PALO CEDRO, Calif. — Planting strips of wildflowers next to fruit and nut orchards and other crops can benefit bees searching for forage in between blossoms, a University of California study asserts.

They also help with pest control by attracting beneficial insects which wander into adjacent crops and ward off natural enemies, asserts Rachael Freeman Long and other researchers from the UC’s Agriculture and Natural Resources division.

The wildflowers serve as habitat for native bees, which help imported honey bees with the task of gathering and moving pollen from one flower to another and make pollination more efficient, explained Long, a Woodland, Calif.-based farm adviser for field crops and pest management.

“Honey bees really do better when they have nectar and pollen from flowers,” she said. “It’s really important for hive strength for honey bees as well as the native bees that are nesting.”

About one-third of California crops benefit from bee pollination, including fruit and nuts, vegetables and crops grown for seed production such as sunflower, melon and carrot, Long noted.

The study comes as the shortage of forage after recent years’ almond blossoms prompted some bee providers across the country to decide to pass on California’s bloom, while a lack of blooming wildflowers because of the drought caused many beekeepers within the state to supplement feed for their bees at different times of the year.

As bee health has moved to the forefront of growers’ attention, some have resorted to planting their own banks of wildflowers.

“There’s interest that’s certainly developed as you look around and see more and more farmers starting to try this,” Long said. “Definitely it’s gaining interest, especially with such an incredible need for so many pollinators.”

Planting more wildflowers would help, although growers couldn’t plant enough to completely resolve the feed shortage issue, said Shannon Wooten, co-owner of Palo Cedro-based Wooten’s Golden Queens.

“Anything will help, but it’s not ‘the’ solution,” he said.

However, a $4,000 investment in a 1,000-foot hedgerow in native California plants would take about seven years to pay for itself through enhanced pest control and pollination, asserted Long and researchers Claire Kremen of UC-Berkeley and L.A. Morandin of Canada.

Their report, “Pest Control and Pollination Cost-Benefit Analysis of Hedgerow Restoration in a Simplified Agricultural Landscape,” was published this spring in the Journal of Economic Entomology.