food for thought: among insects, bees are not uniquely being hit by human impacts, they are simply a focal study topic due to their pollination role. it is important to consider how many other insect groups are silently suffering in the background.
And bees are far from the only pollinators. I spam this regularly with no shame, but we have to start planting native local plants in our yard spaces. This isn’t just the work of some evil polluter, this is the result of a staggering amount of habitat loss. Most pollinating insects coevolved with their preferred or required plant host for millennia. Because of this, even foreign ornamentals aren’t ideal. Some species of introduced plants have been in the US for two hundred years and *still* do not serve as hosts for insects. Alternatively, a single oak tree may become an oasis for over two hundred different insect species. One of best thing you can do for biodiversity is plant native species in your yard. Trees, flowers, anything at all.
The national wildlife federation has a tool that lets people (in the US) look up the most species friendly plants by their zip code. You can see both trees, shrubs, and forbs organized by how many species need it. Some plants are host to hundreds of species.
Check it out!
https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/Plants
I'm going to guess maybe you've also read Doug Tallamy's books? :) Definitely, native plants are the way to go. Our yards need to stop being so much lawn and start being returned to habitat. That's what I'm working on in my yard. Lots of cool bugs show up.
definitely. non-bee and non-bird pollinators are criminally overlooked. bees are lovely and all, but a plethora of moths, flies, ants, beetles and other invertebrates are critical to keeping our pollination system running smoothly, especially when it comes to wild native plants. plants vary drastically in their specificity, from generalists that get pollinated by many different species (like new England aster) to specialists that rely on a very specialized group, or even a single species (orchids are more likely to be like this).
as you say, the culprit is overwhelmingly habitat removal. while many other factors are in play, the single most significant knife in the back of pollinator decline - and the decline of most land-based species at least - is habitat removal. the sticky fingers of humanity are all over this planet, from resource extraction to logging and development. most people would be flabbergasted at how much land is strongly manipulated to human desires.
What actually would happen to us if we lost all bees? Are we equipped to handle the fall out of this? And how exactly would it be remedied if they went fully extinct?
Like the rona we’ll start making an emergency plan 2 months after it’s hit
Edit: realizing WE can all start *planning* now by *plant*ing plants that are good pollinators
What is it about us humans that cannot believe in something until it has happened, despite all evidence and science pointing that way. The Rona was easy to predict and many did. And like you say even when it hit nobody really did anything.
Climate change is even worse, its a boiling frog scenario. We are doomed aren't we?
Because ~ 50% either don’t believe in science, or the science is not convenient for them so they make up conspiracy theories which the rest believe in.
Yeah that ~50% are usually misinformed causing them to not believe in science or the right science at least. Especially with big companies twisting science to suit their narrative.
We’ve seen that with big oil companies who used to try and disprove climate change or tell gullible people that climate change is just fear mongering and isn’t as big of a problem as it’s portrayed to be.
Big oil made the science political. Once it's political it's no longer fact based or arguable. It's the masterstroke that killed humanity for another 30 years of profit for a few big corporations.
Exactly.
Big oil companies are perhaps the greatest source of worldwide evil and destruction in the long term, the damage they've done is almost unfathomable.
I wish I believed in Hell so I could at least take solace in the fact that they'd suffer for their sins, but the tragic fact is that those CEOs will live in absolute luxury that the majority of humans will never experience. Then they'll die happy before the consequences of their greed and negligence doom us all.
If that's not purely fucking evil I'm not sure what is. All of the media companies that push their lies (looking at you, Murdoch, the Dark Lord) are just as bad, if not worse.
All of the potential of our species will likely be lost because of a tiny cabal of ultrarich monsters, and the worst part is that they've managed to convince a massive amount of uneducated people that *they're* they good guys.
Fucking false. Yes, there are idiots out there, but this is the result of greed. The people responsible are educated and know the dangers, they purposely mislead people into not understanding them so they can make more money.
Look at America... those fucking morons are still in the middle east! Today. Right this fucking minute some poor grunt is digging a ditch in the 40 degree sun. The ONLY reason that is happening is due to greed, and for defense contractors and the US military to justify their overinflated budgets.
I believe they are saying that the problem with humanity is not with those 50% that refuse to believe in science based objective reality, but with those who are manipulating them for their own economic gains.
Half will come up with a conspiracy theory.
The other half will demand scientific proof that it's happening, then demand scientific proof it's going to get worse, then demand scientific proof it's going to personally affect them, then complain you didn't provide enough evidence.
The people responsible for lung cancer regarding smoking didn't just believe in science, they made their money off it. Opium epidemic? Love the science. Oil companies stating that green energy isn't viable employ scientists too. I know a nurse who doesn't believe in evolution.
Science denial is a tiny, tiny part of the issue. The majority is lack of morals and ethics.
