Stingless native Australian bees: beautiful pollinators
Originally published in the Morisset and Peninsula Bulletin, July 2019.
Submitted by Lindi Bowen-Needs for Morisset and Peninsula Sustainable Neighbourhood Group. Photos by Angela Finney.
Submitted by Lindi Bowen-Needs for Morisset and Peninsula Sustainable Neighbourhood Group. Photos by Angela Finney.
Are you scared of or allergic to the sting of the introduced European bee? Great news! In Australia, we have some stingless native bees that pollinate flowers.
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Tetragonula carbonaria (previously called Trigona carbonaria) is a stingless Australian native bee that
lives in group colonies. Only the Tetragonula species and Austroplebeia are stingless. Other native bees, of which there are 1700 or so species across Australia, have stings. However most are unaggressive, tiny and unable to sting through human skin. They are also solitary so you are not likely to be attacked by a swarm of stinging Australian native bees. However, they can sting more than once and allergies can develop to bee stings, so be respectful of the bees and leave them be to get on with their business. All Australian native bees are vital for pollination of our native flowers to ensure native plant fruit set. They also often pollinate our orchard fruit and nuts such as mangoes, strawberries, watermelons, macadamia nuts, and fruiting vegetables such as capsicums thereby providing us with a valuable service. They can pollinate grain crops too including sunflowers, fava (broad) beans, peas, safflower, lentils, flax, linseed, lupins, soybeans and linola. Wheat, barley, rye, rice, corn and canola are pollinated by wind and do not need insect pollination. |
You can let your imagination go with your bee hotel!
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The natural range of the stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria is throughout Queensland and northern coastal NSW where temperatures remain above 18°C during winter. This includes
the Hunter. The bees cannot fly below 19°C, so cannot forage for food during winter so on cooler days they rely on their stores of honey. In these cooler areas the bees must be able to collect enough honey to survive during the cold winter when they cannot fly. In cooler areas—and now with our extreme summer heat—the hive needs to have thick insulation. Sydney and south of Sydney is generally too cold for keeping these bees so the hive needs lots of care. In our area the bees nest inside thick logs to keep warm. If you buy a commercial stingless bee nest box you may still want to
insulate it with blocks of more timber logs and keep it out of cold winds and rain.
the Hunter. The bees cannot fly below 19°C, so cannot forage for food during winter so on cooler days they rely on their stores of honey. In these cooler areas the bees must be able to collect enough honey to survive during the cold winter when they cannot fly. In cooler areas—and now with our extreme summer heat—the hive needs to have thick insulation. Sydney and south of Sydney is generally too cold for keeping these bees so the hive needs lots of care. In our area the bees nest inside thick logs to keep warm. If you buy a commercial stingless bee nest box you may still want to
insulate it with blocks of more timber logs and keep it out of cold winds and rain.
The honey is edible but very low in volume compared to that produced by the introduced European bees. In the cooler areas such as ours, taking the native bee’s honey before spring ought to be done only with caution as it may result in starvation of the native bee colony over winter when they cannot fly to forage for food.
When spring and summer bring plenty of nectar-bearing flowers, the stingless bee colonies will expand into new dwellings. Unlike European bees, stingless bees do not swarm with a new queen, but make carefully planned moves where workers build new accommodation first before the new queen and her cohort move across to the new palace. An informative source of native bee information including where to buy native bee hives and your own hive of native stingless bees, is www.aussiebee.com.au. They also discuss books that provide more information on how to split stingless bee hives to create new hives, how to harvest honey without damaging the colony and how to manage and protect colonies against predatory insects.
When spring and summer bring plenty of nectar-bearing flowers, the stingless bee colonies will expand into new dwellings. Unlike European bees, stingless bees do not swarm with a new queen, but make carefully planned moves where workers build new accommodation first before the new queen and her cohort move across to the new palace. An informative source of native bee information including where to buy native bee hives and your own hive of native stingless bees, is www.aussiebee.com.au. They also discuss books that provide more information on how to split stingless bee hives to create new hives, how to harvest honey without damaging the colony and how to manage and protect colonies against predatory insects.
