Category Archives: Beneficial Insects
From the Lab to Your Laptop: Getting Research to the Public
The members of the Garden Ecology lab spend much of their time on research into subjects that affect, what else, the ecology of home gardens. Pollinators and their relations with native and non-native plants, bee variety and abundance in gardens, … Continue reading
Posted in bees, Native Plants, teaching
Tagged Native Plants, online learning, pollinators
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2019 Native Plant Field Season Update
I’m thrilled to announce that this summer I completed the third field season of my study. This is slightly bittersweet – while I’m excited that we are done with hot fieldwork, I will miss chasing bees around the farm and … Continue reading
Posted in bees, Native Plants, science
Tagged bees, field research, honey bees, native bees, Native Plants
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Unpopular Opinion: Saving Honey Bees Does Very Little to Save the Bees
Although I have been studying garden bees for the past three years, I was never focused on honey bees. From a biodiversity point of view, they are not very interesting to me. They are non-native and abundant. In fact, honey … Continue reading
Posted in bees, science
Tagged bee-washing, competition, garden bees, honey bees, native bees
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Native Plants and Pollinator Survey
Aaron Anderson is repeating his original survey on native plants and pollinators. This time, he is trying to understand how knowledge of a plant’s ecological function may alter impressions of native plants. The survey takes about 25-30 minutes to complete. … Continue reading
Posted in Beneficial Insects, Native Plants, science
Tagged Aaron, ecology research, Garden Bee, Garden Pollinator, Native Plants
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Native plants and pollinators – 2018 field update
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a field update about my native plant – pollinator study, so this post will be a recap of the entire 2018 field season! Sampling this year was successful, though it was a much … Continue reading
Posted in Beneficial Insects, garden ecology, Native Plants
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Pollinator Survey
Lauren Bennett, a Master’s student at OSU, is doing her capstone project on pollinators She has a short survey (10-15 minutes) on pollinators and pollinator plants. If you could spare a few moments of your time, we would appreciate your … Continue reading
Posted in Beneficial Insects, science
Tagged ecology research, garden plants, Garden Pollinator, Lauren
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First Publication from the Garden Ecology Lab!
Our paper on the potential for bee movements between gardens and urban/peri-urban agriculture has been published in a special issue on Agroecology in the City, in the journal Sustainability. Langellotto, G.A.; Melathopoulos, A.; Messer, I.; Anderson, A.; McClintock, N.; Costner, L. … Continue reading
Posted in Beneficial Insects, garden ecology, science
Tagged Garden Bee, Garden Pollinator
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Plant List for Pollinator Gardens
Over the past year, I have have given many presentations that highlighted the high bee activity at ‘site 51’; a garden that is fairly small (0.1 acre) and in … Continue reading
Posted in Beneficial Insects, garden ecology, Native Plants
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Garden Bees, 2017
All bees have been pinned, labelled, and data-based. Now we’re (and when I say ‘we’re’, I’m mostly referring to Lucas and Isabella) are going through the painstaking process of photographing all specimens: head on, from the top, and from each … Continue reading
Posted in Beneficial Insects, garden ecology, science
Tagged Garden Bee, garden ecology, Garden Pollinator, Portland
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Research Update: Studying Willamette Valley’s Native Plants
The post below comes from Aaron Anderson, a M.S. student in the OSU Department of Horticulture, and a member of the Garden Ecology Lab. ************************************* This past summer, we conducted the first field season of a study screening native plants … Continue reading
Posted in Beneficial Insects, Native Plants, science
Tagged Garden Pollinator, Native Plants, research
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