“If you can’t be an athlete, be an
athletic supporter.”
–Principal McGee in Grease
Not
everybody is cut out for beekeeping. We
are disappointed in how many people are
cut out for it who simply will never consider it, for one reason or another,
but it is nevertheless a fact with which we are willing to come to terms.
However,
bees need our help, and everyone is cut
out to help.
There have
been numerous writings, many frantic and worried, about colony collapse
disorder over the past decade. Colony
collapse disorder is a very real, very palpable threat to civilization as we
know it, and that is not hyperbole. Take
away our pollinators, and you take away many of the building blocks of the food
chain as currently constituted – how large mammals such as ourselves can adapt
to such a calamity is an open
question.
However, we
are not writing today with the purpose of spreading panic and hysteria;
instead, we offer a solution. We are a
hopeful, optimistic lot by nature, and we see opportunities to not only save
the bees, but also to beautify the world around us in ways far too often
forgotten since the dawn of the industrial revolution.
First, a
little background – several potential culprits have been identified for the
mass die-offs of bees which began accelerating during the first decade of the
21st century. The first to
get attention was an old enemy of the honeybee, the varroa mite; beginning
about fifteen years ago, commercial beekeepers noticed an increase in not just
mites, but in mites resistant to the chemical treatments they typically apply
to keep these pesky parasites in check.
Evolutionary biologists,naturally, pointed out that of course resistant strains are
There are
other reasons for the increase in mites, though, most notably the design of
commercial beehives. Langstroth hives
use preformed comb, requiring bees to build their comb to shapes humans have
decided we want them to build, instead of in configurations the bees naturally
want to utilize; it turns out, the bees are right, and we are wrong. There are numerous characteristics (size being
the most obvious) which bees choose
to produce in their offspring in order to respond to their environment, and
many of the adaptations they make “on the fly” are dependent upon resizing and
reshaping the brood comb in which their young are
reared. Take away their flexibility… and you leave
them vulnerable to outside factors.
Like, say, mites.
Mites,
though, are really a symptom and not the source of the problem. In nature, bees are more than capable of fending
off mites through the clever application of oils found naturally in a variety
of plants which do not affect the bees, but which are fatal to the
parasites. Lavender, rosemary, creosote,
western juniper, these are all plants around which you will frequently find a
passel of buzzing bees, and most people never stop to give them a second
thought. None of these plants, though,
provide very much in the way of pollen and nectar – the bees are not there to
feed, they are there to clean themselves and their hive.
So, no,
mites are not the cause of colony collapse.
Instead, they are increasing in number because the bee populations are
weaker, more susceptible. And why?
There are
two primary reasons, closely related, and both of which ordinary people can do
something to help resolve, whether they keep bees or not.
First, bees
have been weakened over the last century by the application of various
pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers to a wide variety of domesticated
plants, particularly large scale monocropped farm produce, and – more ubiquitously
– suburban lawns. All pesticides are
obviously dangerous to any insect population, of course, which is frequently
the point. You put out ant poison
because you want to kill ants. QED.
However…
ants are the closest living relatives of the honeybee. What’s bad for the one is almost always bad
for the other.
Beyond this
basic fact, which suggests that even “organic” or “natural” pesticide solutions
to infestation by ants, etc. are bad for bees, there is an even more insidious level
to the story – unsatisfied with wide application of sprays and other
application methods, farmers and gardeners began turning to modified crops
(genetically or otherwise) which produce “natural pesticides”. This is, in fact, the most common form of GMO
crop. In spite of how creepy it sounds,
most of these crops are perfectly safe for human consumption.
They are
still a horrible crime against humanity, though, for a simple reason: they are killing our bees.
These crops
almost exclusively make use of a class of chemicals known as neonicotinoids; they
are fatal to most of the targeted pests for which they were invented. They are also fatal to bees in concentrations
as low as one part per million. And they
are found in most large scale farming operations in everything from alfalfa to
zucchini.
They are
also found in most of the pretty flowers you buy from the large hardware chains
– if you think you are doing bees a favor by planting flowers you’ve bought at
Lowe’s or Home Depot, think again. Even
if
you never apply a single drop of pesticide yourself, the plants brought
their own pesticide to the party.
The second
factor which is in human control is similar to the first – we are putting out
all these non-bee friendly crops, including lawns, and this is decreasing the
available food supply for our honeybees.
In the 19th century (and the first half of the 20th
as well) there were hardly any homes with what we would recognize today as a
“lawn”. Wild grasses, wild flowers, wild
everything was pretty much the rule of the day.
Even without the invention of the “Victory Garden” in World War I, most
people had a few flowers around, in addition to a vegetable plot, and a few
herbs. It was universal. It was “just what people do” and it was
healthy for the bees. Nobody called the
non-modified vegetables “heirloom” back then; they were just “vegetables”.
Modern
homes, though, are surrounded by large lawns soaked with fertilizers,
pesticides, and herbicides which choke out “weeds”. So-called weeds, though, do something grasses
do not do: most of them flower.
Every time you kill a dandelion, you starve a bee. The bees used to be able to feed on every
patch of ground for miles around in any direction, as far as the eye could see,
no matter where you were in this country.
Now? They frequently have to fly
for miles just to find anything from
which they can collect pesticide free pollen and nectar.
The solution
to both problems is pretty much the same – replace lawn space (in some cases,
at least as much as your homeowner’s association will allow) with wildflowers,
heirloom vegetable plots, and all-natural, non-modified flowers with no
neonicotinoids. Plant as much lavender
and rosemary as you can. Replace those
boring expanses of grass with clover, or better still, with a blend of all the
wildflowers that grow in your region, hopefully with enough variety that at
least something is blooming at any given time for more than half the year.
This won’t
just help the bees, of course. Yes, the bees
will be thrilled… but so will people. We
live in one of the more picturesque parts of College Station, Texas, in an
older neighborhood where lots of people plant a few flowers and herbs, and
there are still some vacant lots which have been overseeded with wildflowers,
so we are not in one of the cookie cutter neighborhoods with sprawling St.
Augustine grass in every
direction.
Still, we are frequently amused by how often people driving by our house
slow down (some even stop) just to stare.
All those flowers, all those herbs… people are just not used to the idea
that you can have color, texture, layers in a yard. And the smells! A bee-friendly garden is a pleasure for all five
senses.
We have
definite suggestions for what sorts of plants are best for the bees… but the
list is so extensive that no one yard could possibly encompass them all. And this represents a great opportunity, all
too often overlooked in an age of conformity, the chance to be truly individual
and expressive. Instead of tending a
lawn that looks just like everybody else’s, we can help out our busy bee
friends by making our garden spaces beautiful and unique. Just a thought. And who knows, maybe if you make your
personal spaces bee friendly, you might find you want to keep a hive yourself,
for grins and honey.
Happy
farming!
Great article! Not only will smaller lawns help bees, but other pollinators like butterflies and hummingbirds. Also by planting natives you cut down on water usage. I also read an article about pyrethrums (which are considered a natural pesticide) having a negative impact of bees ability to navigate back to their hives. As a result they die because they can't find their homes.
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