Save the bees - Bob's story

Did you know that it isn't just bees that are collapsing but the entire insect biome is collapsing? What can the average person do to help?

Plant flowers/plants that are native to your area. That's really important! See what grows naturally around you.

Don't mow down dandelions in the spring. That's the first food source bees have access to.

Make a sugar water pitstop for them. Making faux nectar just like we do for hummingbirds.

Support the right farmers! and that doesn't mean organic farms, because organic farms can spray Copper Sulphate as insecticides. Support permaculture farms.

If you find a hive that needs to go, don't just destroy it! Call around and you should be able to find someone more than willing to collect it for relocation. Look for local bee keepers.

Buy local honey and wax products. Supporting bee keepers supports happy, healthy bees!

A note on native wildflower bees vs honeybees:

We need to move the conversation from trying to save honey bees specifically. They are a symptom of a much larger problem, native bee population decline.

Please understand that honey bees are not native for those of us in North America. They are actually livestock. That means keeping a bee hive is not going to save the bees.

What’s more of a concern are native pollinators they are usually solitary bees or ones like bumblebees. The big thing for them is habitat. Some are ground nesting, but others like to nest in debris like leaf litter, hollow sticks, etc. If you just have a lawn that gets mulched all the time by mowing, etc. that’s not really helping them out.

Whether it’s honey bees or native bees, food sources are the other main factor. Many bees have troubles because they don’t have a consistent food source throughout the growing season. If you have just one type of flower that blooms in July with not much else, those bees are going hungry. You want a variety of flowering plants that also bloom at different times.

There’s no silver bullet really, but that’s about as close as it gets with maintaining habitat and not just having bee food deserts, especially in cities.

Political impacts of industrial agriculture and money and power:

*Write to your local council or political representative.*

Tell them about the need to save the bees, and ask them to stop the use of pesticides in public spaces and on public owned and managed land (from parklands to community planting schemes).

Ask them to include more bee-friendly plants, and shrubs, and to make space for wildflowers along verges etc.

Ask them to reduce the mowing.

Bees love clover, and it's a great, low-growing, drought-resistant flower to include in lawned areas and along verges. Ask your council to use more clover.

Ask them to put in place a strategy for pollinators.

We can do this, and there are many ways for everyone to help out.

Credit for all the above goes to all the various entomologists on reddit for this information which I have collected over the years.
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