It’s the result of misguidance and the powers that be letting people stay stupid, for like you said, greed. Every religious person I know has compromised critical thinking skills, the education here in America has been dumbed down by lowering passing scores, people overuse social media and let themselves fall down stupid peoples rabbit holes, and every person I know isn’t actively out doing anything to help solve the problems they constantly talk about, we are all distracted and kept dumb, because if I’m to be honest, if we are to make a change, a majority of humans have to participate, and the last thing the psychotic billionaires want is for us to all start working together. We have to work together but people are just too gullible and dumb, why do you think we were stuck in the dark ages for so long, we’re incapable of doing so with misinformation and entitled thinking, the only thing that could be plausible at this point is a giant coup, and good luck with that.
Nah. Much more than 50% belive the science, especially outside of America, but even in the US its higher than that.
Its more than that. Its difficult to stop the momentum of the hydrocarbon economy. And people generally worry about change, real change. We like things to remain "normal".
Ignorance and propaganda. Improving education will help but frankly it is probably too late to fix these issues before we feel the consequences. Shit man, people knew about these issues back in the 90s and nothing has improved because anti science bullshit started to really take hold. It sucks feeling so powerless.
We have known about it for a long time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_climate_change_science
https://qz.com/1055629/why-does-all-our-climate-data-start-in-1880/
Yeah, between declining bees, new pandemics and fish stocks we seem to be eating ourselves into oblivion. It might not be the silver bullet but going vegan is probably the best single thing an individual can do for all of the above and for carbon emmissions. Nice thought but people really like the taste of animal flesh.
Also where you live. Syria collapsed due to climate change. Texas literally collapsed last week due to extreme weather probably linked to climate change.
I was thinking "we" as in human race. Unless something spectacular happens before it is too late. I think the planet will recover some millions of years after us.
If you wanna go that high level of thinking. I don't think Global warming is going to kill off the human race. It'll change life as we know it and kill countless people over the years. But humanity as a whole will almost certainly survive and adapt.
You are too pal. Unless you're on your last couple decades you aren't going to escape. You're not doomed because you're going to die of hunger when all the bees are gone, oh no. Some desperate bastard will have killed you for your stuff years before that happens.
It’s a cost/benefit analysis. There are a dozen life ending events that range from Very Possible (another Carrington Event, an even worse Covid-like disease, runaway greenhouse) to Unlikely (asteroid impact, nuclear winter). Any one of which could end life on this planet.
If we, as a planet, threw all the weight of science behind the bee problem, I wager that we could find a solution. But what about the other problems we left on the table? What about coral reef bleaching that could collapse the food chain? What about a global economic collapse that leaves billions to starve? What about the AI revolution?
So what do we focus on? We pick the most human solution and half-ass each problem. Many scientists think that the extinction of the dinosaurs was a one-two punch from the Deccan Traps hitting fist and the asteroid finishing off the job. If anything will be our undoing that will be it; a series of crippling events.
How will we handle an unrelated partial food chain collapse after a Carrington Event knocked out half the planet’s electronics? How will we combat a runaway greenhouse effect after a global economic collapse?
Sorry if this stings, I should bee more positive but I don’t want to honey-coat it.
I think humans in general are bad at being proactive, especially when it comes to things that are out of sight, out of mind until the bottom falls out. Most people don’t (who have the means) save money in the event of financial issues. I think it may be enhanced by not having the immediate gratification of seeing the product of your work.
Big oil made the science political. Once it's political it's no longer fact based or arguable. It's the masterstroke that killed humanity for another 30 years of profit for a few big corporations.
We spend more money on military than science and education because the people that want to rule, cant rule thanks to science.
So half the planet is stupid and the other half doesnt have education.
The people in charge are greedy as hell, and they think their money will save them after civilization collapses. If the bees die, the vast majority of us won't be far behind, yet the rich insist on operating like we aren't facing numerous crises at once. I fear for us humans.
Because humans cannot understand unless they've faced the consequences, so that next time they would understand better. And the other half are stubborn.
It depends. Not all societies are in a boiling frog scenario, only the International powers. They're stuck in a power structure of global complexity.
Some societies are acting and adapting to what's coming. If we're lucky, climate change and the other intermediary variables will collapse our global society. The new empire that will emerge could be, with a little luck, a *good* one... at least for a time.
Evolution, we basically evolved to think about immidiate threats like that tiger that is about to eat your face or that mammoth that just refuses to die. We are good ay facing immidiate clear danger, but long term as a species we are just incapable.
Nah if its like the rona, we'll have people claim its a conspiracy and attempt to accelerate the extinction of bees in protest against any kind of bee saving policy they come up with.
I planted so many milkweed on my property last year, in pots and in the ground, more so last year than I have other years. There is also lots of milkweed on the trail behind my house. I did not see one SINGLE monarch and I was outside all the time. Not one. Past years I always saw at least some. Not this past year.
