6 Ways You Can Help to Save the Bees
Help the declining pollinator population and become a champion of the bees. Bees are big business. These unsung heroes of the planet work hard to keep our food web running.
One in three bites of the food we eat is courtesy of pollination, and 85 percent of flowering plants and trees depend on pollinators for survival. Bees are famous for producing honey, but their most important function is the pollination of crops.
A third of the food we eat depends on pollinating insects, such as zucchini, apricots, almonds, cilantro, canola oil, and more. A world without pollinators would not only be devastating for food production, but it would also have a huge economic impact.
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The global economic value of bee pollination work has been estimated to be around $ 306.4 billion annually. They are obviously important bees.
However, it's not just the economy and our food that we need to focus on. All pollinating insects play a fundamental role in ecosystems.
Native bees may not pollinate our crops as much, but they do pollinate wild plants, which are important to the broader ecosystem, creating food and habitats for other animals and insects. In essence, all bee populations are declining and it is important to help save them.
A difficult situation
Many people are concerned about the decline in bee populations. Since 2006, Colony Collapse Disorder has wiped out nearly 3 million hives.
According to the Center for Globalization Research in Montreal, Canada, the bee population has dropped by more than 30 percent. Additionally, many of the 4,000 native bee species are in decline, some on the brink of extinction. What happened?
"All bee species face similar stressors: malnutrition due to lack of flowers or monoculture, exposure to pesticides, parasites, and disease," said Phyllis Stiles, director of Bee City USA, a certification program that helps populations of pollinators.
"It is important to understand this pollinator-plant relationship because it directly affects our diet."
What can gardeners do to help our bees?
1. Create nesting and hibernation points for pollinators. "Seventy percent of bee species nest on the ground," says Phyllis. "Reserving areas of dry, bare, undisturbed soil provides them with places to raise their young in early spring."
2. The remaining 30% of native bees nest in tunnels, so build a bee hotel, pictured above, a structure with narrow, stacked tubes that mimics the natural rooms of a bee. Avoid placing the bee hotel in the shade, as it can attract unwanted wasps.
3. Leave some stumps and dead wood in your yard for the bees to tunnel and live. Simply drill holes in raw woodblocks for the bee habitat. All nesting sites are oriented to the southeast. Bees like to warm up in the morning before going out to collect pollen.
4. "Plant native plants, trees, and shrubs, trim lawns, and enlarge the natural areas of your yard," says Phyllis.
5. Grow a PC garden (pollinator conscious) by removing pesticides or using safer ones like Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Choose plants from local nurseries that do not treat the seeds with neonicotinoid pesticides, which kill all insects by attacking the central nervous system.
6. And become an advocate: Petition for a community or school garden, and campaign to have native plants in public spaces.
We hope you enjoy this video about 8 practical ways to save the bees:
Source: Goodful
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Last update on 2025-02-18 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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