SAVE THE BEES

By Kendall Spencer 
EUGENE, Ore. -- Brian Dykstra, an instructor at Lane Community College (LCC) and expert in insects, spoke Thursday evening about how native bees are essential to agriculture and how our agricultural practices are endangering them during a before a small crowd Dykstra began his lecture at the Museum of Natural History. 
In starting his lecture, Dykstra said that raising more domesticated honeybees would not save native. Dykstra said, “Raising honeybees to save pollinators is like raising cows to save ungulates.”  
Diversity is strength was the theme Dykstra kept coming back to with each study of a comparison of a specialized bee and the domesticated honeybee. The Squash Bee was the first comparison and showed how a specialist can outperform the generalist honeybee leading to more food being produced.  
Another point of his lecture was how promoting nesting sites for specialized bees could boost crop yield. The example he used was that of the Mason Bees, which nest in tubular cavities and helps boost production of fruits and nuts in orchards. 
The EPA, according to Dykstra, only mandates testing for the lethal effects a given pesticide might have on a species. “They don’t have to test them in an additive way,” Dykstra said. He said one bee might pick up a dozen pesticides within a season. These exposures could affect the health of the bee in different ways.  
Dykstra talked briefly about pollen of genetically modified plants in the lecture. “Bees do not like GMO pollen,” Dykstra said and showed slides of a study showing bee abundance being highest at an organic farm and the lowest at a GMO farm.  
Sara Van Dyck, a bee enthusiast who attended the lecture, said about Dykstra’s presentation: “I was interested in bees and I have a garden, and I am interested in what’s going on. I learned a lot.” 
According to Laurin M. Willis, program director at the Museum of Natural History, said the lecture was part of a larger exhibit called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. The exhibit is open till the end of May.