ATTRACTION OF HONEYBEES TO CUCUMBER WITH BEE ATTRACTANTS

ABSTRACT

In this study, The usage of bee attracts like Bee-Q and Fruit Boost™ in the pollination of Cucumber was evaluated. The bee visitations on target crop ?owers were made for two weeks, followed by estimation of yield parameters. The different concentrations of Bee-Q and Fruit boost™ was evaluated to understand the honeybee visitation pattern of the target crop for improving pollination ef?cacy. The observations indicate that, Bee-Q at 12.5 g/l and Fruit boost at 0.5 ml/l of Cucumber plots meagerly attracted a number of bee foragers than the control plots. In addition, the plots sprayed with bee attractants marginally enhanced the fruits/plant, length and diameter fruits. The present investigation suggests that the bee attractants increases certain amount of bee visitation, in turn, leads to increase in fruits/plant, length and diameter of fruits on Cucumber