Frequently Asked Questions

Many people’s devices update automatically but it might be good to check. Here’s how. Go to your app store, search WiBee and see if there is a button that says “update” to the right of the app name, something like this:

If you are already up to date, it will say something like “open,” like this:

Unfortunately, no, at this time the app only works for operating systems on smartphones or tablets.

The first thing to check is that your email is entered correctly. Sometimes a typo will throw off the process. If you check this and it continues, email us at pollinators@wisc.edu

There is the option to move the map with your fingers to manually choose your location. If you have your location tracker turned off on your phones main settings, then you can choose your location this way. To set location manually:

1. use the “+” button to zoom in (“-” to zoom out). You can also do a “pinching” motion on the map to zoom out and the opposite (move thumb and first finger apart) to zoom in.
2. To move the map around use one finger.
3. When the curser is at your location, or pretty close, just hit the “done” button near the top of the screen.
4. It’s a little awkward on a small screen sometimes and can be helpful to do ahead of time where you can see your phone better, such as while inside your house or car. One good thing is that if you are often doing the same location, hit “take another survey” at the end of a survey and it will pre-load your location, you don’t have to search again. You can do this after your last survey for the day and it will usually save the location until the next time you open the app.

You can go into your phone settings and change the location/gps permissions for the WiBee app.

1. For an iPhone, this is what you click on your phone: Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> WiBee -> While Using the App
2. For an Android, long press on the WiBee app icon, and then click: App info -> Permissions -> Location -> Allow only while using the app

Check if you need to “allow” the WiBee app to have access to your camera. If you go into the settings icon (usually a gray gear icon) and scroll down to a line for WiBee (you may have to scroll all the way to the bottom). Then click the WiBee line, and a new menu opens where there is a line to allow access to the camera.

We are updating this section, but here’s a rundown of the current steps. When you click on “flowering plant” for non-crops, it brings you to a page that looks like this. Focal plants are listed under “common” or “rare” headings in the grey bars.

To choose a plant that’s not on the focal plant lists, scroll down to the bottom until you see the yellow “look for more” button and click it.

If you cant find either the genus or the species, you can search “other” and choose that and put the species in the notes. If there’s a species you want to survey that isn’t listed, email pollinators@wisc.edu and we’ll try to get it added on. We’ve tried to add as many of the most common plants we can, but we may not have every species, there are a lot of plants in WI, especially ornamentals!

Choose 1 flower species for any given 5-minute survey and only count bee visits to flowers of that species in your 3x3ft area. In the example pictures below, I could choose to survey either dandelions or violets, but not both at the same time. After I survey dandelions in this area, I could start another 5 minute survey and just watch the violet flowers.

Yes, more surveys are better! If you started surveying one plant at a chosen location, but later on another kind starts blooming and you want to survey that also, that’s great. If you really want to know about the pollination of a particular plant or crop, then doing repeat surveys on that plants flowers are important. We recommend 3 surveys /day on 3 separate days (at least 9 surveys total). Bees can be so variable during even 1 day. But surveys on other species during the same time period will help give a picture of the pollinator community in your area at that time. Surveys later in the season provide information about pollinator community throughout the year at your location. All surveys help.

The more surveys the better! Wild bees are rather variable depending on weather among other things. Three a day helps to capture variability within a day. If you just have time for one or two at a time, it is still worth it, it still helps.

Generally, if you can eat it, it’s considered a “crop” for WiBee. This means food plants whether in a garden or field.

• Lawn: turf, short grassy area often containing dandelion, white clover, or creeping charley
• Prairie/grassland: large area of grassland or prairie plants
• Woodland: stand of trees or a forest. Generally not ornamental trees though they may be mixed in.
• Road/field edge: generally strips of patches of land near crop or road, may include weedy species.
• Ornamental garden: any planting of flowering trees, shrubs or flowers, including native flowers, intended for enjoyment or beauty.

We realize the management types in our list are more easy applied to crop fields, so below are garden-specific definitions.

• “Conventional”-regular use of fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides, such as MiracleGro or aphid sprays etc. Used several times per year.
• “Organic”-using organic alternatives to fertilizers, pest management or herbicides such as compost, safer soap sprays for aphids or netting.
• “Low spray”-Using some conventional management methods but very occasionally for specific issues. Maybe once or twice a season.
• “No Spray”-Not doing much management at all beyond weeding and watering.

Yes, if they land on the flower. There are many kinds of pollinators, and for this project if they are not bees we are just combining them into one category.

In order to delete your profile in WiBee: The Wisconsin Wild Bee App (developed by Caracal, LLC for the University of Wisconsin-Madison): 

• • Click on the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) in the upper left corner of the app.
  • Select “Profile”
  • Select “Delete Account”

Deleting your profile is permanent and cannot be undone.  All data related to your profile will be deleted.  Your surveys will not be deleted, but will no longer be associated with your account.

If you are still unable to delete your account, please contact us at pollinators@wisc.edu.