News — Pesticide Free

Carpenter bees are valuable pollinators—but not when they drill into your deck! Before reaching for insecticides, try these bee-friendly ways to prevent damage while keeping them around to pollinate your garden.

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. Helping trees survive the drought Trees, both urban and rural, especially our native trees, provide habitats for birds, insects, and other animals. Trees provide food and nesting sites for many of our native bees, the shade that can reduce our energy use during extreme heat and help clean the air of pollutants. And as droughts become more intense and frequent, the trees are hurting.Learn what you can do to help our trees (and bees) in times of drought in this article published...

The continuous blooming of native plants to provide pollen and nectar - check! Mud-rich clay source and deciduous leaves nearby for building nests - check! Bee-safe nesting materials - check! Bee hotel installed - check! If you build it, they will come, right? Well, not necessarily. "Why aren't my bees nesting?" is one of the most common questions we receive from our bee raisers. We understand how frustrating it can be to take the time to create safe nesting habitats for solitary bees only to have them struggle to reproduce or to fly off in search of more desirable nesting...

Each month our Bee Informed Blog highlights current news, science, and research related to solitary bee conservation, food insecurity, and sustainability. 1. Common pesticide, Imidacloprid, found to be highly toxic to bees New research funded by the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and conducted at the University of Georgia shows that Imidacloprid, a common pesticide applied directly to the soil, has lethal and non-lethal effects on bee populations. This study represents the first attempt to explore soil-based exposure in wild solitary bees. The majority of wild bees either nest in the soil or use it as a material to build their...