Bee Life Matters

[Dr. Who]

Bee life matters and so do the lives of all of the other pollinators in our collective ecosystem. At this time of the year many people are picking up nursery plants. Unfortunately, many of those plants have been sprayed with neonictonoid (nicotine-based) insecticides that have been linked by researchers to a dramatic population decline among the insect world’s most prolific pollinators.

Why should you care? Bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Without bees to pollinate our food, we’d have a third less variety of food to choose from, especially fruit. Chocolate would disappear!

What can people do to offset this ecological disaster? Plant wildflowers, or ensure that your garden plants come from organic nurseries. Planting wildflowers is very cheap and you don't even need a garden, just a window box will help.

Join the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge: http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm

Save the bees!

[Peter1469]

France and Italy have banned neonictonoid pesticides and a state in the northeast has as well. I can't recall which.

[Dr. Who]

France and Italy have banned neonictonoid pesticides and a state in the northeast has as well. I can't recall which.



The UK is on the verge of banning them as well. I expect most of Europe will follow suit in fairly short order. We can't afford to have the bee, butterfly and moth populations of the world disappear.

[Tahuyaman]

Bee life matters and so do the lives of all of the other pollinators in our collective ecosystem. At this time of the year many people are picking up nursery plants. Unfortunately, many of those plants have been sprayed with neonictonoid (nicotine-based) insecticides that have been linked by researchers to a dramatic population decline among the insect world’s most prolific pollinators.

Why should you care? Bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Without bees to pollinate our food, we’d have a third less variety of food to choose from, especially fruit. Chocolate would disappear!

What can people do to offset this ecological disaster? Plant wildflowers, or ensure that your garden plants come from organic nurseries. Planting wildflowers is very cheap and you don't even need a garden, just a window box will help.

Join the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge: http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm

Save the bees!

I have a neighbor who raises honey bees. He has about 15 hives spread out over his property. He has a mobile operation and he takes his hives to various farms and puts his bees to work there.

[MisterVeritis]

Bee life matters and so do the lives of all of the other pollinators in our collective ecosystem. At this time of the year many people are picking up nursery plants. Unfortunately, many of those plants have been sprayed with neonictonoid (nicotine-based) insecticides that have been linked by researchers to a dramatic population decline among the insect world’s most prolific pollinators.

Why should you care? Bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Without bees to pollinate our food, we’d have a third less variety of food to choose from, especially fruit. Chocolate would disappear!

What can people do to offset this ecological disaster? Plant wildflowers, or ensure that your garden plants come from organic nurseries. Planting wildflowers is very cheap and you don't even need a garden, just a window box will help.

Join the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge: http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm

Save the bees!
Even better you can do what one of my neighbors has done. He left a two foot wide 120-foot swath of uncut dandelions on his property. Immaculate lawns starve more bees than pesticides.

[Tahuyaman]

Even better you can do what one of my neighbors has done. He left a two foot wide 120-foot swath of uncut dandelions on his property. Immaculate lawns starve more bees than pesticides.

one can provide a quality bee habitat but still have it be an attractive part of your landscape. Besides I like to walk barefooted on my grass. It's a bitch to step on a honey bee. They don't respond well to that.

For some reason a sting by a wasp or yellow jacket does nothing to me, but a honey bee sting bothers the shit out of me for a couple of days.

[Dr. Who]

I have a neighbor who raises honey bees. He has about 15 hives spread out over his property. He has a mobile operation and he takes his hives to various farms and puts his bees to work there.
That is fantastic. However, we also need to worry about the non-honey bees, because honey bees are more focused on nectar, whereas other bee species are more focused on pollen, which at the end of the day is what pollinates the plants. We need all of our pollinators to be healthy. Tossing a package of daisy seeds or black-eyed susans in a sunny location, if your property is blessed with a sunny location, will help out all of our pollinators to rebuild their populations. Wild flowers are just as attractive as any other flowers, so if we can devote a little space to the flowers that attract our flying friends, we can really help change the current dynamic.

Do you have a garden?

[MisterVeritis]

one can provide a quality bee habitat but still have it be an attractive part of your landscape. Besides I like to walk barefooted on my grass. It's a $#@! to step on a honey bee. They don't respond well to that.

For some reason a sting by a wasp or yellow jacket does nothing to me, but a honey bee sting bothers the $#@! out of me for a couple of days.
About 45 years ago, when I was young, I remember walking across a very large school field in the spring. It was unmowed. The field was thick with dandelions. And bees.

Then the school bought a riding mower. No more dandelions. No more bees.

