As a retired commercial beekeeper, I jumped at the chance to borrow this holiday from the UK, so If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone. I hadn’t heard of it either. Protecting our bees is important everywhere in the world. We also need to address this situation in our homes and our local communities.
Bees are critical to our food supply. Without bees, 1/3 of the foods we eat would fail to exist, as bees are necessary for their pollination. Do you enjoy eating watermelons, blueberries, squash, beans, eggplant, okra, and cucumbers for starters? Honeybees are transported everywhere for crop pollination. Tractor-trailer loads of bees are driven across the country every year to pollinate major crops such as almonds, apples, blueberries, and more.
Having married a commercial beekeeper and worked along side him providing crop pollination and selling honey, I learned much about the importance of bees to our food supply. Honey is only a minor food item in the big picture. Honeybees are the most manageable kind of bee, but there are many other native bees that contribute to our food supply. Bees not only make our food supply possible, they also pollinate berries, fruit, and seeds for birds and other wildlife.
Our bees face many threats. Pesticide misuse and abuse have been a serious threat for years. Mosquito spraying kills not only mosquitoes but any and all insects exposed to the spray—including dragonflies and bats that are our best natural line of defense against mosquitoes.
People have become so obsessed with beautiful green lawns that they use both insecticides and herbicides so that only grass can survive. Meanwhile insects in the grass or underground become poisoned. Poisoned insects in turn kill birds and animals that feed on them. This practice has become a vicious cycle. By killing the “weeds” in their lawns, herbicides remove precious food needed by bees, both honeybees and native bees alike. Dandelions and clover are two valuable food sources for bees in the spring at the time they need them most to grow their colonies.
Roadside maintenance should never rely on herbicides. Instead, roadsides need to be seeded with native wildflowers that will support our bees and in turn protect all wildlife.
What can we as individuals do to support and protect the bees around us?
Continue reading “Don’t Step on a Bee Day”