Quick: What is your first thought when you hear the word “bee”?
Something that will sting you, something to swat? Just for the record, never swat at a bee. Terrible idea. Let’s turn that line of thinking around. Listen to a couple of neighbors who feel gratitude for and appreciate the bees buzzing around our neighborhood, pollinating and playing an incredibly important role in our ecosystem.
DFW Urban Wildlife Biologist Sam Kieschnick was fresh off a weeklong trip to West Texas to study the wildlife in those dry parts when I contacted him with a few bee questions. He jumped right in. “I’ll start out with my love for bees — they’re just so dang charming! We are quite lucky in DFW to have a lot of different types of bees.”
According to Kieschnick, around 150 bee species have been documented so far in the Metroplex. “They can be incredibly small (some of the sweat bees are only like a quarter of an inch), or pretty dang big — those bumblebees can be quite chunky.”
He continues, “You find bees where you’d find flowers — so pretty much anywhere in DFW. The plants can be wildflowers close to the ground, shrubs or even trees – bees visit all of these locations in the landscape.”
His favorite places to go “bee hunting” are the wild parks and preserves. “These are the places that have lots of wildlife habitat and a diversity of different kinds of plants.” In East Dallas, Kieschnick says White Rock Lake and the surrounding areas are perfect hangouts for pollinators like bees.
Yes, there are lots of pollinators around: birds, butterflies, beetles, flies, bats. But with all due respect to the bees’ pollinator colleagues, the bee is the most efficient of them all. “Bees are usually covered in lots of little hairs, and those hairs pick up the pollen, and as the bees visit another flower, they pollinate it.Most of our fruits and veggies exist thanks to bees,”Kieschnick explains. “Most of our flowers look or smell pleasant because they’re for attracting bees.”
Unfortunately, bees, like many insects, are threatened by loss of habitat, pesticides/herbicides, climate change, urbanization and other issues. Why be concerned about bugs? “They are the foundation of healthy ecosystems,” Kieschnick says. “Because bugs exist, we have food: pollination. Because bugs exist, we have cleaner air and water: ecosystem services driven by biodiversity. Because bugs exist, we can exist.”
You can help bees by planting a variety of native flowers/plants. “In the urban ecosystem, even the smallest piece of land can be a genuine refuge for so many organisms.If folks are able to put in a diversity of plants, nature ‘smells’ this and easily returns.”
Kieschnick suggests just a few: Autumn Sage, Turk’s Cap, Coralberry, Lantana, Cutleaf Daisy, Mexican Hat, Coneflower, Bluebonnet, Blackeyed Susan. “Biodiversity is the most important thing for any landscape, so experimenting with several different species is good for the pollinators and all of the urban ecosystem.”
East Dallas neighbor Ryan Giesecke is another bee enthusiast. He is a master naturalist, master beekeeper and owner/operator of two businesses: Honey Bee Relocation Services and G-bar Naturals, an East Dallas homestead where he takes his removal bees and offers agricultural and nature-oriented education.
If you scroll through neighborhood social media, you’ve likely noticed more than a few semi-panicked posts from people who have discovered bees on or in their property. Enter Giesecke’s services. He has answered many a call from residents with bees in uninsulated spaces such as garage walls, porch ceilings and spaces between floor joists.
While most of his work is residential, there is the occasional commercial job. “We broke our record for height a few years ago with a call to remove bees from 13 stories up in downtown Fort Worth.”And among his more unusual cases? “I’veremoved bees from motorcycles and helicopters.”
The number of calls varies from season to season, but late spring and early summer keep him hopping. “It’s not impossible for us to be getting a couple dozen inquiries in a day during busy season.”
Most removal calls are about honey bees, but a small percentage involve bumble bees. Honey bees often require removal because they establish perennial colonies that may be there indefinitely. Bumble bees, on the other hand, pack up and leave in the fall. “I love the moments when I can address a caller’s concerns just by teaching them about the bees they’re seeing.”
In his decade of bee business, Giesecke has come to appreciate bees beyond their importance as pollinators. “Sometimes I think the most important thing we get from our bees is what they can teach us. I find myself thinking about their teamwork, their altruism, their specialization, their adaptability, their fragility, their dedication to family, or the way they highlight everything else happening in and to the environments in which they participate. I’m reminded of a John Muir quote: ‘When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.’”
“I also think that there’s such tremendous intrinsic joy from watching bees and other insects. They’re simply spectacular and gorgeous if you modify your perspective just a bit. Look closer at nature, and you can be amazed at the organisms that exist all around you,” Kieschnick adds.
PATTI VINSON is a guest writer who has lived in East Dallas for more than 20 years. She’s written for the Advocate and Real Simple magazine.