[Dr. Who]

one can provide a quality bee habitat but still have it be an attractive part of your landscape. Besides I like to walk barefooted on my grass. It's a bitch to step on a honey bee. They don't respond well to that.

For some reason a sting by a wasp or yellow jacket does nothing to me, but a honey bee sting bothers the shit out of me for a couple of days.
That's because when a honey bee stings, it leaves the stinger in your skin. It is fatal for the honey bee, so you get off better than he. Wasps don't leave their stinger behind and live to sting another day.

[Dr. Who]

About 45 years ago, when I was young, I remember walking across a very large school field in the spring. It was unmowed. The field was thick with dandelions. And bees.

Then the school bought a riding mower. No more dandelions. No more bees.
We are flower snobs. Dandelions can be quite beautiful when there are alot of them.

[Tahuyaman]

Do you have a garden?

Of course. I can't imagine not having a garden.

Nothing bothers me when I'm working in my garden.

When I return home from my southern home in the spring, my first priority is to get the garden in shape.

[Tahuyaman]

We are flower snobs. Dandelions can be quite beautiful when there are alot of them.

I can't agree with that one.

[Peter1469]

one can provide a quality bee habitat but still have it be an attractive part of your landscape. Besides I like to walk barefooted on my grass. It's a bitch to step on a honey bee. They don't respond well to that.

For some reason a sting by a wasp or yellow jacket does nothing to me, but a honey bee sting bothers the shit out of me for a couple of days.

Honey bee stings do nothing to me. Wasp sticks suck. Yellow jackets really suck. I got hit by a bunch of them moving through the swamps of south east Louisiana.

[Peter1469]

We are flower snobs. Dandelions can be quite beautiful when there are alot of them.

They also taste good on salads.

[PolWatch]

We are fortunate to live in an area with lots of space for wildflowers (some folks call 'em weeds) like spiderwort or dandelion. I like to plant flowers to attract hummingbirds & butterflies so the bees benefit too. Mobile is famous for its azaleas which the bees love. Azalea honey is wonderful!
This is a picture of Bellingrath Gardens in the spring
http://alabamapioneers.com/ap2/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/mobile-azalea.jpg

[Peter1469]

pic?

[Dr. Who]

I can't agree with that one.
You have to see a huge field of them. I agree that they are problematic on one's property, given their method of propagation, although if you were really attentive, you could grow them and nip the flowers before they go to seed. They are a very nice bright yellow. If you regard them as something other than a noxious weed, they are quite attractive. We dislike them because they are successful as plants go. They don't need us to survive.

[Dr. Who]

They also taste good on salads.
My Italian friends can't get enough young dandelion and chicory. They only have the one word for both - chicoria. Same family that also includes endive and radicchio.

[domer76]

France and Italy have banned neonictonoid pesticides and a state in the northeast has as well. I can't recall which.




It seems to me that Maryland is considering it.

[Dr. Who]

Honey bee stings do nothing to me. Wasp sticks suck. Yellow jackets really suck. I got hit by a bunch of them moving through the swamps of south east Louisiana.
I got stung by more than 12 while horseback riding once. One of the horses stepped on a rotten log and the log residents were not at all happy about the destruction of the nest. The only sting that really hurt was the one on the carotid artery in my neck.

[domer76]

Bee life matters and so do the lives of all of the other pollinators in our collective ecosystem. At this time of the year many people are picking up nursery plants. Unfortunately, many of those plants have been sprayed with neonictonoid (nicotine-based) insecticides that have been linked by researchers to a dramatic population decline among the insect world’s most prolific pollinators.

Why should you care? Bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Without bees to pollinate our food, we’d have a third less variety of food to choose from, especially fruit. Chocolate would disappear!

What can people do to offset this ecological disaster? Plant wildflowers, or ensure that your garden plants come from organic nurseries. Planting wildflowers is very cheap and you don't even need a garden, just a window box will help.

Join the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge: http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm

Save the bees!

The neonicotinoids may be getting somewhat of a bad rap. There's as much evidence that certain mites, parasites and viruses are components of colony collapse. Many of the beekeeper a in my area are not convinced that the nicotinoids are the cause. However, I'm sure they don't help the situation.

In the US, many nicotinoids are applied as a drench rather than a spray. That makes it's potential exposure to the bees much less.

[Tahuyaman]

That's because when a honey bee stings, it leaves the stinger in your skin. It is fatal for the honey bee, so you get off better than he. Wasps don't leave their stinger behind and live to sting another day.


I take the stinger out and it makes no difference. While I have no allergy, there's something about the honey bee venom which bothers me. The effects of the sting from a wasp or yellow jacket is gone within a few minutes with me.

Because of my neighbor, I have honey bees all over the place, but I keep them off my grass.

