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Bees have a new home at Pitt thanks to these environmental studies students

Students may have moved out for the semester, but bees are moving in at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pitt students built and installed seven bee houses on campus this month to protect pollinators. The project grew from an assignment in a sustainability class where several students interested in insects teamed up.

Here’s a 101 course on the project with help from Pitt environmental studies students Sarah Hart, a senior, and Matt Golub, a junior.

What exactly is a bee house?

These small wooden houses look like bird houses. They provide protection for solitary bees where they can lay eggs in tubes inside the houses.

In nature, bees look for a natural safe space to lay their eggs, such as the holes made by a woodpecker or termites. The homes replicate that safe space.

“Our project came together around trying to make the campus a safer place for solitary bees,” Golub said.

What is a solitary bee?

Solitary bees are native insects with a lot of diversity — some look like shiny green flies, others look like black-and-yellow bees. They’re different from honey bees, which are considered social bees, Golub explained.

They’re also expert pollinators.

“They can pollinate up to 120 times more than a honey bee,” Golub said. “They go completely under the radar. Everybody knows about honey bees, but you don’t really learn about solitary bees.”

Where are the bee houses?

You can find the houses in these seven spots on Pitt’s campus:

  • Petersen Sports Complex
  • Falk School nature trail
  • Marlie Gardens
  • Cathedral of Learning rain garden
  • Barco Law Building green roof
  • Posvar Hall pollinator garden
  • Robinson Street Extension

The students aren’t bringing bees to campus. Instead, they’re providing a safe home for bees that already live there, which is especially important in an urban area with construction since bees usually live in the ground and on trees, Hart said.

“We planted them around pollinator gardens on campus, and there will be gardens built around them as well,” Hart said.

The houses are planted near to the bees’ food source, Golub added.

“If they see something that’s well constructed, it’s off the ground away from predators, it’s a great place to make their home,” he said. “And the rents are really reasonable.”

How long will the bee houses be there?

Indefinitely. Pitt’s facilities management staff helped the students construct the houses, Golub said, and the houses will be up as long as possible, assuming they can weather storms.

Why does it matter?

To put it simply, humans depend on bees for life.

“Over 1,000 plants worldwide we depend on for food, spices, and medicine are pollinated thanks to the work of pollinators,” Gov. Tom Wolf wrote in a proclamation declaring June 17-23, 2019 as Pollinator Week. “80 percent of the world’s crops depend on pollination, but disturbing statistics show a rapid decrease in pollinators throughout the United States.”