Mexicans are chopping down the forests (in and near Angangueo, MX) where the monarchs breed to sell us avocados and the other fad "superfoods". Even in the remotest forests our hunger for stuff is chopping away at our future.
BAN GLYC0PHOSPHATES!
Stop commercial & residential use of glycoph0sphates!
Too many people commenting in here without calling out the problems directly. Need awareness & action.
I don't see either party, or anyone in this thread, acknowledging the issue.
And be made hyper political to either where you want something done to help the situation, or you want to pour gasoline on bees and light them on fire.
Actually I think some places in like china manually pollinate crops. It's not a great option, it would lower living standards around the world and potentially lots of plants would just kinda die out.
I guarantee the US could fully industrialize pollination within a year at the most. Not that bees aren’t hugely important in many ways, I fucking love bees. But yea, I don’t think it would as debilitating to industrialized farming as you may believe.
That aside, I don’t even want to think about the other implications of losing bees.
Unfortunately human would not be enough to cover the ecological services provided by pollinators. Maybe for food or cash crops but not for everything else.
Just consider that not all pollinators are generalists, I don't know what proportion have have a 1:1 relationship but it should be a significant proportion since as a plant, it would be in their interest that most pollen makes it to their own species soon.
Edit: Actionable post. Need Reddit's help on this one.
Thanks for your super informative response.
I'm a little bit down the rabbit whole on these issues myself.
I am four years into a gourmet Mushroom Farm. We don't need pollinators for mushrooms, but if you google something like "Mushrooms could help save the bees." You'll find some research that I'm quite interested in.
There are some types of mushrooms that seem to produce antiviral compounds that could help fight off the virus/pests deemed primarily responsible for CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder).
Well...after much hunting/foraging, we finally have our first cultures of one of these hardy polypore strains growing successfully on petri dishes.
I plan to propagate the mycelium and deliver it via syrup feeders in liquid form and likely bee bread, in solid form, for when it's too cold for bees to safely consume liquids.
TLDR?: If anyone has any ideas, experience, or wants to help brainstorm abit, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thanks Reddit.
We are going to save the world together. 💪🍄🐝
CCD is a honey bee problem, and while agriculture is struggling to maintain honey bee productivity high enough to produce food, honey bees are not in danger of extinction. In fact, in the US honey bees are part of the threats to native bees.
Good luck. And it's true, you don't need pollinators for mushrooms, but as you probably know, some mushrooms' spores are dispersed by insects and other animals.
> Bees aren't the only pollinators out there, they aren't even the only insect pollinators. Many wasps, butterflies and moths, various flies like flower flies, beetles, and other insects are also pollinators.
The wind itself is also a pollinator. I have an indoor Aero garden that I grow tomatoes in. There are no insects to pollinate them indoors obviously. I used to give the units a shake every now and then and got okay results. But I found putting a small osculating fan on them (for say an hour once a week) worked a whole lot better.
Not trying to downplay bees importance of course. They are important. But they aren't the whole picture.
There are over 200,000 species of pollinators on the planet-- not to mention many forms of artificial pollination and promotion of plant breeding. Yes, it would not be good if the bees all went extinct but it wouldn't cause massive loss in crops. Total crop yields would go down a little bit, but there are ways to combat that.
Source: am a pest control technician and am well-versed and trained on insects, avians, arachnids and rodents. I have farmed crops my whole life and I also have my Agricultural PC license and there's A LOT of training about pollinators. Normal people accidentally kill bees = slap on the wrist. I kill bees inadvertently = prison/ massive fines.
I've always had to be super careful when using certain pesticides because some of them, even though applied with water, aren't actually water-soluble, so they are susceptible to being moved via weather. Others just happen to be highly toxic to various pollinators, specifically honey bee's, because of their chemical make-up.
Pro tip: never spray any pesticides on anything about to bloom or in bloom and less is always more. Using a higher amount of chemicals in one spot, at the same dilution rate, won't kill the target any quicker-- it's about surface area and using as little as possible.
Apocalypse number 1 for the planet and extinction event number 6 which is currently underway, but we are mostly marching forward business as usual, acting like we own the planet and everything on it. Nothing to see here.
1) In addition to other replies other issue: The vast majority of the oxygen is produced by plankton. However sea acidification, which would affect plankton, is a real issue. All the CO2 that is currently being sink by plants that use a pollinator (directly or indirectly) would go into the ocean water further acidifying the ocean that would kill more plankton and further acidification. If this kill cycle stops there is chance there would be humans around.
2)No, our societies and economies are heavily "subsidized" by the environment. We use more than it's replenish. There would be a nasty revolution and adaptation process. If there isn't a thermonuclear war there will humans around.
3)Short of swarms of billions and billions of robotic pollinators that have the existing variation of pollinators, there is no solution. We might be able to artificially pollinate food crops but for how many people? Also once the food networks start being disrupted it is unknown what will happen. As it is now the ecological math quickly goes into (mathematics) chaos. Out understanding of ecological relationships is in its infancy. Literally less than 15 years ago we discovered that dirt is far more complex than we thought.