[Tahuyaman]

Honey bee stings do nothing to me. Wasp sticks suck. Yellow jackets really suck. I got hit by a bunch of them moving through the swamps of south east Louisiana.

In Florida during a break in movement (map check), I sat on a nest of Yellowjackets. They went crazy. i was stung maybe 15 or twenty times. After ten minutes, I couldn't even tell.

[Tahuyaman]

You have to see a huge field of them. I agree that they are problematic on one's property, given their method of propagation, although if you were really attentive, you could grow them and nip the flowers before they go to seed. They are a very nice bright yellow. If you regard them as something other than a noxious weed, they are quite attractive. We dislike them because they are successful as plants go. They don't need us to survive.


Maybe you're mistaking them for wild daisies?

[Dr. Who]

I take the stinger out and it makes no difference. While I have no allergy, there's something about the honey bee venom which bothers me. The effects of the sting from a wasp or yellow jacket is gone within a few minutes with me.

Because of my neighbor, I have honey bees all over the place, but I keep them off my grass.
That's probably because the stinger remains in your skin longer. The longer it remains, the more venom you receive. Just the time it takes to find and remove the stinger allows more venom to affect the surrounding tissue. Also, if you don't walk barefoot most of the time, the bottom of your foot can have some of the most sensitive tissue on your body.

[Tahuyaman]

I remove it as quickly as I can.

[Dr. Who]

Maybe you're mistaking them for wild daisies?
No, daisies are not bright yellow, at least in my part of the world. They are white with a yellow center.

http://hd.wallpaperswide.com/thumbs/yellow_dandelion_field-t2.jpg
Tell me that's not pretty.

[Tahuyaman]

No, daisies are not bright yellow, at least in my part of the world. They are white with a yellow center.

http://hd.wallpaperswide.com/thumbs/yellow_dandelion_field-t2.jpg
Tell me that's not pretty.

It's not on my lawn. They might be pretty from a distance, but certainly not up close.

[Dr. Who]

I remove it as quickly as I can.
Which is still seconds or minutes longer than a wasp or yellow jacket sting. I think I've only ever been stung by a honey been once. I used to pick black berries in bushes full of honey bees and never once was stung. They are not terribly volatile unless you step on them, swat at them or threaten the nest.

[Dr. Who]

It's not on my lawn. They might be pretty from a distance, but certainly not up close.How is this any different than any other yellow flower:

http://images.freeimages.com/images/premium/previews/1664/16642123-many-yellow-dandelions-on-green-field.jpg

We dislike them because they invade our lawns and they have tap roots that make them hard to remove. We label any really successful species of plant a weed.

[Tahuyaman]

Which is still seconds or minutes longer than a wasp or yellow jacket sting. I think I've only ever been stung by a honey been once. I used to pick black berries in bushes full of honey bees and never once was stung. They are not terribly volatile unless you step on them, swat at them or threaten the nest.

it only takes time if it's between my toes.

[Tahuyaman]

How is this any different than any other yellow flower:

http://images.freeimages.com/images/premium/previews/1664/16642123-many-yellow-dandelions-on-green-field.jpg
.

the leaves are ugly. Uglier when they go to seed.

[donttread]

Bee life matters and so do the lives of all of the other pollinators in our collective ecosystem. At this time of the year many people are picking up nursery plants. Unfortunately, many of those plants have been sprayed with neonictonoid (nicotine-based) insecticides that have been linked by researchers to a dramatic population decline among the insect world’s most prolific pollinators.

Why should you care? Bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Without bees to pollinate our food, we’d have a third less variety of food to choose from, especially fruit. Chocolate would disappear!

What can people do to offset this ecological disaster? Plant wildflowers, or ensure that your garden plants come from organic nurseries. Planting wildflowers is very cheap and you don't even need a garden, just a window box will help.

Join the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge: http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm

Save the bees!

Mono-culture will screw up everything if we give it enough time. A more diverse and rotated crop plan would also utilize multiple pollinator species for example.
But fear not Monsanto isn't killing off the honey bees for nothing, they're doing it for future profits . In the nick of time they will introduce the honey bee alternatives. Patented of course.
How the hell did we allow a megacorp to patent seed for Christ sake?

[Dr. Who]

Mono-culture will screw up everything if we give it enough time. A more diverse and rotated crop plan would also utilize multiple pollinator species for example.
But fear not Monsanto isn't killing off the honey bees for nothing, they're doing it for future profits . In the nick of time they will introduce the honey bee alternatives. Patented of course.
How the hell did we allow a megacorp to patent seed for Christ sake?Science is now working on developing robo-bees. No doubt if that works out well, Monsanto will also sell those to farmers and that way ensure that nothing can be grown on the planet without their getting paid.

