No bees - no strawberries

[Vanisle_BC]

We've had a great crop of strawberry flowers but now that the petals have fallen I see very few berries developing; looks as though not much pollination happened. Is there something I could have been doing, as in shaking tomato plants, hand pollinating corn etc?

I have seen NO honey bees this year, and only an occasional bumble bee. Even mason bees are almost totally absent. This is very depressing and alarming. I don't want to get into beekeeping but I wonder what else I could do that would help the bees - and my strawberries.

[PaulF]

I noticed that honeybees are not here either. After a couple years of no bumblebees, this year there are bumbles everywhere. There are even three different varieties. Lots of small wasps are doing the job also. But honeybees? Haven't seen any at all. Sad.

[applestar]

It doesn’t have to be honeybees. Plant an insectary border to attract hover flies, sweat bees, and other beneficial pollinators.

One easy way to get things going is to allow islands of grass to go to plume/bloom (you can cut them down after), let some of your crops bolt and bloom — especially herbs — parsley, dill, basil, mints, etc. — but also carrots, broccoli, lettuce, onion, etc.

[Vanisle_BC]

So : no hints about making sure strawberries get pollinated? They're so low to the ground it would be hard to do 'by hand.'

[applestar]

I have one — one of the Japanese YouTuber I watch catches hoverflies with a fine mesh butterfly net and then releases them in his greenhouse where he grows strawberries. He has been doing this for years.

What you can do to emulate is to set up a low tunnel over the strawberries with insect mesh (agricultural) or tulle or mosquito net for camping, or for covering the garage door opening, etc. Then go catch some and trap them under the tunnel with the strawberries.

I’ll see if I can find a good video clip....

— Here’s one. FF to 3:30 to see him catching and then taking them home to release in the greenhouse.

ファミリー農園151128シュンギク・アブ - YouTube



— In the next one, at 0:40 he comments that relying on the hoverflies has been more successful than trying to hand pollinate, and the strawberries turn out well shaped (fully pollinated) and plentiful.

車庫上園芸191117プランター枠取り替え - YouTube





can’t spot the one I’m thinking of — These are from fall to winter. In spring, he catches them on yellow mustard type (could be kale, too) flower clusters. I recently saw one in which he was swinging a BIG butterfly net skimming the tops of the blossoms to catch the hoverflies. He allows some of the Japanese greens to bolt and bloom in parts of his own or the community garden Just for this purpose (and later collects seeds for using next year).



— This video is from 2010.
イチゴは人工授粉よりハナアブがいい
(Strawberries — pollination is better accomplished by hoverflies than by hand pollination)



Apr 8, 2010

...in the comments he notes that unlike wasps and bees, hoverflies do not sting.

[applestar]

Here’s an example of how he builds a low tunnel (to keep OUT pests ... but that means you can keep the pollinators IN for your strawberries). In this video, he is re-doing one of the tunnels that the pests managed to get into from one or more holes/gaps.

I’ve been trying to adapt this concept and design. He also has detailed videos with specific parts instructions too if interested.


ファミリー農園111010一畝やりなおし - YouTube

[TomatoNut95]

Ah, so I'm not the only one having no honeybees. It's a miracle if I see one or two but mostly it's the carpenter bees that I see visiting my lavender and snapdragon blossoms. It's so funny to watch him push open the mouths of the snapdragon and crawl down the throat, leaving his BEE-hind sticking out.

[applestar]

I think there is an actual honeybee shortage. This certainly didn’t help:

Half a million bees found dead in a UPS truck after left for weeks | USA Today

Also, I imagine there might have been some problems securing beekeeping supplies during the pandemic, new crop of beekeepers may not have been able to train or get certified, and some people may have discontinued or reduced their hives, or decided to postpone starting... although I know some people decided to start amidst the increased interest in homesteading and survival food growing.

Ordinance around here prohibits beekeeping unless you have sufficient property — the hives must be kept ...I don’t remember 100 or 200 feet from the property line (I might barely manage it if I could set up on the roof or in the attic — yeah I actually gave it some thought ). Most of the farms around here have been converted to residential communities. There might be only 2 or 3 farms left in the 5 mile radius. So I‘m not surprised that number of honeybees are down in my garden. It’s actually a relief to see any at all each season, and know someone in the scouting area is still keeping bees. There used to be a farm just past the woods in the back ...and one of their fields ended just beyond a grassy area beyond the basketball court on the other side of the small woods. Back then I used to see honeybees in my garden all the time, as well as bats in the dusk. Don’t know where the sparse honeybees are coming from now. They visit but not often and not many.

[imafan26]

Well, I got strawberries and I have bees and other pollinators so I am lucky. I put in a nectar and pollen garden this year and I have seen the hover flies on my kale and lemon tree doing their job. I also chased a monarch away from my pollinator garden the other day. I don't want to attract butterflies to my kale. I have some milkweed cuttings but they don't have leaves yet so they should not be attracting any monarchs.

[applestar]

Hmm I know that dilemma. Want monarchs but not the cabbage butterflies….
Earlier Monarch visitors are likely male — af least here where they migrate, male scouts ahead and leaves pheromone trails to mark a territory to entice females to stop by.


…BTW, Hoverflies are beneficial predators, too SYRPHID - HOVER FLY, Garden Patrol Aphid Specialist - HelpfulGardener.com

[odSteve]

No honey bees in my city either. The city has a truck that comes by every so often about 11:00 pm down my street spraying for mosquitoes, drenching all the front yards. I forget the name of the chemical they use, but it also kills bees - not always immediately but they take it back to their hive and it kills the entire hive. Main Street is lined with flowering trees, but not one bee on any of them. I seriously wanted to take up bee keeping, but in talking with others, it can't happen in my city.

[imafan26]

Our bee hui has captured a lot of swarms that have had to be rehomed. Our main problem seems to be that we are losing a lot of queens that never return from their mating flight. It is hard to get a queen supplier locally so we have started raising our own queens.