Bees have become celebrities in the insect world, beloved for their vital role as pollinators and pitied for falling victim to "colony collapse," an epidemic of mass bee deaths that has caused bee populations to decline in South America. North.

Lost in much of the bee discourse is the fact that they are not native to North America. They originate from warmer climates in southern Europe, northern Africa, and parts of Asia, and were brought to this continent in the XNUMXth century for use as agricultural pollinators and honey producers. As agriculture became an industrialized business, the sector came to rely on the services of the European bee, which is known for living, feeding and pollinating in large groups.

Now, as those bees struggle to survive, some experts say the crisis may have a relatively simple solution: Supplement those imported bees with members of Canada's more than 860 native bee species, whose ancestors flitted from flower to flower here. of the world. long before the first hive of bees appeared.

The first of the recent wave of major bee losses in North America occurred in 2007 and 2008. Until then, beekeepers were used to seeing about 10 percent of their bees die in a typical season. Suddenly they noticed losses of more than 30 percent.

Paul Kelly, research and apiary manager at the University of Guelph's bee research center, said the resulting increase in public concern about the fate of bees has often overshadowed the importance of native pollinators.

“We have always considered beekeeping as an agricultural activity, but when we started to see a jump in colony loss, it caught people's attention,” he said. “That caught the beekeeping community by surprise. We were trying to do our thing in farming, and a lot of other people rallied around and chased it as an environmental issue, not realizing that these weren't native species. Things got a little muddy from there.”

“Honey bees have habitats, they have funding, they have vital research that is constantly evolving because they are part of our economy,” he added. “They have a strong support system. But native bees are a bit lonely."

The same community that makes honey bees so effective as pollinators can also be their downfall, because pests, diseases, and pesticide exposure can quickly spread between them. This year, it's not just a wing-deforming parasite, Varroa destructor, that's to blame for bee losses, but also the effects of last winter's long, cold winter. Even the less severe Canadian winters can be hard on European bees.

Despite colony collapse, Canadian beekeepers manage more bees than ever, in part because bee numbers have increased to meet demand. Some of the increase can also be attributed to the fact that bees are no longer as productive as they used to be. Explanations for this include a reduction in the variety of food sources available to them, brought about by intense monoculture, where one farmer plants a large expanse of a single crop as a way of maximizing production. And bee productivity can also be affected by the stress that occurs when farmers move colonies from one location to another.

Experts believe that native bee species are capable of meeting some of the pollination demand of farms, but only if the mix of plants being grown is adapted so that bees can forage throughout the summer, rather than just when cash crops are in bloom.

“Bumblebees co-evolved with native crops, like blueberries and cranberries, in the Northern Hemisphere over millions of years, so they are highly effective at pollinating these commercial crops,” said Paul van Westendorp, provincial beekeeper for British Columbia. But blueberries bloom for only about a month in the spring, he added, so native bees can't survive on that nectar alone.

“Beekeepers will just pick up and take their bees out, and take them to another area where there is a new source of nectar to pollinate. But our wild pollinators can't move."

A more bee-friendly crop mix could extend the foraging period of native pollinators and help them survive and reproduce. And farmers could make things even better by covering fields with native plants specifically for bees to feed on, Mr van Westendorp suggested.

“The recommendation that we have been making to producers, land administrators, and municipalities is to plant more plants that provide nectar and pollen for all pollinators. Not ones that bloom all at once, but a mix of native floral sources that offer a variety of nectar and pollen sources from May through September and October.”

Supplementing spaces with diverse plant species could benefit both native bees and honey bees, as the latter would have access to a wider variety of food sources. And landscapes could also benefit from the change, because a mix of plants with different tolerances to adverse conditions would be more resistant to unexpected environmental changes, such as droughts or floods.

"Diversity is nature's insurance policy, and that's how nature does it naturally," said Megan Evans, president of the Alberta Native Bee Council.

“In fact, there has been research done, based out of Canada, that shows various scenarios where you could take some of your farmland away and put in a diverse plant and pollinator habitat instead, and it would actually result in It would result in a higher yield, because you would have all these different elements that offer ecosystem services.”

Ms. Evans argued that inaction could eventually force changes in the agriculture industry. "If the losses continue to grow and our practices don't change, there could come a time when the use of bees becomes so prohibitive that we simply can't afford to continue using them," he said.

Even in Canada's landscapes as they currently exist, native bees perform vital work. Different bee populations pollinate different plants at different times, ensuring access to a variety of food sources for many animal species, including humans.

Bees may be good at meeting the country's short-term agricultural needs, but a long-term strategy that bolsters native species could pay off well into the future.