[Ethereal]

Bee life matters and so do the lives of all of the other pollinators in our collective ecosystem. At this time of the year many people are picking up nursery plants. Unfortunately, many of those plants have been sprayed with neonictonoid (nicotine-based) insecticides that have been linked by researchers to a dramatic population decline among the insect world’s most prolific pollinators.

Why should you care? Bee populations are dwindling at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Without bees to pollinate our food, we’d have a third less variety of food to choose from, especially fruit. Chocolate would disappear!

What can people do to offset this ecological disaster? Plant wildflowers, or ensure that your garden plants come from organic nurseries. Planting wildflowers is very cheap and you don't even need a garden, just a window box will help.

Join the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge: http://pollinator.org/million-pollinator-garden-challenge.htm

Save the bees!

Hear-hear!

[Ethereal]

That is fantastic. However, we also need to worry about the non-honey bees, because honey bees are more focused on nectar, whereas other bee species are more focused on pollen, which at the end of the day is what pollinates the plants. We need all of our pollinators to be healthy. Tossing a package of daisy seeds or black-eyed susans in a sunny location, if your property is blessed with a sunny location, will help out all of our pollinators to rebuild their populations. Wild flowers are just as attractive as any other flowers, so if we can devote a little space to the flowers that attract our flying friends, we can really help change the current dynamic.

Do you have a garden?

I grew up in a neighborhood that was in the midst of a nature preserve - wildlife was ubiquitous, to include pollinating insects. There were plenty of flowers on the property, both cultivated and wild. One tip for people would be to try and position pollinator-specific flowers in a place where humans and other animals don't heavily traffic. It's easier for everyone that way.

[Dr. Who]

the leaves are ugly. Uglier when they go to seed.
Yet people raise ornamental thistle.

[Dr. Who]

I grew up in a neighborhood that was in the midst of a nature preserve - wildlife was ubiquitous, to include pollinating insects. There were plenty of flowers on the property, both cultivated and wild. One tip for people would be to try and position pollinator-specific flowers in a place where humans and other animals don't heavily traffic. It's easier for everyone that way.
Nice quiet corners of the property or areas that are just for looking are certainly best.

[Tahuyaman]

Yet people raise ornamental thistle.

it takes all kinds. A friend of mine in Georgia built a trellis for kudzu.

[Peter1469]

It seems to me that Maryland is considering it.

That may have been who I was thinking off. If so, they passed it last week.

[Peter1469]

In Florida during a break in movement (map check), I sat on a nest of Yellowjackets. They went crazy. i was stung maybe 15 or twenty times. After ten minutes, I couldn't even tell.


I felt them all. Like a cattle prod. Unfortunately inner thighs and that region.

[Ethereal]

No, daisies are not bright yellow, at least in my part of the world. They are white with a yellow center.

http://hd.wallpaperswide.com/thumbs/yellow_dandelion_field-t2.jpg
Tell me that's not pretty.

Nature is the world's most prolific artist.

[Dr. Who]

it takes all kinds. A friend of mine in Georgia built a trellis for kudzu.
That's what happens when you introduce an aggressive non-native species to a place where it has no enemies or competition. It gets out of control. If one were to deliberately grow it, the roots need to be confined or it will spread everywhere.

[Tahuyaman]

I felt them all. Like a cattle prod. Unfortunately inner thighs and that region.

when you sit on them, there's pretty much one vulnerable area.

[Dr. Who]

Nature is the world's most prolific artist.
It's funny that most of us appreciate the beauty of nature, but when it comes to our own yards, we want them to look as unnatural as possible - a veritable extension of carpet and decorations.

[Dr. Who]

I felt them all. Like a cattle prod. Unfortunately inner thighs and that region.
Ouch. There is a reason for all that yellow in insects - it means caution.

[Ethereal]

It's funny that most of us appreciate the beauty of nature, but when it comes to our own yards, we want them to look as unnatural as possible - a veritable extension of carpet and decorations.

I often wonder how much waste and inefficiency certain forms of landscaping create for society. If instead of growing and maintaining cut lawns, people tried to grow a diverse set of edible and pollinating plants on their soil, how much more improved would our food supply and our health be? I tend to suspect substantially so.

[Dr. Who]

I often wonder how much waste and inefficiency certain forms of landscaping create for society. If instead of growing and maintaining cut lawns, people tried to grow a diverse set of edible and pollinating plants on their soil, how much more improved would our food supply and our health be? I tend to suspect substantially so.
Vegetable plants can be pretty as well. I agree, we should integrate both in our landscaping and virtually eliminate grass, which is both extremely high maintenance, requires excessive amounts of water to look good and looks hideous if it dries out, and is terribly prone to the predations of subterranean insects. It was great in England with their rainfall - not so much here where the temps are liable to get into the high eighties or greater for very prolonged periods of time with little precipitation.