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The buzz about buzz-pollination by native bees
Some vegetable flowers require a special method of pollination the introduced European bee (Apis mellifera) cannot perform, but several of our native bee species can.
The cuddly-sounding teddy bear bee, the pretty-sounding blue-banded bee, the industrious metallic carpenter bee and the great carpenter bee grab the flowers and vibrate them to shake out the pollen from the capsules. Crops needing this special pollination include tomatoes, chilli peppers, blueberries, kiwi fruit and eggplants. The native blue-banded bee species also appears to suffer no ill effects from being kept inside commercial greenhouses whereas the European bee does not thrive in these conditions.
You can encourage blue-banded bees (Amegilla species) to fertilise your tomatoes, blueberries and other crops by providing roosting and nesting sites in your garden. They love to nest inside blocks of clay so you may sometimes see that something has burrowed into mortar between your bricks. Provide them with the softer and less restricted habitat of a block of clay and they are likely to leave your mortar alone. To make an attractive block of clay, create one inside a 14 cm long offcut from a rectangular 10 cm by 6 cm downpipe; the exact dimensions are not critical.
Most of the Lake Macquarie area is clay soil under the thin layer of organic matter, so digging down in your back yard is likely to provide useful clay. If it is clay, it can be mixed with water and will hold together in a ball. Otherwise some tennis court clay may be available for sale. Sieve the backyard clay to remove organic matter, sticks and stones bigger than five millimetres, mix with water enough to make a wet mix to push into the mould (not runny) and press this into the downpipe offcut. Leave it to dry enough that you can then poke two pen-sized holes in the clay without the holes filling with water, then leave the blocks to fully dry. Stack the clay bricks up in one area with the pen holes pointing outwards, because the more of a wall you make, the more attractive it is to the blue-banded bees. Hang tendrils of hanging plants down next to the clay brick wall, as the bees will roost on this overnight. Even a long tendril of grass will make an attractive roost. You will know they have moved into the nests when there are clay dust piles below the openings. They may also dig out more holes and make quite a complex nest of tunnels in each clay brick. They nest in spring and summer when there are plenty of flowers to provide nectar. Teddy bear bees may also like these clay walls.
Some vegetable flowers require a special method of pollination the introduced European bee (Apis mellifera) cannot perform, but several of our native bee species can.
The cuddly-sounding teddy bear bee, the pretty-sounding blue-banded bee, the industrious metallic carpenter bee and the great carpenter bee grab the flowers and vibrate them to shake out the pollen from the capsules. Crops needing this special pollination include tomatoes, chilli peppers, blueberries, kiwi fruit and eggplants. The native blue-banded bee species also appears to suffer no ill effects from being kept inside commercial greenhouses whereas the European bee does not thrive in these conditions.
You can encourage blue-banded bees (Amegilla species) to fertilise your tomatoes, blueberries and other crops by providing roosting and nesting sites in your garden. They love to nest inside blocks of clay so you may sometimes see that something has burrowed into mortar between your bricks. Provide them with the softer and less restricted habitat of a block of clay and they are likely to leave your mortar alone. To make an attractive block of clay, create one inside a 14 cm long offcut from a rectangular 10 cm by 6 cm downpipe; the exact dimensions are not critical.
Most of the Lake Macquarie area is clay soil under the thin layer of organic matter, so digging down in your back yard is likely to provide useful clay. If it is clay, it can be mixed with water and will hold together in a ball. Otherwise some tennis court clay may be available for sale. Sieve the backyard clay to remove organic matter, sticks and stones bigger than five millimetres, mix with water enough to make a wet mix to push into the mould (not runny) and press this into the downpipe offcut. Leave it to dry enough that you can then poke two pen-sized holes in the clay without the holes filling with water, then leave the blocks to fully dry. Stack the clay bricks up in one area with the pen holes pointing outwards, because the more of a wall you make, the more attractive it is to the blue-banded bees. Hang tendrils of hanging plants down next to the clay brick wall, as the bees will roost on this overnight. Even a long tendril of grass will make an attractive roost. You will know they have moved into the nests when there are clay dust piles below the openings. They may also dig out more holes and make quite a complex nest of tunnels in each clay brick. They nest in spring and summer when there are plenty of flowers to provide nectar. Teddy bear bees may also like these clay walls.
