In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Agreed! Bumblebees are cute and fuzzy in a sleepy-looking sorta way.
Never been stung by one so wouldn't know how they compare in that
respect! Apparently the queens and workers can all sting indefinitely
too... If you've got a nice garden (which I'm sure all of you do )
you can build a wee nest box to attract them: 'Bumblebee nest box trial'
(http://tinyurl.com/4pn6s4e)

And let's not forget the solitary bee! 'Make a Solitary Bee House'
(http://www.foxleas.com/bee_house.htm)

Apparently mosquitoes and bats are good pollinators too


Interesting web site on bees.
Bats are pollinators? I wonder how bats do it? Now googling.

Mosquitos too.

After googling, I learned something new. I thought bats were for bug
control only.

But it does explain an odd thing in my life. While weening my transplants
in early spring. I brought my plants inside when the weather got below 40
degrees. After bring in one pot of flowers inside. I saw a bat crawl out
from the pot inside the house. AHHHHH!!!!!!!! I quickly put a clear plastic
bowl over it. It was screaming and I could see it's teeth as it looked me
straight in the eyes! By looking at me in the eyes, it seemed to have some
basic intelligence.

I still hate mosquitoes, even if they can pollinate some plants, which is
something I did not know.

So then, it is a myth that, without out bees we would loose our food
pollinated crops?

http://3hmm.com/thesun/?p=4412
TwelveÂ* years ago, Doppler radar was developed to the point that bat
activity can be detected some two miles above the earth. A scan of an
area around Austin, Texas, clearly showed a swarm of moths that
attracted a horde of bats some 200 million strong, spurring the latter
into a feeding frenzy. At the end of the massacre, all traces of
activity eerily ceased. The farmer who owned the fields in question was
left with a hefty supply of bat guano, much better for his crops – and
the environment – than the pesticides he would otherwise have had to use
to deter or destroy the moth threat.

This was among the most-jaw dropping tidbits proffered on Aug. 27 at an
otherwise routine meeting of the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley held at
the Lodge at Sonoma.Â* Patricia Winters – aka Bat Maam – frequently makes
the rounds of civic organizations and other groups to spread the good
word on bats.
----

Bat Maam gave her presentation to a 6th grade class that I was subbing
for. The animals (the bats) seemed relaxed and docile (the students, not
so much). Of course, an unknown bat, out of its environment, and
possibly rabid, would call for prudence.
-----

http://www.internationalpollinatorsinitiative.org/

More Diversity is Better

The diversity of pollinators and pollination systems is striking. Most
of the 25,000 to 30,000 species of bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are
effective pollinators, and together with moths, flies, wasps, beetles
and butterflies, make up the majority of pollinating species. Vertebrate
pollinators include bats, non-flying mammals (several species of monkey,
rodents, lemur, tree squirrels, olingo and kinkajou) and birds
(hummingbirds, sunbirds, honeycreepers and some parrot species). Current
understanding of the pollination process shows that, while interesting
specialized relationships exist between plants and their pollinators,
healthy pollination services are best ensured by an abundance and
diversity of pollinators.

Tropics and Mountain Ecosystems Highly Dependent on Pollinators
Approximately 80 percent of all flowering plant species are specialized
for pollination by animals, mostly insects. The dependence of ecosystems
on animal pollinators is even stronger in the tropics than the global
average: in the tropical forests of Central America, insects may be
responsible for 95 percent of the pollination of canopy trees, and
vertebrates (bats and a diversity of other taxa) may pollinate 20 to 25
percent of the subcanopy and understory plants. Insects pollinate a
further 50 percent of these. Arid and mountain ecosystems often have
highly diverse pollinator communities as well, with finely tuned
adaptations to ensure that pollination is effective even when climatic
conditions are erratic.

Pollination is essential for human livelihoods

In agro-ecosystems, pollinators are essential for orchard, horticultural
and forage production, as well as the production of seed for many root
and fibre crops. Pollinators such as bees, birds and bats affect 35
percent of the world's crop production, increasing outputs of 87 of the
leading food crops worldwide, plus many plant-derived medicines. It has
been estimated that at least 20 genera of animals other than honeybees
provide pollination services to the world's most important crops. For
human nutrition the benefits of pollination include not just abundance
of fruits, nuts and seeds, but also their variety and quality; the
contribution of animal-pollinated foodstuffs to human nutritional
diversity, vitamin sufficiency and food quality is substantial.
-----

How this breaks down, percentage-wise, I haven't a clue.
--
- Billy
"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist."
-Archbishop Helder Camara
http://peace.mennolink.org/articles/...acegroups.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth...130964689.html