# pollinators before bees came to america



## reginabee

My question is, if honeybees were brought over to the new world by european settlers, what was pollinating the trees and crops before they came over? If honeybees do become extinct could we still rely on these other bee pollinators? I am just curious.


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## sugarbush

Bumble bees, mason bees, wasps, beetles, humming birds etc. Before honey bees were brought here we did not have large crop farms to pollinate. These native pollinators could do the job, but we would have to start managing them on a commercial scale. Some of the native pollinators are actually better at pollination of some crops than honey bees; honey bees are very picky and sometimes we have to force them to pollinate crops like blueberry.


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## alleyyooper

I did some reading on early american pollinaters. There were 12 other types of bees native to America. Six are now gone forever. the remaining six are near extinoction now. 

 Al


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## Elizabeth

Problem is, you CAN'T manage native pollinators the way honeybees are managed. And, many of them have been killed off already by pesticides anyway. 

sugarbush- why do you have to force the bees to pollinate blueberries? We did blueberry pollination in Florida and never had a problem- the bees did a great job. Is it because other nectar sources are around which the bees prefer? In our area the berries were the only major source in bloom at the time.


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## Ernie

Also keep in mind that 90% of the crops we want bees to pollinate were brought over from Europe as well. All of the stuff native to North America (tomatoes, potatoes, etc.) does just fine without honeybees. 

It's all a matter of scale. You can't expect to have 50 acres of blueberries and work without the efficiency of the honeybee. However for a series of small community gardens, more native pollinators work out well so long as pesticides aren't in play.


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