Buzz Pollination - Techniques For Agricultural Pollination of Species Normally Requiring Buzz Pollination

Techniques For Agricultural Pollination of Species Normally Requiring Buzz Pollination

Greenhouse grown tomatoes are unproductive without aid in pollination. Traditionally pollination has been done by shaking using electric vibrators (one brand name was "Electric Bee"), however, it has been found to be less expensive in human labor and plant breakage to use bumblebees within the greenhouses. In Australia, as bumblebees are not native, and Australia has a number of widely publicised environmental disasters caused by escaped introduced species ("feral species"), research there is under way to adapt the use of the Australian native, Blue Banded Bees, for the same task. This research is however competing with lobbying by potential importers of Bumble Bees, who would rather use those, disregarding the risk and the potential there for developing a "home grown" solution.

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