PolliNation Podcast

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 31 minNew

307 - Are Bees Losing Their Way? How Odor Pollution Disrupts Pollination | PolliNation

Dr. Jordanna Sprayberry, Associate Professor & Director of Undergraduate Biology at Stony Brook University, joins the Pollination podcast to explain how agrochemical odors interfere with bees' ability to find flowers — and why that matters for entire ecosystems. Dr. Sprayberry is a pollination neuroethologist who studies how nervous systems process sensory information and how that processing drives foraging behavior. In this conversation, she breaks down her lab's groundbreaking "odor geometry" system for measuring olfactory pollution thresholds, shares findings from wind tunnel experiments…

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Earlier episodes 7 most recent

1. 

   E306 · 5 Oct 2026 · 21 min

   306 - SloBees (Bumble Bee Surveys in Slovenia with Dr. Danilo Bevk) | PolliNation

   Slovenia — a country the size of New Jersey — is home to 575 bee species, more than a quarter of all species known in Europe. It's the birthplace of the Carniolan honeybee, but it's also a hotspot for wild and solitary bees. This week, we sit down with Dr. Danilo Bevk, a researcher at the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana and founder of the SloBees Society (Čmrljica), to talk about Slovenia's remarkable pollinator diversity, a citizen science project tracking bumblebee queens across the country, and a new Europe-wide monitoring scheme about to transform how we track these crucial…

2. 

   E305 · 13 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 15 min

   305 - Inside the USGS/FWS Native Bee Lab: Building Bee Monitoring, ID, and Data Capacity | PolliNation

   This week, we catch up with Sam Droege with the US Geological Survey and Clare Maffei with US Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the origins and evolution of the Bee Lab and its role as a support hub for bee biodiversity work. Sam describes shifting from designing national monitoring programs for birds and other taxa to pollinators, finding bee monitoring statistically difficult due to high year-to-year variance and identification bottlenecks, and pivoting to developing sampling techniques, the Very Handy Bee Manual, Discover Life online ID guides, photography resources, and a large…

3. 

   E304 · 6 Jul 2026 · 29 min

   304 - Millions of Solitary Bees in a Cemetery: Andrena regularis Aggregations and Parasite Dynamics | PolliNation

   Dr. Bryan Danforth of Cornell University joins the podcast to discuss a new Apidology study led by Steven Hodge on emergence dynamics and host–parasite associations in a massive cemetery nesting aggregation of the solitary bee Andrena regularis. Using emergence traps checked daily for 40 days at East Lawn Cemetery near Cornell, the team estimated a mean population size of 5.5 million emerging bees within a compact area and documented synchronized host emergence with more gradual, delayed emergence by Nomada cuckoo bees, plus low-frequency associates including a meloid beetle and a conopid…

4. 

   E303 · 30 Jun 2026 · 56 min

   303 - Wonderful World of Wasps | PolliNation

   Wasps are an often underappreciated and underdiscussed pollinator group. In today's episode, we will dive into their fascinating world. We'll define what exactly a wasp is, the diversity of wasps around the world, their specialized hunting skills, and far beyond. Sloan Tomlinson is a science communicator, insect photographer, and regulatory contributor to wasp educational programs. Check out That Wasp Guy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatwaspguy/ Visit the UMass Extension pollinator resources page: ag.umass.edu/pollinators

5. 

   E302 · 11 May 2026 · 36 min

   302 - Forest Log Landings for Bees | PolliNation

   Log landings serve as a unique way to provision habitat in otherwise closed-canopy forests, providing refuge for wild bees and wasps. UMass Amherst PhD candidate Aliza Fassler unpacks her research on seeding log landings with native plants, and speaks to the pollinator assemblages that use them. Learn more about Aliza's research in this technical report: https://t.ly/gM2hR Visit the UMass Extension pollinator resources page: ag.umass.edu/pollinators

6. 

   E301 · 4 May 2026 · 38 min

   301 - Mason Bees 101: How to Care for Blue Orchard Bees (and Stop Houdini Flies) | PolliNation

   Thyra Mckelvie joins PolliNation to discuss managing blue orchard bees (mason bees). Thyra is the Managing Director and Solitary Bee Educator at Rent Mason Bees. She outlines three essential care steps: start with clean, openable nesting material of proper size, remove nests at the end of spring to protect developing bees from summer predators, and harvest/clean cocoons in fall to control pests and disease. In addition, Thyra covers the key pests of mason bees include pollen mites, Houdini flies, chalkbrood fungus, and monodontomerus wasps, plus sterilization methods. Rent Mason Bees…

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