Do bees really visit tomato flowers or not?

michael johnson · November 20, 2006

The reason I am posting this, is that I have received several conflicting reports, about if or not Bees visit tomato flowers or not, as most people say that the bees tend to ignore tomato flowers and go onto something else probably sweeter, I know for a fact that Bumble Bees do, but most of the other kinds of bees dont go near them especialy honey type bees- I wonder why that is ??,

In the past I found that my best natural pollinators have been hover flies, Blue bottle flies, and any kind of meat flies, especialy if they get into your greenhouse, and also one or two of the night moth species also visit the flowers, what is it about tomato flowers that honey bees dont like- is it the colour or the smell or something,

In commercial tomato houses in both spain and the UK they sometimes use a certain insect to do the job but I cant quite remember what its called, but most of that seems to have gone now in favour of the (Electric Bee ) an electronic pollinator.

November 20, 2006	#1
michael johnson Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: UK. Posts: 960	Do bees really visit tomato flowers or not? The reason I am posting this, is that I have received several conflicting reports, about if or not Bees visit tomato flowers or not, as most people say that the bees tend to ignore tomato flowers and go onto something else probably sweeter, I know for a fact that Bumble Bees do, but most of the other kinds of bees dont go near them especialy honey type bees- I wonder why that is ??, In the past I found that my best natural pollinators have been hover flies, Blue bottle flies, and any kind of meat flies, especialy if they get into your greenhouse, and also one or two of the night moth species also visit the flowers, what is it about tomato flowers that honey bees dont like- is it the colour or the smell or something, In commercial tomato houses in both spain and the UK they sometimes use a certain insect to do the job but I cant quite remember what its called, but most of that seems to have gone now in favour of the (Electric Bee ) an electronic pollinator.