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About this Poster
Get to know Canada’s 16 bee families, including the masons, the nomads and the plasterers, and why they have such interesting names. You’ll also discover answers to mysteries like why our bees aren’t as aggressive as more social species like honeybees.
We Need Bees
Often perceived as a pesky interruption to a summer’s day, bees are frequently overlooked in terms of their importance to humans. About one third of human food is prepared from plants that are dependent on pollinators, and bees take care of most of this service.
Those Polite Canadians
Many of our native bees are solitary, meaning that the female is responsible for most of the family duties like preparing her nest, providing nectar and pollen, and laying the eggs. This means that there is no need for a large colony to defend and as a result the solitary bees are much less aggressive than the well-known non-native honey bee.
Threats
Pesticides are widely used as a method of controlling outbreaks or infestations of certain species. However, a negative effect of this control method is that it simultaneously harms other species which are helpful and necessary for plant growth. Reductions in bee populations could have severe consequences for food crops, garden plants, and wilderness areas.