- Maybe up here.
- NARRATOR: Jessica Beckham is on a quest....
- JESSICA: I see all sorts of things flying around.
- NARRATOR: ...to catch some fuzzy flying insects.
- JESSICA: No bumblebees though.
- NARRATOR: With great bee expertise....
- JESSICA: That is a sweat bee.
- NARRATOR: ...she searches.
- I think those are so pretty.
That is not what I am trying to catch today.
[laughs]
- NARRATOR: The bees that beckon are bumblebees.
- JESSICA: Today we are out here surveying bumblebees in a
little roadside area of Denton County.
That is an American bumblebee right there.
- NARRATOR: Jessica has been studying bumblebees at the
University of North Texas while pursuing a
Ph.D. in environmental science.
- Here in Texas we have sweat bees, digger bees,
leaf-cutter bees, resin bees, about seven to eight hundred
species of bees that are native bees,
including nine species of bumblebees.
[adding machine clicking]
Usually when people think of bees they think of honeybees,
but honeybees are actually non-native species.
Honeybee declines have been noted in the news.
- RADIO ANNOUNCER: Back in 2005 we started hearing about a
phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder.
Unusual numbers of honeybees were dying off and nobody
understood quite why.
- NARRATOR: In these troubling times for honeybees,
Jessica wanted to understand how native bees are doing.
- I am studying native pollinators, bumblebees in
particular, because native pollinators might serve as
an insurance policy against these losses of honeybees.
- RADIO ANNOUNCER: Bees are critical to the food supply.
Bees pollinate cherries, apples, almonds, onions
and many other crops.
They pollinate billions of dollars of crops each year.
- JESSICA: Insect pollinators in particular are responsible for
about 80% of the pollination of wild flowering plants
and about 75% of our agricultural plants.
Bumblebees are great pollinators because bees deliberately
collect pollen and they have a lot more hair than honeybees
and they move a lot of pollen from flower to flower.
I do not know what they are.
I will take about a 15-minute walk through this big patch
of flowers to determine what species are here, and ultimately
look at the persistence of these species in our area.
Got another one!
- NARRATOR: Studying bumblebees takes time...
- Shoot!
- NARRATOR: ...and some fast reflexes.
- Dang it!
[sigh]
I feel like I struck out!
[laughs]
- NARRATOR: But field work is the fun part, right?
[sneeze]
- JESSICA: It is hot, I mean you get chiggers and ticks.
[buzzing]
Sometimes you see a bee and you do not catch it.
[laughs]
Really though it is pleasant work for me.
Now I got her.
[playful music]
This is bombus pensylvanicus, which is known as the
American bumblebee.
This is our most common species here in Texas
but nationally this species is declining.
And so Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has designated
this a species of greatest conservation need.
You ready to go girl?
- NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife has helped fund the
research, in part, through sales of conservation license plates.
- JESSICA: We have received a horned lizard license plate
grant as well as a state wildlife grant.
[door opens]
- NARRATOR: To understand Texas bumblebee trends,
Jessica compares her surveys with specimens at the
Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum at UNT, where the
bumblebee collection spans 60 years.
- JESSICA: Museum collections provide a rich resource for
determining historic presence of lots of different species.
- NARRATOR: The comparisons have been encouraging.
- JESSICA: What we have found is that the current presence of
bumblebees here in northeast Texas is almost identical
to the historic presence.
About 85% of our roadside sites had at least
one bumblebee.
- NARRATOR: Further research has examined bumblebee genetic
diversity, and the kinds of urban habitats they use.
- JESSICA: I looked at eight different sites, some community
gardens, an organic garden...
Are any of them blooming at this point?
...some urban wild spaces as well.
We want to know what type of green spaces are good for bees
and also how we can manage our greenspaces as we grow cities.
- NARRATOR: The research suggests ways we can help
pollinators in public spaces, like roadsides,
and even in our own backyards.
- You want to try and have flowers that are blooming
all the way from about March to October here in Texas
because bumblebees are active throughout that time.
And you also would do well to avoid the use of pesticides
because not only are they effective in killing your pest
species, but they also are bad for your pollinator species.
- NARRATOR: Jessica has completed her studies
and is Dr. Beckham now.
But her work will continue to benefit bee conservation.
- JESSICA: American bumblebee.
- NARRATOR: As if a sign of gratitude, the hundreds of bees
she handled kept their stingers to themselves.
- JESSICA: I have never been stung by a bumblebee,
surprisingly.
- NARRATOR: Since they help our food and flowers grow,
maybe we all owe some thanks to the humble bumblebee.
- JESSICA: Yea for bumblebees.
[music]