Pollinator pest prevalence depends on landscape context

Humans depend on bees to pollinate the majority of their food crops. Humans manage honey bees to complete roughly 30% of this pollination work, but the remaining work is done by wild bees and flies. Bumble bees, sweat bees, and digger bees compete for food and struggle against habitat loss, pesticide use, and parasitic mites to remain healthy and abundant. Mites are capable of transmitting viruses and diseases within colonies of social bees, and through bee communities. Habitat structure also plays a vital role in how pollinators interact with these stressors. To understand how landscape context impacts mite populations, bees were sampled from canola fields in conventional agricultural spaces, canola in semi natural spaces, and wildflowers in natural spaces. Mites were found to be more populous at the end of the growing season, but landscape context may not be a predictor of mite abundance. By comparing spaces with varying floral abundance, diversity, and nesting habitat, this research seeks to determine the ideal habitat requirements for wild pollinators. Further identification of various mite species will allow farmers to create management strategies that maximize pollination services while reducing pollinator stressors.