Bees 101

Ask The Doctor —

This month, Arber’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Pam Marronne, will be tackling questions about bees. At Arber, we consider ourselves the bees-knees when it comes to bee friendly gardening products. Why? All of our Biologicals are able to differentiate between beneficial insects and detrimental pests by utilizing a bacteria that makes several types of compounds that upon contact, stops feeding, molting, and reproduction of the pests.

Q+A
HERE ARE SOME TOP QUESTIONS ANSWERED BY DR. PAM:

Why are bees beneficial for my garden?

Bees pollinate flowers, thus enhancing biodiversity and beauty in landscapes and gardens. It is not only flowers and food crops that are pollinated by bees, but many trees are pollinated by bees.


How do I maintain a healthy, bee friendly garden without harming bees?

We recommend planting bee friendly flowers and bee friendly plants, such as sedums, mints, salvias, alyssum, and many more. Also, we recommend only using bee friendly gardening products that are low risk to bees with no synthetic pyrethroids as it is important to minimize sprays of pyrethrins, spinosad, and neem oil when bees are actively flying. Arber has a line of bee friendly products, such as our bee friendly insecticide, bee friendly fungicide, and bee friendly plant food.


Which products are bee friendly gardening products? And which products are not bee friendly?

All of Arber’s Biologicals are safe for bees! On the other hand, synthetic pyrethroid based products and neonicotinoids are very toxic to bees. Both of these chemical groups are widely sold in the garden section. In addition, natural products on the market, such as pyrethrins, neem oil, mineral oil, and spinosads are generally biodegradable, but will harm bees and their hives, so they should not be sprayed on plants when bees are actively foraging.


I’d like to do my part in saving the bees – Are there particular bee friendly plants or bee friendly flowers that I can grow in my garden that will attract bees?

Here are some good bee plants that we’d recommend having to create a bee friendly garden - Sedums, Mints, Salvias, Alyssum, Milkweed, Lavender, Thyme, Rosemary, Anise hyssop, and many more.


How are Arber Biologicals, such as the bee friendly insecticide, able to differentiate between beneficial insects and detrimental pests?

Arber’s ingredients were carefully discovered and developed to be safe to bees. Nature makes microorganisms and plants that only kill certain groups of insects and not all insects.

Want to learn more? Have questions of your own? Follow along at @growarber and send in your questions to Dr. Pam.
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