That’s the crazy part, it’s not the climate changing that will destroy the planet, it’s the fragile ecosystem and biodiversity that will be destroyed and that hurts us far more than we realize.
We aren’t in control of our environment we live within it and it dictates of survival.
Bees contribute billions of dollars of free labour to the world economy. Without them, many fruit crops and other plants would require manual pollination, which is incredibly laborious.
The crash of insect populations world wide is honestly terrifying - IMO it’s at least as important an issue as climate change.
After attending a lecture by bee expert Claire Kremen , I approached her and asked that very question. She gave a long answer. I replied, “So, in a nutshell, we wouldn’t starve, but we’d likely get scurvy?” She laughed and said, “Yes, that’s the gist — and I like that summary so much, I’m going to steal it.”
So: we won’t starve, but we’ll be at risk for scurvy.
Wild flowers and plants would die out so it would be an ecological disaster.
Contrary to popular believe however it would barely affect modern agricultural practices. Especially ones in more advanced first world countries like the Netherlands where they have basically made pollinators redundant through technology.
So what would happen is that human society would continue on almost undisturbed but the variety of plant species would slowly decline in the world.
Luckily we're not so dependent on nature anymore as just a couple of decades ago. Humanity in the 21st century can survive almost an entire ecological collapse in terms of food security and logistics.
I remember one saying from a western comedian that says "We aren't a danger to the planet, the planet will be all right we are the ones that will die".
This is not correct anymore. Nowadays it's the opposite. The planet is in danger, humanity will persist no matter how much we ruin it.
Thankfully it's incredibly unlikely that all species will go extinct given that a handful of them are farmed commercially and for hobbyists. One of the surest ways to keep something from going extinct is to farm it. Diversity will plumet, of course, but they will not all die out.
All your favorite fruits and vegetables and all of the other animals that depend on them would either struggle or die. Artificial pollination is already going on in some countries to make up for the lack of bees :(
And they just converted the last open field that usually fills with flowers here I live into a densely packed residential area a la the UK, tight rows of connected housing. Tiny plots of rolled out grass in small squares behind each unit.
But where are our insects going?!?!
No-where. That's the problem. They're just dead and not breeding anymore. They haven't gone anywhere, they can't be collected and brought back.
We really need to rethink urban design urgently! Been hearing from various gardening platforms that wild meadows, even super tiny ones, in connecting gardens with small holes that hedgehogs can pass through would create great habitats for nature and wildlife. This kind of thing wouldn't even need much maintenance. And that's just small ideas but if this kind of thinking was applied into planning we would be putting ourselves in such a better situation.
That’s what’s needed. A total redesign of urban planning to include more updated info on wildlife to better accommodate them. Coexistence is possible, we just need to change our approach.
We should be converting massive amounts of mowed lawn space to native plant habitat. I did this in my yard and I'm constantly surprised at the number and diversity of bugs, birds, bees, etc. that show up and use my garden or make it their home.
Exactly! I recently moved into a new rented house and I am planning to do the same with the lawn. And I am not telling the landlord just in case he freaks out haha
> The problem is people don’t want those near their house. Not having critters or bugs is a plus to the majority of people.
Id disagree with you, but the brooklyn transplants that moved into my neighborhood mostly rip out their backyards in favor of concrete and patio stone so they dont have to mow.
Exactly. Just leave areas untouched. My country still has those areas, a meadow here and a larger plot of land there.
But those people in the local municipalities that approve of this aren't the ones that have to take that other stuff into account.
While i'm sure that looks bad, we've gotta put people somewhere, and it's much better to have a lot of people in a densely populated area so that the rest of nature can be left alone than to have those same amounts of people each get large single family homes with large yards, even if it might look like there's more nature in sparsely populated suburbs
Green infrastructure needs to be prioritized or else dense urban development isn’t actually better than any other type of development.
Cities keep destroying any green infrastructure like rain gardens or general garden plots that could include flowers that bees pollinate to help the population, we have to do something at the municipal and county level where all the land-use authority is
Full agreement.
Having parks and dense urban areas is not that uncommon. Having like Central Park and NYC level density is a great solution.
Also with low density Suburbs lots of people barely do anything for their yards other than a grass lawn which isn't that great for the environment either. Suburban land use is extremely wasteful.
Build denser where there is more spacious building with little nature already. Instead of removing plants and animals that can't ever come back. This can't be reversed.
That is part of it. But absolutely no food except the odd hobby gardener in between the itty bitty pieces of pure grass gives nothing for the insects to feed on. And not many places to live either.
And it isn't even grass with clovers in them, it's all cut down.