More teddy bears to picnic in your garden
The cuddly-named fluffy bee called the teddy bear bee is a solitary bee. The female lays eggs in protected soil areas which might even include under your house, and roosts on foliage by hanging on by her jaws while she sleeps overnight.
They like clay soil to nest in too and usually more than one will nest in a desirable area. Encourage them as well as the blue-banded bees, as they both buzz-pollinate your vegetables and fruits. A summary of the teddy bear bee is at www.aussiebee.com.au/teddy_bear_bee.html.
The cuddly-named fluffy bee called the teddy bear bee is a solitary bee. The female lays eggs in protected soil areas which might even include under your house, and roosts on foliage by hanging on by her jaws while she sleeps overnight.
They like clay soil to nest in too and usually more than one will nest in a desirable area. Encourage them as well as the blue-banded bees, as they both buzz-pollinate your vegetables and fruits. A summary of the teddy bear bee is at www.aussiebee.com.au/teddy_bear_bee.html.
Supporting all local native bees
The Australian beekeepers’ website Bee Aware advises that you can support native bees by providing plants they prefer including: peas and daisies, eucalyptus, banksia, acacia and bursaria species, and some introduced garden plants such as salvia and lavender. More information is available at their website, beeaware.org.au/pollination/native-bees/supportingnative-bee-populations. From this site, you can download a free copy of the Australian Government’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation “Bee Friendly” guide that lists more details on plants that will attract bees, including city areas and domestic gardens. Providing a year round supply of flowering plants is the key to success.
Herbs, celery, citrus, passionfruit, apples, blueberries, plums, persimmons, the local hairpin banksia (banksia spinulosa) that flowers through June, July and August, and the pretty Western Australian pincushion hakea (Hakea laurina) are beneficial. CSIRO describes plenty more plants that attract
native bees including grevilleas, bottlebrushes, the nectar-loaded melaleuca and tea tree species, and pollen-loaded acacia. Have a look at their blog article on making your garden native-bee friendly: https://blog.csiro.au/how-tomake-your-garden-native-bee-friendly.
For nesting habitat, many other bees love timber logs with holes drilled out, or clutches of bamboo sticks tied together in bundles with open ends sticking out inviting the bees to move in.
So now you know more about these wonderful native bees and their benefits to your garden and to food agriculture, get into your garden to plant up the helpful plant species, and get into some craft work to make clay bricks, timber log holes and bamboo stick housing. Your native-bee-pollinated fruit and vegetable crops will provide you rewarding fruits for your labour.
The Australian beekeepers’ website Bee Aware advises that you can support native bees by providing plants they prefer including: peas and daisies, eucalyptus, banksia, acacia and bursaria species, and some introduced garden plants such as salvia and lavender. More information is available at their website, beeaware.org.au/pollination/native-bees/supportingnative-bee-populations. From this site, you can download a free copy of the Australian Government’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation “Bee Friendly” guide that lists more details on plants that will attract bees, including city areas and domestic gardens. Providing a year round supply of flowering plants is the key to success.
Herbs, celery, citrus, passionfruit, apples, blueberries, plums, persimmons, the local hairpin banksia (banksia spinulosa) that flowers through June, July and August, and the pretty Western Australian pincushion hakea (Hakea laurina) are beneficial. CSIRO describes plenty more plants that attract
native bees including grevilleas, bottlebrushes, the nectar-loaded melaleuca and tea tree species, and pollen-loaded acacia. Have a look at their blog article on making your garden native-bee friendly: https://blog.csiro.au/how-tomake-your-garden-native-bee-friendly.
For nesting habitat, many other bees love timber logs with holes drilled out, or clutches of bamboo sticks tied together in bundles with open ends sticking out inviting the bees to move in.
So now you know more about these wonderful native bees and their benefits to your garden and to food agriculture, get into your garden to plant up the helpful plant species, and get into some craft work to make clay bricks, timber log holes and bamboo stick housing. Your native-bee-pollinated fruit and vegetable crops will provide you rewarding fruits for your labour.
