Save All Bees

Over the past season, I had the privilege of learning more about honey production. I got to see honey harvested by cutting the wax caps off the honeycomb and then putting it into a centrifuge to extract the honey. I visited a honey packaging and distribution center and learned how different companies mix up their honey.

But as I learned more about honey production, I also started thinking about how much attention we give to the domesticated European honeybee — and how little attention we give to the many other important bees.

It seems like every bee event I attend focuses on the domesticated European honeybee, with little to no information on other important bees.

European honeybees are a domesticated species of bee. Humans have selected and cared for hives in a way similar to how they care for cattle and other livestock. These bees come from the "Old World" and are very effective pollinators for plants from the "Old World." However, when it comes to "New World" crops from the Americas, honeybees that visit these flowers might not be as well adapted for pollination as some of the native bees we find in this area.

For example, tomatoes are native to South America, and Indigenous tribes brought them north into Mexico. Bumble bees (Bombus sp.) can vibrate their bodies at a specific frequency that makes pollinating tomatoes more effective, a process known as "buzz pollination."

When a tomato flower is buzz pollinated, the plant develops more and larger fruit. While honeybees can pollinate tomatoes, tomatoes pollinated by native bumble bees can result in higher yields.

It's not just bees native to the U.S. that have specialized relationships with the plants they pollinate. In agricultural settings, farmers often use alfalfa as a cover crop. It is a legume with nitrogen-fixing adaptations that replenish the soil after a nutrient-demanding crop like corn.

The pollination of alfalfa flowers is quite interesting. The flower has a spring-loaded pistil and anthers that shoot out when a bee successfully opens the flower.

Notice how I said "successfully."

That is because the flower only opens when it is "tripped." If you need to have a visual, look up alfalfa pollination up close; it is quite fascinating. The point being that the alfalfa leafcutter bee (Megachile rotundata) is especially adapted to get punched by these spring-loaded flowers.

Honeybees, on the other hand, might not even get the flower to open, and they do not like the sudden surprise that comes afterward.

These examples show that bees are important not just because of the pollination they provide, but because different bees can be especially well suited to pollinating different plants.

Bees are responsible for a vast amount of pollination, including the pollination of many of our food crops. Just because honeybees are front and center because they give us that sweet, sweet honey, that should not negate the fact that all bees are important.

All bees contribute to our food web, not just honeybees.

The "Save the Bees" movement was great for helping honeybee colony populations rebound, but because honeybees had all the focus, other bees are still considered less important.

There is something you can do this fall to help bees of all kinds. It's very close to doing absolutely nothing: Leave your leaves.

Now, I don't mean you should let a thick layer of leaves smother your lawn. Instead, think about where you can leave some leaves naturally. Move them into garden beds, around trees and shrubs, or to an out-of-the-way corner of your yard where they can provide habitat for overwintering insects. You can also mulch-mow a thin layer of leaves back into the lawn, where the small pieces can break down and return nutrients to the soil.

Leaves are important habitat for bees and other insects. Many native bees overwinter in the ground or beneath leaf litter, while others spend the winter in hollow stems and other plant material. Leaving some of that natural material in place gives these insects a place to shelter until spring.

You don't have to turn your yard into a pile of leaves to help pollinators. Even a small, designated area where leaves, sticks and other plant debris can remain undisturbed can provide valuable habitat. K-State Extension has more ideas for using fall leaves in the landscape without sacrificing a healthy lawn.

So remember to help all the bees, and not just the dairy cattle of the bee world.

by Markis Hill, Ornamentals and Turf Agent, 2026