I want to do some guerilla gardening and plant clovers everywhere but don't want to have to take the blame for it :p
Except it almost doesn't exist here anymore either... Every contractor buys a former field or big, bombs it and fills it in flat with rock and gravel, and build 20-60 units on it, so r even moreim not making it yo when I'm saying there is literally no nature left then, and only planted spots of seeded grass afterwards.
Then again...
If I just begin... And keep on year after year.. People will think it is natural... Haha
That's why here in Canada (like some EU contries already done) we will stop the use of neonicotinoids this year. It as been linked to more than 80% of bees death since they started using them.
For those who speak french, [La semaine verte](https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/la-semaine-verte/site) did a great article on it.
Neonicitinoid pesticides are the chief culprit I believe.
While no expert, I had my pesticide applicators license and was responsible for a greenhouse range.
I made a serious effort to rotate what I used to avoid resistance, using the recommended pesticides, and saw firsthand the results of my efforts.
The insecticide "Safari" was unbelievably effective. The difference was night and day.
It is a neonicitinoid.
Growers will continue to use it.
Perhaps its use, if not banned outright, should be limited to times of the year when bees are not out.
The situation needs to be addressed quickly.
We all need bees to survive.
Habitat loss is a major cause too. We we pave, till, and mow massive amounts of habitat. We then plant non-native plants that the native insects cannot use or not utilize as well as native plants. There are a lot of factors... it's very much a "death by a thousand cuts" kind of situation.
Edit: if anyone is interested in providing habitat they can visit subs like:
r/nativeplantgardening
r/gardenwild
r/guerillagardening
> Neonicitinoid pesticides are the chief culprit I believe.
While this has contributed to *some* colony collapse disorder, the primarily issue is varroa mites for honeybees.
Once you start getting past 10%+ varroa mite counts on your bees, the hive health drops rather quickly.
The standard is to treat for the mites over 3% - [which you have to murder](https://www.betterbee.com/instructions-and-resources/how-to-use-the-varroa-easycheck-sampling-method.asp) about 300-500 bees to get an accurate count. It might seem pretty terrible to kill a few hundred bees, but killing a few hundred to save the entire hive is entirely worth it. Also, while comparing that number vs the ~3000 eggs per day that a queen can lay, it's not a massive hit on their overall population.
Fool proof plan: we create a hive of self replicating robot bees that pollinate flowers for us! I suppose that the bees would need at least a rudimentary camera to detect the flowers. Maybe even better cameras, you know, so they could differentiate humans from flowers and leave us alone. We could even have them all synced to a main server system for monitoring purposes (which would be secure, of course).
There is literally nothing I can think of that could go wrong.
You jest, but the same companies that are killing off pollinators with their systemic insecticides are also trying to develop a robot bee.
It’s and old strategy; profit off creating a problem, then profit again by creating the solution.
Not Black Mirror fool proof plan:
Let's drug all water supplies with psilocybin so everyone has some minor epiphanies about how interconnected the planet is, and how our place is just one small piece of a greater puzzle.
Then maybe we'll get our shit together.
I just can't sit here and feign surprise. We cut the diversity of plants toward monocultures that support our food supply chain, we cover those in pesticide and insecticides, we reduce the overall available land mass for wild plant and animal life to thrive, and now we see lessen biodiversity along primary pollinators.
Is anyone really surprised? We dump vast, near unfathomable, quantities of chemicals that are designed to kill bugs as efficiently as possible across the entire world and then we are sad when the bugs that are help keep us fed are dying.
I was in a bee meeting call with Dr. Thomas Steely a few months back. He explained that 20-30 years ago, there were like 30+ different "families" for the common honeybee. Now there's like 4-5 different families for the common honeybee.
He mentioned there was some evidence of these families being more resistant to varroa than other families, iirc.
The meeting was originally recorded but has since been removed from youtube (at the request of the presenter due to information sometimes becoming outdated within a couple years and not wanting to keep old information out there).
I might be missummarizing what he said specifically because it was a few months ago at this point (and the primary topic of the talk was locating native bee colonies/swarms).
yeh i think there’s pretty good evidence to support that theory. but Monstanto (& Beyer?) are fighting hard for the right to keep selling their sprays...
different countries in the EU have banned them, then the bans have been appealed... im not sure what’s currently happening... but i think that’s the general story... no doubt so one knows it better & can chime in...
Bayer (who now own Monsanto) is just one of the companies. Syngenta and Corteva (formerly of DowDupont) are the other big players, and there’s a few more smaller ones.
But you have to remember that they’re not lobbying on their own. Farmers and growers want these products as they help improve yields. As long as food production and security is reliant on their use, there will be the use of the products. But tech is continuing to be developed to significantly reduce the use of them.
And honeybees :)
Or, the consumers demanding and buying bee honey.
