject line.