Laurence Packer

What you don't know about bees would fill a book... this one, to be precise. Packer's entertaining book is primarily about "the other bees", that is, the 19,497 species that are *not* managed pollinators. In this book, he manages to highlight the main aspects of bee biology and human activities that put bees (and the plants that depend upon them) at great risk.

For a longer review including a summary of the main issues, and some actions you can take, please look at my website over here: http://thepracticaldilettante.com/2011/03/23/review-keeping-the-bees/… (altro)

This is a book I would have liked to give a higher rating to, but after 5 years in college I’m getting kind of tired of scientific essays. This is actually well written, has copious references at the end, and leads off most chapters with some experience Packer had while studying bees in the wild. Altho honey bees have gotten the most press lately, all bees are having a hard time surviving and many other species besides the honey bee are important for crops. Besides pesticides, bee survival is hindered by habitat fragmentation which reduces the population size in remaining habitat and, consequently, limits genetic diversity. Bee genetics has a single gene determining sex and requires different variants (or alleles) to produce a female, e.g. a worker bee. If the queen is fertilized by drones with the same sex allele as she has, the eggs will produce dud (sterile) males. Without high genetic diversity the bee population will slowly die out as the lack of diversity for the sex gene leads to more duds and fewer workers. Packer gives many other unusual facts which would be good conversational tidbits: blueberry stamens need to be vibrated before they will release their pollen—which the right bee specie can do or the C string on a guitar; not all bees sting; many are solitary rather than social hive dwellers. What he did not explain, is how scientists can dig out the length of a ground bee nest without destroying it.
The final chapter gives practical suggestions for what the average person can do to help bees: grow native bee-friendly plants, provide nest sites for bees (bamboo or raspberry canes left overwinter, holes drilled in brick or wood), do not use pesticides, buy organic food whenever possible, walk on the grass (creates paths, the edges of which are possible bee tunnel access), encourage bee-friendly practices at municipal or higher government levels and in developments. Please read the book to find out more details on why these are helpful and what specifics are necessary.
This would be great for a teenager who has some interest in insects already, as it shows the kind of work mellitologists do. A good book for younger readers would be [What’s the Buzz? The Secret Life of Bees]. If you like this book, you’ll also like [Coyote at the Kitchen Door]. A much more interesting book on natural science studies is [Gathering Moss].
This might give you a taste of his writing style and entice you more than my star rating http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-buzz-on-bees.aspx… (altro)