Sipping 'the forbidden nectar of knowledge'

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Carpenter bees are big and often can’t enter flowers to get nectar, and with their short tongues, they can’t reach that delightful substance through the top of the flower. They get around that by "nectar-robbing," eating a hole at the bottom of the flower and drinking that sugary liquid, bypassing pollination. Some educational websites say that bumble bees just use holes made by carpenter bees. Another researcher said that bumble bees that sipped at a hole made by carpenter bees subsequently chew their own nectar robbing holes. That entomologist put forward this clever quip: “ They had sipped the forbidden nectar of knowledge.” Nectar robbing can significantly lower the production of blueberries, which benefit from cross-pollination.