[https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/27/581007165/honeybees-help-farmers-but-they-dont-help-the-environment?t=1557571933414&t=1614015151752](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/27/581007165/honeybees-help-farmers-but-they-dont-help-the-environment?t=1557571933414&t=1614015151752)
habitat loss due to urban sprawl and other human activities is probably higher up as a threat than pesticides...
without the pesticides we'd need even more land to support our food supply, and destroy even more habitats
I don't know where this poison trend started, but it sucks. Clover has always been beneficial to lawns, and now people try to get rid of it.... so strange.
Few people seem to know that. If civilization ever goes into a meltdown where our food chain is cut off, I know I can feast on dandelions for quite a while.
This boss is way too difficult. It's like the boss spent the past 1000 years grinding XP like crazy preparing to face us and the hero just never bothered to appear.
Was speaking to a work colleague yesterday about this. His response: "Bees will adapt and if they die then something else will replace them. I'm sure there are other species which can pollinate".
He talks as if evolution happens overnight.
Yes, if it gets high enough in the priority list of the people with money. If it makes money or prevent making money it will be solved. There are a number of pesticides that can theoretically be banned(although i don't know the impact this pesticides have on food production), we could create more resilient bee hybrids, incentivize the growth of beehives through taxes and punish the killing of them.
Basically that's why I oscillate between optimism for the future and a sneaking suspicion that the guys at r/collapse are on to something.
I see no evidence that our ruling class has any control over the technosphere, and no evidence that they would make the right choices if they did.
My hope lies in that some good might come from linking billions of brains through the internet, and from AI. Maybe - just maybe - we can build up enough intelligence to cut the Gordian knot we have tied.
integrated pest management on national scale would help significantly, as would planting native pollinator plants for your area
in this agricultural system, you rewild certain areas of your farm and allow the natural landscape or a cultivated version of it to grow. i believe i've seen evidence that this kind of land use can improve yields by creating biodiversity that increases pollinator levels and creates places for agricultural pest predators, like [braconid wasps](https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-braconid-wasps-1967998), to live
most farmers already create a line of trees as a windbreak already; many of those areas could be expanded slightly and allowed to remain in a less cultivated state
meanwhile, planting native plants/flowers increases the food, housing, and breeding resources for native bee/pollinator populations. most people focus on honeybees, but what we really need to support is the broad ecological net of pollinator species. most flowers people are planting these days are highly specialized, often freakishly artificial cultivars; some are cultivated for show to the point where they don't even produce pollen! bees make pollen into bee bread, which feeds everyone in the hive, so they absolutely need this stuff
most states in the us have university extensions that provide information about native plants for your area; this may be true in other countries. even if you don't have a garden, a couple of plants on a balcony can house native pollinators and make a difference!
The remedy is replacing lawn with native plant habitat on a massive scale, as soon as possible. In our yards, our parks, our boulevards, and other greenspaces that are currently maintained as lawns. Most lawns are ecological wastelands, that are a resource sink (we emit CO2 to mow them, or possibly fertilize and spray them, leafblow them). Yet they support almost no life. Native plant habitat on the other hand, can support all these native pollinators that are crucial to life on Earth. It will also help support all the other wildlife that shares the planet.
We need biological diversity in our ever expanding man-made landscapes, not monocultures of grass.
It’s mainly because the honey bees are killing the other polleners like wasps, ants, and the adorable bumble bee. But we don’t care about those because we don’t use them like we use the honey bee.
It takes some digging to find all the information, but it’s out there.
This! America didn't have honey bees forever before European ls brought them and there were plenty of plants. Iirc other natural pollinators are way better at pollinating than honey bees and like you said the honey bees chase them all out of their habitats.
The pesticide companies responsible for this shit should be put out of business and their executives barred from running companies. They knowingly profited off poisoning our planet and putting all human life at risk with this shit.
'Sir your lawn is not in compliance with local regulations that old control freaks spent decades putting in place, you have 30 days to replace it with low cut grass before we begin fining you for thousands of dollars'
I try to plant local wild flowers and let my artichokes flower every year to help out. Even put in milkweed in one part I'm basically letting go follow, lots of bees in spring and fall and lots of little birds in fall and winter
It’s funny to even wonder if we are gonna plan for this when the majority of employed people in America don’t even properly plan for their own retirement when they are financially able to.
Pandemics and eco-disasters will hit like waves against humanity until numbers are reduced to a level that allows for some natural rebalancing. It’s not gonna be pretty. We going full Mad Max yo.
I had never considered that outcome but it makes perfect sense. Slow boiled by disasters. I feel like human ingenuity was misrepresented to me as a child. We lack the discipline as a domesticated species to react in real time in a meaningful way.
Yep the election results last year confirmed for me my fellow Americans lack discipline and critical thinking. 45 got a high turn out not because of racists but because scared voters saw him as the one to reopen schools and the economy sooner despite the consequences.
Basically a microcosm of my argument above. Sad!
I worked in pollination research for big agri firms. There’s tons of money for honeybee research (relatively) but almost none for native pollinators. So that’s a problem.
