Getting involved with the Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas survey this year has turned me into a pollinator super fan and wanna-be entomologist. It quickly became apparent that identifying local bumble bees would not be enough to satisfy my addiction. There were so many non-bumble bee insects on the plants in my yard, and everywhere else I looked. I needed to know more.

I put in a request for the library to purchase two new books that had been favorably reviewed in the New York Times. Any Daniel Boone Regional Library cardholder can suggest a book for purchase, and our acquisitions team does their best to fulfill it.

“Wasps: a Guide for Eastern North America,” and “Bees: an Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide,” by Heather Holm arrived, and went straight to my holds shelf and then home with me. Both these books provide detailed, in-depth information while still remaining accessible to amateur observers. I highly recommend them! Continue reading “Watch Out for Wasps!”

If you have a friend or loved one facing dementia or memory loss, the library offers a tool to help you help them. Memory Care Kits are designed to help people with dementia engage with friends and family, exercise their brains and spend some pleasurable hours remembering experiences from their past. These kits were designed by DBRL staff. Our staff chose themes for these kits that explore common experiences like living on a farm, homemaking, gardening, using tools, and going to a baseball game or to the movies.

That list of themes grows as we release even more new kits through the rest of 2022, so be sure to visit our catalog regularly for more engaging kits. These kits contain music, movies, puzzles, books, tactile items and activities selected especially for a person living with dementia and their family. Continue reading “Memory Care Kits”

I see a lot of book covers in my work and I totally judge those books by their covers. I have a fondness for gothic mysteries. Give me a grim landscape with a tattered tree line and a huge spooky house and I’m going to pick up that book to take a second look. I hate legal mysteries and so skip right over books with gavels or the scales of justice. They say not to do that (whomever they happen to be), but I know I’m not alone. That’s why writers want bookstores to display their books facing out instead of stacked up by the spines, and it’s why you will see so many of our new books displayed so you can view the covers.

It’s still summer out there — so much heat and stickiness. Let’s take a look at some of the resources we have that can enhance your outdoor experience. We’ll start off by looking at some books with canoes or kayaks on the covers: these books could contain water travel, watery picnics, water explorations or miles and miles of shore to watch. Fiction books may have murders or romance. Nonfiction books may have personal stories about canoe trips, or they may be guide books to help you choose your next river. (Missouri has Missouri has 51,978 miles of river so lots of opportunity to cool off!) Continue reading “Summer Fun in the Sun!”

A friend and I recently braved high heat, oppressive humidity, ticks and sunburn — not to mention the potential for bee stings–to catch, photograph and identify (and then release) bumble bees in central Missouri. After about three hours of that, I returned to my air conditioned home and spent at least three hours sorting our photos and uploading our data for the Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas project. This was in addition to a day-long training and lots of planning.

And I was happy to do it!

What’s so special about bumble bees? you ask.

In recent years, there’s been a lot of concern about populations of pollinators, the insects, birds and bats that transfer pollen from one flower to another. Pollination is necessary for plants to generate seeds. Some plants can be pollinated by the wind, like corn and ragweed, but many or most need a little help. Animals that visit flowers (usually for nectar) get dusted with pollen which is then carried on to the next flower. This process is important for many commercial crop plants but also the wild native plants that are essential to our native ecosystems.

Bees in general have garnered a lot of attention in the last ten or more years with concerns about the colony collapse disorder–which only affects honey bees. Honey bees are good pollinators. They visit a lot of flowers. BUT they are not as good as bumble bees, and here’s why.

First, honey bees are not native to North America (they come from Europe). Secondly, honey bees are primarily in search of nectar not pollen.

Bumble bees are native species that have evolved with the local plants. Bumble bees focus more on collecting pollen, so they are really good at inadvertently carrying pollen between flowers. Thirdly, some plants can only be pollinated effectively by bumble bees, which use a special buzzing technique to get these flowers to release pollen.

Because of bumble bees’ ecological importance, organizations like Xerces Society, Quail Forever, Pheasants Forever, MU and the MDC have come together to support the Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas, a citizen science project working to identify the bumble bee species in Missouri. There are concurrent efforts in Canada and many other states. The data from this project and other bumble bee monitoring projects is collected and housed on the Bumble Bee Watch website, which is open to the public.

Bumble bees are important to our ecosystems, and that’s part of why I’m participating in the Atlas project. I find a beauty in how they fit into Missouri’s landscape. Our bumble bees need the flowers, but the flowers also need them. Bumble bees have personality. You might call them a charismatic mega fauna of insects. They are big (for a bee), furry and relatively docile. Case in point, no one got stung in the process of catching, photographing and releasing 24 bees! They are so focused on their work collecting pollen and nectar that they are embarrassingly easy to catch. Just stay away from their nests.

Other interesting things about bumble bees. Only the females can sting, but unlike honey bees, they can sting repeatedly. They are most likely to sting you if they are defending their nest or in imminent danger, like getting stepped on. In Missouri, bumble bees are the only native bees that nest communally. In the spring, bumble bee queens emerge from whatever cozy spot they found to over winter, breed with a male and then start a nest. At the end of the summer the new queens emerge, and fatten up before settling in somewhere for the winter. The nest is only used for one year. The queen and her workers don’t see another season.

If you think bumble bees might be great, here are some things you can do:

• Take a look at these materials to learn more about bumble bees;
• Visit Bumble Bee Watch to see what species of bees have been collected in your area and elsewhere;
• Plant native flowers. If there are flowers for them, bumble bees will miraculously show up and do their thing;
• Volunteer as a citizen scientist with Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas;
• Visit the Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas website and peruse their educational resources. They have videos and documents about pollinators, identifying bumble bees, why populations are declining and more;
• Leave some piles of grass, brush or other ‘messy’ areas where bumble bees might like to nest;
• Don’t use insecticides in your garden;
• Buy your plants and seeds from plant nurseries that do not use insecticides Some insecticides are very persistent and can even be transferred to the seed and the new plant that grows from the seed. You’ll have to ask the seller what the policy is. If they don’t know, recommend they find out, and look for plants elsewhere.
• Tell other people to watch out for the bees! We need them!

The biannual Project Homeless Connect provides health and human services, hair cuts and seasonal supplies for folks in need. Anyone can flex their neighborly muscles by volunteering during the program on Thursday, July 28th. Simply sign up using this form. Here at Columbia Public Library, we are accepting donations of supplies for this event now through July 22. Look for the gray tub in the lobby to deposit the following items:

• Sunscreen
• Aloe
• Bug Spray
• Deodorant
• Hand Wipes
• Socks
• Other items on the wish list

Continue reading “Aiding Our Neighbors in Need”