Commercially managed honey bees pollinate a variety of crops in the West Coast region of the United States, including almonds, tree fruits, berries, kiwis, cotton, cucurbits, and crops grown for seed. This activity is economically significant. Beekeepers from California and the Pacific Northwest together perform nearly half of the nation’s commercial pollination, valued at approximately $18 billion (Calderone 2012). While honey bees are the most economically important pollinators, other managed bees are important as well. For example, alfalfa seed production in the western United States is dependent on alfalfa leafcutting bees and alkali bees for pollination, and managed bumble bees are important for greenhouse tomato production and some covered row crops. Native wild (pollen) bees, including numerous species of bumble bees, mining bees, mason bees, sweat bees, leafcutting bees, and carpenter bees, are all prolific pollinators. The estimated annual value of crops pollinated by wild, native bees in the U.S. is $3 billion or more (Losey and Vaughan, 2006, Chaplin-Kramer et al 2011). More than 1,600 species of bees are native to California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington (Tepedino and Griswold 1995; U.S. Pollinating Insects Database 2013). The full value of their pollination services to increased crop production is substantial, even in the presence of honey bees (Garibaldi et al. 2013), but their sensitivity to pesticides has not been studied extensively.
Contents:

• Rules to protect bees
• State rules to protect pollinators
• Investigating and documenting a suspected bee poisoning
• Causes of bee poisoning in the Pacific Northwest and California
• Signs and symptoms of bee poisoning
• Ways to reduce bee poisoning
• What pesticide applicators can do to protect honey bees
• What growers can do to protect honey bees
• What beekeepers can do to protect honey bees
• What pesticide applicators, growers, and managers of alfalfa leafcutting, akali, and orchard mason bees can do
• What growers and pesticide applicators can do to protect nonmanaged native bees, including bumble bees
• Sources of uncertainty in toxicity of pesticides to bees
• Special precautions