Beeing Paige Embry

(Our Native Bees, Paige Embry, January 2018)

Bee lovers are set for life. There are so many native varieties and we know so very little about them, that anyone interested can devote a lifetime to learning, and teaching the rest of us. Pretty much anyone can add to the knowledge base, just by observing and reporting. Our Native Bees is a voyage of discovery rather than a science book. Lots of great photos right where you need them, too.

Bees are not just hive residents; that’s a honeybee trait. And honeybees are European imports. Native bees seem to be mostly solitary and earth/hole dwellers. They come in a blizzard of colors and sizes, from smaller than grain of rice to a full inch. They have unique properties and habits, and have peculiarities and preferences in climate, foods and child rearing. There are four thousand native species of bee and 20,000 worldwide. Typically, we can name a handful at best.

We depend on the Paige Embrys of the world to catalog it all, because bees are just not a zoological priority for scientists. Embry says bees have broken her out of her own introspective cocoon, and this book has forced her to fly and drive far to meet the bee-loving celebrities and experts. Her enthusiasm is genuine and infectious. She has learned a ton, and is sharing it. On the other hand, she is clearly obsessive.

Bees are beset by all kinds of problems, not all of them manmade, though the manmade ones are truly unfortunate. Monocultures mean bees only get food while that one pant blooms. The rest of the year is a famine. Golf courses and manicured lawns are no help either, though the pesticide maker Syngenta is working with golf courses to line them with natural greenery outside the playing area. Pesticides don’t select to save bees, and we overspray something fierce. We need to just ease up and share the planet a little. It will pay huge dividends. The alternative is a well-known and predicted disaster for our food sources.

And it turns out Melissa is Greek for honeybee.

David Wineberg