Pollinator Decline - Solutions - Use of Alternative Pollinators

Use of Alternative Pollinators

Honey bees are usually the most widely chosen insects in most managed pollination situations. However they are not the most efficient pollinators of some flowers. Alternative pollinators, such as for example, leafcutter and alkali bees in alfalfa pollination and bumblebees in greenhouses for tomatoes are used to augment and in some cases replace honey bees. A wide variety of other bees can be found in the environment that are specialist pollinators (some only using one plant species). However, most of these alternative insects' value as pollinators and their relationships with plants are as yet little known.

In the US, some think that other pollinators will in time replace the lost honey bees, blamed on introduced acarine and varroa mites, but general pollinator decline was already happening before these entered the picture. Only in a few areas are wild populations of pollinators building up; in most areas they are declining as quickly as honey bees.

Furthermore pollinators cannot be exchanged on a one-for-one basis. They are not all equal. Some are generalists, some are specialists. Some are brawny; some are feeble. Some have long tongues; some short. Some work at colder temperatures than others. Bees may deliberately collect pollen, but have different collection techniques, which can greatly affect their efficiency as pollinators.

Flowers are frequently specifically adapted to one pollinator, or a small group of pollinators because of floral structure, color, odor, nectar guides, etc. Proposed alternative pollinators may not be physically capable of accomplishing pollination, or they may not be attracted to the flower of that plant species, or they may rob nectar by cutting sepals, thus avoiding pollination. Understanding the pollination needs of a species is vital to understanding of a plant species, yet this is often poorly understood. In horticulture it is critical to the economic success of the grower, and crops have sometimes been abandoned from general use in an area because of lack of understanding of pollinator needs.