Technical Abstract: With growing interest in pollinator conservation, a need has emerged for a simple, unbiased method to reliably sample local bee faunas. One passive method, pan-trapping, has increased in popularity without critical evaluation of its efficacy and biases. We compared traditional net collecting at flowers and pan-trapping concurrently, sampling the local bee fauna of the dominant desert shrub, creosote bush. The pan samples were depauperate and lacking in the abundant floral specialists. The likely causes of this disparity and the utility of pan-trapping for bees in faunal and community studies is discussed.