298 - Wibee: A Simple App to Measure Pollination Activity in Your Orchard | PolliNation

 Dr. Melathopoulos talks with Dr. Hannah Gaines-Day (University of Wisconsin–Madison) about WiBee (W-I-B-E-E), an app created after conversations with Wisconsin apple growers who wanted to know whether wild bees provide enough pollination or if honeybee rentals are needed. The app has users stand still and record insect visits in a standardized 3x3-foot area for five minutes, tallying easy-to-identify functional "morpho groups" (honeybee, bumblebee, large dark, small dark, green bee, and non-bees) while also logging weather, habitat, and flower abundance. Validation work compared Wibee visitation rates with pollen deposition in apple and cranberry, finding a tight relationship in cranberry but not apple due to pollen source ambiguity; a follow-up will test relationships with fruit set, and pumpkin data are pending. Wibee has been widely adopted by Master Gardeners, has generated about 15,000 publicly viewable surveys, and may be compared with camera-based monitoring in future work. Essential Links: WiBee Official Website: pollinators.wisc.edu/wibee The Gratton Lab: gratton.entomology.wisc.edu Hannah Gaines-Day - Faculty Profile: https://entomology.wisc.edu/directory/hannah-gaines-day/ 00:00 Bee Survey Setup 00:53 Podcast Intro 01:24 Meet Hannah Gaines-Day 02:27 Why Bee ID Matters 03:31 Wisconsin Crops Focus  04:30 Wibee Morpho Groups 06:16 Functional Group Logic 07:53 How To Use Wibee 10:06 Sampling Strategy Tips 10:59 Validation Experiments 13:37 Apple Vs Cranberry Results 16:14 Beyond Wisconsin Use 18:22 Citizen Science Adoption 20:30 Pollination Threshold Goals 23:02 Future Tech Comparisons