There’s this claim by animal rights activists that domestic honeybees are really bad pollinators and that native bees are pretty much always better. I don’t immediately believe it, but I thought I’d ask you about it since you seem to know a lot about bees
Untrue, actually.
Native bees ARE excellent pollinators! But honeybees are also very good at it. There are certain native flowers that ONLY certain native bees can pollinate, but on stuff like apple trees and goldenrod and many other native/imported plants, honeybees and native bees alike are both very good at pollinating.
Other native pollinators like butterflies, bats, hummingbirds, ect also do very important pollination work!
I’m coopting this post to remind folks that cacao trees are pollinated by mosquitoes who are also very very important if marginally annoying. Importantly, none of the species currently known to be carriers of disease, such as malaria or West Nile virus, have anything to do with chocolate. But there are mosquitoes that pollinate cacao trees.
I forgot about this! But yep! 10/10 excellent addition.