“Honey bees get too much credit for pollination. They are actually pretty poor pollinators. The hundreds of species of wild bees contribute a lot more to pollination,” says Dr. Jason Gibbs, Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Manitoba.

Gibbs says he has nothing against honey bees, as his father is a retired beekeeper in Ontario, but rather highlights the importance of wild bees in pollination. He says most bees don’t sting, are solitary, and about 70 per cent of them nest in underground burrows. Most aren’t black and yellow, and most don’t make honey.

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Thilina Hettiarachchi, a PhD student in the department of entomology at the University of Manitoba, and Reid Miller, a U of M field research assistant, are checking various sampling stations for bees and other pollinators.

A journalist is tramping along with them through the narrow, barely discernible trail on this luminous late August day.

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Today, North America counts thousands of bee species. Of those, well over 300 can be found in Manitoba.

University of Manitoba entomologist and bee researcher Jason Gibbs can tell you a lot about the province’s wide variety of bees and the growing knowledge of their role in pollinating both wild plants and domestic crops.

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