Arkansas is home to an estimated 400–650 species of native bees, including small, metallic-green bees in the family Halictidae; boldly striped bumble bees; and long-horned bees, some of which exhibit icy white hairs and blue eyes. Native bees are those that were present prior to European colonization. Notably, the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), a domesticated species widely kept in hives for honey production and agricultural pollination, is not native, as its natural range is in Europe and Africa.

Native bees vary widely not only in their physical appearances but also their behaviors. For example, many collect pollen as a food source using scopa, stiff hairs on either their legs or abdomen that are specialized for this purpose. Some native bees lack such structures and resemble wasps in their appearance, parasitizing other bees for pollen; others, such as some bees in the genus Hylaeus, carry pollen in their crops (digestive organ used for storage). Most of our state’s native bees nest in soil, although some species create hive-like structures, craft cavities, or bore into dead wood or the soft pith of plant stems, such as those of goldenrod species. Social structures, too, differ among our native bees. Most are solitary, completing their life cycles almost entirely on their own, but some, such as bumble bees, live in social arrangements that feature a reproductive queen and workers, while others fall somewhere between solitary and social behaviors. 

As you can see, there is much diversity within Arkansas’s native bee communities, and their benefits are quite varied, too. From a general standpoint, native bees are known to maintain 80% of the world’s native plant species, thereby furnishing valuable support to ecosystems, and in the U.S., the economic value of native pollinators, particularly native bees, is valued at approximately $3 billion per year.

Multiple factors may be causing native bee populations to plummet, including habitat loss, pesticide use, introduced diseases, and climate change. "The Arkansas Monarch and Pollinator Conservation Plan" says, “Many native bees appear to be declining across their range with multiple species of bumble bees found in Arkansas listed as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.” Honey bees, too, are decreasing in number for some of the same reasons, with beekeepers losing an average of one third of their managed colonies each year. However, it is important to recognize that the honey bee is not threatened with extinction, and the decline of honey bee colonies is an agricultural issue, not a conservation issue. Fortunately, Arkansans can implement many practices in their own yards to meaningfully help native bees and, in turn, the ecosystems they sustain. These include the following:

• Grow plants native to Arkansas. Consider landscaping with grasses, forbs (i.e., wildflowers), shrubs, and trees native to Arkansas. Native plants are those that occur naturally in a particular region, ecosystem, or habitat without direct or indirect human intervention and were present at the time of European colonization. Many native bees have developed specialized relationships with native plants over millennia and may feed their larvae pollen only from certain species. The article within this newsletter “A Top 10 15 List of Native Arkansas Plants for Pollinators” addresses which native plants are recommended for garden settings.
• Keep stems standing. Once the growing season is over in fall, cutting dried flower stalks, particularly those of native goldenrod species, to varying heights of 8–24 inches is beneficial for above-ground nesting bees. Doing so makes open stems available for native bees to start nests the following spring. The longer you can keep the cut stems present, the better, as it will take some time for bee offspring to mature. For example, eggs laid in spring will develop into larvae over the summer and emerge as adult bees during the following growing season, so leaving stems up for at least two growing seasons is ideal.
• Leave the leaves (and the soil). Some bumble bee queens overwinter by burrowing into the soil just an inch or two down, so if you leave a layer of leaves on the ground this fall, you can help save these queens from winter’s chill. To optimally help such bees — as well as butterflies, moths, snails, beetles, and other invertebrates that use leaf litter and serve as food for other wildlife — consider raking whole (not shredded) leaves into garden beds, which keeps animal inhabitants safe and benefits your plants. According to the Xerces Society: “Leaves provide valuable organic matter and build up healthy soil. Fallen leaves have the same weed suppression and moisture retention properties of shredded wood mulch — and they’re free! Where mulch is desired as a decorative element, what could be more seasonally appropriate than a pile of brightly-colored fall leaves?"
  Another tip: reduce the amount of turf grass in your yard, converting such space to native-plant gardens. Doing so will not only give you more space to stow fallen leaves once plantings are established but will also provide habitat for soil-nesting bees, as native forbs and grasses grow with some bare soil between them, leaving enough room for bees to excavate their homes. By contrast, turf grass is too dense, leaving no soil available for their needs. Keep in mind that if you are trying to establish natives from seed in portions of your yard, it may be best to keep leaf cover minimal to non-existent, at least for a while, so that seedlings receive adequate sunlight.
• Be careful with bee houses. Commercially produced bee houses, also known as bug hotels, are readily available for purchase and may appear to be charming additions to a garden. However, proceed with caution before purchasing these, as houses with glued or fixed elements are difficult if not impossible to clean and thus may become infested with diseases and mites, which may be lethal to the very bees you wish to help. Maintaining your yard in a more natural way, perhaps with a few brush piles or dead trees or logs, is a safer, more cost-effective way to support native bee nest sites. That said, there are ways to construct artificial nests that can benefit native bees, but these must be properly maintained. More information about nest construction and care is available from the Xerces Society.
• Share your observations with scientists. Equipped with just a smartphone, or alternatively, a camera and GPS unit, Arkansans can photograph native bees and upload their observations to iNaturalist , a website and phone application that helps users identify animals and plants and, in turn, allows scientists to access such data to better understand and protect nature. To record observations for iNaturalist, simply create a free account and follow the instructions for uploading your bee photos to the platform. One of the perks of using iNaturalist is that other iNaturalist users and the website itself will offer identification suggestions, so over time you will get better acquainted with the insects you encounter. Any observations you record will be valuable to scientists, as much still remains to be learned about the distribution and abundance of native bees in Arkansas.

By landscaping and maintaining your yard with native bees in mind, you can truly make a difference for these important pollinators, and no yard is too small to make a difference. To this point, Doug Tallamy, an entomologist and author of “Bringing Nature Home,” says the following:

“Habitat destruction as a result of anthropogenic changes is a huge problem everywhere for life on earth. That is precisely why we can no longer rely on natural areas alone to provide food and shelter for biodiversity. Instead, we must restore native plants to the areas that we have taken for our own use so that other species can live along with us in these spaces. We can start by restoring native plants to our gardens. This is a manageable task for both suburban and city dwellers, with tangible results in a few short seasons as individual gardens begin to attract the birds and the insects that will sustain them. Just imagine the restored landscape that could result from everyone’s cumulative efforts!”

For more information about gardening with native plants, please visit the ANHC Native Gardening Guide.

References

Photos:
Photo 1 — White-clothed longhorn (Tetraloniella albata) on purple prairie-clover (Dalea purpurea) at Rick Evans Grandview Prairie Wildlife Management Area. Photo by Renn Tumlison.

Photo 2 — Metallic epauletted-sweat bee (Augochloropsis metallica). Photo by Coleman Little.