How to Find a Bee

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

I've found most native bees seem to prefer native plants, but that doesn't mean they'll exclusively go to them. There's a lot of bees that are generalist pollinators that will visit just about anything. So if you want to look for a very specific native bee, you look for the plant. And I do kind of a cheat. Like I'm waiting for this plant to bloom, but I don't want to drive like three hours into the desert.

Honeybees get all the attention, but native bees are the underbugs to root for. Photographer, author, and National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman shows us the wonders of indigenous bees through her lens focused on conservation of bees and their habitats. She covers their lifecycles, tunnels, turrets, fuzzy butts, frat house cuddling, and sexual dimorphism. We also chat about taxonomic fisticuffs, bee hotels, the mustard blight, monocultures, the teeniest livestock, and how to appreciate and photograph all of the marvels you’ve been overlooking. So grab a sunhat, order her deck of native bee flashcards, fill up your water bottle, and let's stare into the bushes to meet some tiny new friends.

Get Krystle Hickman’s gorgeous native bee flashcards, Native Bees of the Western United States, Volume 1

Links to Krystle’s work

Follow Krystle Hickman on Instagram and Twitter

A donation went to No Canyon Hills

Sign the petition for No Canyon Hills

More episode sources and links

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Other episodes you may enjoy:, Aperiology (MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY), Melittology (BEES), Spheksology (WASPS), Kinetic Salticidology (DANCING SPIDERS), Entomology (INSECTS), FIELD TRIP: How to Change Your Life via the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Delphinology (DOLPHINS), Xylology (LUMBER), P-22: The Life & Death of an L.A. Cougar , Chickenology (HENS & ROOSTERS), Acaropathology (TICKS & LYME DISEASE), Diplopodology (MILLIPEDES & CENTIPEDES), Dipterology (FLIES), Myrmecology (ANTS) Encore, Sparklebuttology (FIREFLIES), Forest Entomology (CREEPY CRAWLIES), Scorpiology (SCORPIONS), Lepidopterology (BUTTERFLIES)