Development of a Nest Attractant for the Blue Orchard Bee

Modern agriculture has relied almost exclusively on the honey bee for managed pollination services. Honey beekeepers currently face numerous problems including Varroa mites, American foulbrood, Africanized bees and most recently colony collapse disorder. These problems have led to a shorter supply of colonies and consequently higher rental prices in the United States. It is sensible to have more than one pollinator available to growers in case shortages become worse in the future. The blue orchard bee, Osmia lignaria, is a solitary, native bee that has been shown to be an excellent pollinator of several crops including almonds, cherries and apples. Almonds are the United States? largest specialty export crop and their production depends on bee pollination. Domestication and large-scale management of blue orchard bee is still developing, but there are already several business entities working with this species as an alternative pollinator. One of the management difficulties experienced with this bee is that many will fly away from their emergence site, and not return. It is not uncommon to lose up to half of the emerging females to such dispersal. In cooperation with USDA-ARS, AgPollen LLC conducted three blue orchard bee nest attractant field studies in 2009 with Phase I SBIR funding. These trials demonstrated that extract of a bee nest product could increase nesting by up to 2.7-fold compared to the control. Fractionation of the extract showed that free fatty acids and hydrocarbons were the most active in attracting bees to nests. A test of several free fatty acids found in the extract showed that three of them could increase nesting, and one of them increased nesting 8-fold compared to the control. The research proposed here will expand upon these results to optimize which chemical or chemical blend can most improve nesting success. This research will be a cooperative effort between AgPollen LLC and USDA-ARS. Jordi Bosch (CREAF, Autonomous University of Barcelona), an expert on Osmia species, has agreed to provide consulting services. Karin Anderson, postdoctoral researcher (AgPollen), will conduct the research under the direction of James Buckner (USDA-ARS), Theresa Pitts-Singer (USDA-ARS), Stephen Peterson (AgPollen) and David Moreland (AgPollen). Chemical extractions and analysis will be conducted at the USDA-ARS Biosciences Research Laboratory in Fargo, North Dakota, and field bioassays will be conducted at the USDA-ARS Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory in Logan, Utah and at AgPollen field sites in California. Suterra, a leader in pheromone technology will provide assistance in formulation and release technology under a subcontract to this project. Paramount Farming Company, has agreed to cooperate on this project. The product developed from this enabling research would greatly enhance the rate of commercialization of blue orchard bee in almond production systems. By multiplying blue orchard bee populations more rapidly, orchardists will benefit from an alternative pollinator sooner, which will in turn help to secure an important segment of United States agriculture.