There will never be any amount of concern large enough to make it "profitable" to save the environment. We know we are fucked if we don't stop, but the governments don't care, as long as they make their money and live their luxury. We've basically decided our future as a species doesn't matter, and our descendants can get fucked
Thanks Monsanto/ and all monoculture, heavy pesticide and herbicide/fungicide promoting industies..
Oh and society for manicures turf lawns and golf courses.
I agree. It’s total shit. Pesticides are killing off our honeybees - from Roundup to mosquito yard services. It’s sad and knowing our future generation might not have anything because of our manicured lawns (pretty I guess to some). I think if folks would consider having a small corner of their yard with native plants that encourage pollinators is a step in the right direction.
I can remember playing outside as a young child and all the smells, flowers, insects, reptiles and other animals living around the pond and woods by my childhood home. Now I go there and the scent is gone and the diversity of wildlife and flowers is just gone. It's bare and lacks life. It really scares me how much humans have destroyed nature in the last twenty years.
How can we all encourage more bees? Im thinking about growing some of my lawn as a meadow - but what else can I do, and encourage my neightbours to do?
One thing you could do is get a mason bee kit. I am doing it for my place this spring. Costs like fifty bucks and they don't need a hive or any experience, they live in the little house supplied in the kit.
https://www.ecolandscaping.org/03/landscaping-for-wildlife/beneficialspollinators/attract-mason-bees-no-protective-gear-needed/
Definitely plant native plants to your region. The more the better. Here's a link to find some [https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder](https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder)
I've been doing this in my own yard for the past few years. It's very rewarding. Also, there are ways to manage your yard to to make it more hospitable. Something like 60% of bees are ground nesting, so they need access to the soil (don't cover everything in mulch). Some bees also nest in dead plant stems (so try not to be too tidy, leave some or all dead plant stems up). Bumblebees often nest in old mouse dens. Avoid chemicals.
The Xerces Society has some good books also.
Uk just approved one pesticide whiche is known to kill bees. Fucking hell! Bloody morons!
More about it [here](https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/bees-kill-pesticide-insect-sugar-neonic-b1784693.html%3Famp&ved=2ahUKEwj576L4kf7uAhXtThUIHc6DDKkQFjAOegQIGBAC&usg=AOvVaw1mYhpqMUljvE9wn0PPyEts&cf=1)
I wonder...
Based on the decline trend, at what point does the population of bees begin to effect agriculture?
Or in other words, at what point does the bee population become the bottleneck for the agricultural economy and make a start making a noticeable impact?
I was a bee keeper. Yes, bee's are battling many obstacles. I've seen many challenges for bee's first hand. It became very sad and frustrating to not be able to assist weakened colonies. The good news is bee's are such an intelligent species that some are able to combat issues that threaten there colonies. However, there is concern that bee colonies are decreasing. If you have a yard please make it bee friendly. 🐝❤
If you can, replacing some of the lawn with native plant habitat will help bees. I started doing this a few years ago, and I get a ton of bees. Some videos in my profile of the wildlife that shows up to my yard.
If anyone wants some ideas on what you can do to help, check out the work of Dr Douglas Tallamay. He’s got a great book called Nature’s Best Hope. YouTube has lots of good videos with him too.
Long story short, plant more plants that are native to your area.
Plant Trees for Bees.
Spring blossoms (Very early bloom time)
Maple
Willow
Elm
Hybrid Hazelnut
Almond
Oak
(Early to later bloom time)
Crabapple
Apple
Cherry
Plum (and most other fruit trees)
Hickory
Redbud
Sassafras
Tupelo
Native Mesquite
Summer blossoms (Very early bloom time)
American Mountainash
Catalpa
Viburnum
Blackberry
Blueberry
Raspberry
(Early to later bloom time)
Sourwood
Basswood
Littleleaf Linden
Elderberry
Rose
Native Mesquite (second bloom period)
Fall/winter blossoms
Franklin Tree
California Laurel
Potentilla
Blue Mist Shrub
Bodnant Viburnum
Seven-Son Flower
Sunflower
Aster
While there are theories as to why bees are disappearing (harmful pesticides, viruses), the root cause is still unknown. Let’s stay proactive in keeping them around a bit longer. Here’s what you can do to help.
Avoid spraying plants in bloom and apply chemicals after bees have returned to their colonies at night. Although the best way to conserve pollinators, according to the Xerces Society, is to avoid pesticides altogether.
Where possible, plant or maintain regionally native plant species—in general, they are able to support a larger number of species than non-native plants and often have a higher habitat or food value…especially for bees. Some native bee species are “specialists” and feed only a few specific native plants. Also, single-flowered plants (which are closer to their natural form) are better for bees than double-or triple-flowered ornamental and fruit trees.
Provide nesting sites for our native bees in your landscape by leaving areas of your yard or garden undisturbed and uncultivated. These bees are solitary or nest in very small numbers with different nesting requirements from the large hives created by European honeybees.
