Bees making headlines on the radio!

Melittologist Lawrence Packer was interviewed by Terry Gross on Wednesday’s Fresh Air. He wrote a new book that highlights that conserving diversity in nature and agriculture is key to keeping bees healthy.

Packer‘s new book is called Keeping the Bees: Why All Bees Are at Risk and What We Can Do To Save Them. Read a brief book review and an excerpt.

Then on Science Friday, Dennis vanEngelsdorp , who has been a pioneer in promoting and studying honey bee health, spoke about new research that shows the threats of neonicotinoid pesticides to insectivorous birds. Previous work has shown that neonics are highly toxic to invertebrates, but this is the first study I am aware of that connects the pesticide to harm in vertebrates.

The dirt on bees

A week ago I gave a talk all about my research on native bee nesting in agricultural landscapes at East Bay Nerd Nite- it was called “the dirt on bees.” You can watch the raw, uncut video in all it’s glory and learn about where bees are nesting and what it might mean for our food security. It’s is available on the Nerd Nite website, my talk starts at 1 hour, 13 minutes, so be sure to cue it up or there is a lot of dead time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3CX2iGG49w
Enjoy!