Native Bees and the Color Blue

Here is an interesting find in Oregon . OSU entomologist, Sujaya Rao, quite by accident found that our native bees are attracted to blue. The day after jars were set out with different colored lids—red, yellow, blue and green—to trap Asian lady beetles, she found the blue lidded jars were full of bumblebees. The area was devoid of flowers.

After contacting Bill Stephen, a world expert on native and solitary bees, Rao and Stephen experimented with different colored lids. They found that no matter what part of the state they were in, our native bees consistently went for the blue. Now there are new experiments using blue flags in crop fields to see if the blue will bring in more native pollinators. This is important work, considering the recent problems with declining numbers of honeybees.

Read more in this interesting article, The Other Bees, by Carol Savonen.

Comments

[Kat Neely Jones]

This must be why my big lavender is always so full of bumblebees it looks like a black pussywillow bush. I rarely find them on anything else except the Ticonderoga Blue and Tuscan Blue rosemary. Very interesting bit of information. Thanks!

[Anna ---Flowergardengirl]

That is so interesting about the bees. I had no idea. I will put out more blue flowers. Your blog looks great. I'm so ready for spring. It's snowing here today and I want sunshine and heat.