[Tahuyaman]

It's funny that most of us appreciate the beauty of nature, but when it comes to our own yards, we want them to look as unnatural as possible - a veritable extension of carpet and decorations.


Theres nothing wrong with having a nice, weed free lawn.

[Mister D]

I rarely water my lawn.

[Tahuyaman]

I rarely water my lawn.

I keep my mower on the longest setting. The lawn needs less water that way.

[Dr. Who]

Theres nothing wrong with having a nice, weed free lawn.
I'm really not all that enamoured with them. Properties look far more interesting with the greater proportion of the landscape devoted to perennials, shrubs and trees. Think country garden with vegetables and herbs tastefully integrated into the landscape.

[Ethereal]

Theres nothing wrong with having a nice, weed free lawn.

I'm not trying to force anyone to get rid of their lawn, but there are good alternatives to that paradigm that I would encourage people to try.

[Dr. Who]

I'm not trying to force anyone to get rid of their lawn, but there are good alternatives to that paradigm that I would encourage people to try.
The English brought their landscaping choices with them, but America is not England. It doesn't, for the most part have the same rainfall. People should really stop trying to pound square pegs into round holes and choose environmentally friendly landscaping which in the long run is far less labor intensive and doesn't depend on both herbicides and pesticides to look good.

[Tahuyaman]

I'm really not all that enamoured with them. Properties look far more interesting with the greater proportion of the landscape devoted to perennials, shrubs and trees. Think country garden with vegetables and herbs tastefully integrated into the landscape.

you can have both.

[Tahuyaman]

I'm not trying to force anyone to get rid of their lawn, but there are good alternatives to that paradigm that I would encourage people to try.

there are, but I love having a nice deep green lawn.

[MisterVeritis]

I often wonder how much waste and inefficiency certain forms of landscaping create for society. If instead of growing and maintaining cut lawns, people tried to grow a diverse set of edible and pollinating plants on their soil, how much more improved would our food supply and our health be? I tend to suspect substantially so.
Small farming. It is amazing what one can grow in a very small space.

[Mister D]

I keep my mower on the longest setting. The lawn needs less water that way.

I usually cut it pretty short too.

[donttread]

It's funny that most of us appreciate the beauty of nature, but when it comes to our own yards, we want them to look as unnatural as possible - a veritable extension of carpet and decorations.

Not only that but in many places if you don't conform to their opinion of the right length for your grass the local government will take action against you.
In Colorado you cannot collect rain water but Coors pumps millions of gallons a year out of the ground and ships it away from it's water shed.

[Dr. Who]

Not only that but in many places if you don't conform to their opinion of the right length for your grass the local government will take action against you.
In Colorado you cannot collect rain water but Coors pumps millions of gallons a year out of the ground and ships it away from it's water shed.
Not being able to legally collect rainwater is utterly bizarre. What is the argument behind it?

[donttread]

Not being able to legally collect rainwater is utterly bizarre. What is the argument behind it?

I believe the argument is ironically enough, that it takes water out of the water table.

[Dr. Who]

I believe the argument is ironically enough, that it takes water out of the water table.
That's just nuts. There is no way that even if all of the homeowners put a barrel under the downspout that they would make a dent in the amount of rainfall that returns to the waterways. The government doesn't own the rainfall- they didn't create it. I hope that someone is challenging this in the courts. This law is one short step from taxing the air that you breathe.

[Tahuyaman]

Not being able to legally collect rainwater is utterly bizarre. What is the argument behind it?

in the city in which I live, it is a violation of a city ordinance to construct a rainwater containment system. No one can explain why. I built one anyway. What are they going to do about it? I can give them some directions if they don't like it.

Its particularly puzzling as this is the pacific northwest where rain is not exactly a rare occurrence.

[Dr. Who]

in the city in which I live, it is a violation of a city ordinance to construct a rainwater containment system. No one can explain why. I built one anyway. What are they going to do about it? I can give them some directions if they don't like it.

Its particularly puzzling as this is the pacific northwest where rain is not exactly a rare occurrence.
It's insane. If you are collecting rainwater, it is to water your plants and that water will still return to the environment one way or another. Furthermore it is an environmentally friendly way of watering your plants. You are not taxing the water treatment facilities. The only thing that I can ask is whether your municipality is selling water? That is the only possible reason for this kind of draconian law.