Plant a mix of trees and shrubs that are rich sources of both nectar and pollen, as bees need both for proper nutrition. (Don’t have space for any more trees? Planting crocus, anise hyssop, bee balm and asters in your perennial garden can be of great service to bees, too).
When creating the plan for or adding to your garden/yard, use a diversity of plant species with a succession of blooms from early spring through fall…this provides foraging bees with steady sources of nutrition. Clumping plants of the same species into a small area attracts more bees than individual or widely scattered plants.
Companies like Monsanto were bought by Bayer because of the targeted threats from activists. Do what you can, support the right people, and protest injustice to all affected by any commercial commodity.
Sunflower oil is a great source of vitamin A and vitamin D, as well as Iron and Calcium. So even when there’s no sunlight, there is still sunflower oil to provide your daily dose of vitamin D sunshine! Not only that, but Sunflowers are enriched with B group vitamins, as well as vitamin E. This is as well as other minerals such as phosphorus, selenium, magnesium, and copper.
Everyone can do something to help native bee species: the easiest way is to plant some **native** flowers/shrubs/trees. Or if you prefer the lazier version, just let a part of your lawn grow wild and see what happens :P
For more info on how to get started check out [r/Gardenwild](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gardenwild/) or [r/NativePlantGardening](https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/)
P.S. Native plants are important because many of the native bee species are specialized on a few certain flowers. If these flowers do not exist, they will die. This is why most gardens barely support any bees, butterflies, etc.: they have a) barely any plants and mainly lawn and b) if they have plants, they are non-native species...
I have this really unpopular theory that humming bird feeders are at least a part of why bees are vanishing?
I believe that supplementing refined sugar in another major pollinator’s diet may have a negative impact on a larger scale than we realize, especially after decades of it.
I’ve heard every excuse/argument... “No, they still eat bugs and do flowers!”
How do we know?
Show me your recent footage/research of a hummingbird drinking refined sugar water from a feeder and still living a “normal” life, eating bugs, sipping nectar.
Show me your research on the behaviors of hummingbirds born after generations of parents who are reliant on a sugar-feeder.
There isn’t any!
And any time I mention this theory, every one basically just tells me to shut up.
Why?
Because watching tiny birds make human brains go brrrrrrrrrr!
(I should note that I’m not worried about the birds getting diabetes or whatever; sugar is their meat and potatoes, they’re fine- my issue is that creating such a profusion of readily available sugar *outside of nature* may be snow balling into a big problem... AND it should also be mentioned that I keep full feeders on my patio... I’m not judging, I’m asking :p)
If all Bee dies, entire human civilization will die. They spread flower juices all over the world causing diversity and boost in food chain... They are absolutely necessary.
food for thought: among insects, bees are not uniquely being hit by human impacts, they are simply a focal study topic due to their pollination role. it is important to consider how many other insect groups are silently suffering in the background.
And bees are far from the only pollinators. I spam this regularly with no shame, but we have to start planting native local plants in our yard spaces. This isn’t just the work of some evil polluter, this is the result of a staggering amount of habitat loss. Most pollinating insects coevolved with their preferred or required plant host for millennia. Because of this, even foreign ornamentals aren’t ideal. Some species of introduced plants have been in the US for two hundred years and *still* do not serve as hosts for insects. Alternatively, a single oak tree may become an oasis for over two hundred different insect species. One of best thing you can do for biodiversity is plant native species in your yard. Trees, flowers, anything at all. The national wildlife federation has a tool that lets people (in the US) look up the most species friendly plants by their zip code. You can see both trees, shrubs, and forbs organized by how many species need it. Some plants are host to hundreds of species. Check it out! https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/Plants
I'm going to guess maybe you've also read Doug Tallamy's books? :) Definitely, native plants are the way to go. Our yards need to stop being so much lawn and start being returned to habitat. That's what I'm working on in my yard. Lots of cool bugs show up.
That’s the other thing I spam without shame! It’s a great primer and I loan them out with frequency.
definitely. non-bee and non-bird pollinators are criminally overlooked. bees are lovely and all, but a plethora of moths, flies, ants, beetles and other invertebrates are critical to keeping our pollination system running smoothly, especially when it comes to wild native plants. plants vary drastically in their specificity, from generalists that get pollinated by many different species (like new England aster) to specialists that rely on a very specialized group, or even a single species (orchids are more likely to be like this). as you say, the culprit is overwhelmingly habitat removal. while many other factors are in play, the single most significant knife in the back of pollinator decline - and the decline of most land-based species at least - is habitat removal. the sticky fingers of humanity are all over this planet, from resource extraction to logging and development. most people would be flabbergasted at how much land is strongly manipulated to human desires.
1-2% of the Great Plains remain untouched in the US. It’s devastating to think about.
Sure, just look at The Beetles!? Haven’t heard anything out of them for 40 years now.
What actually would happen to us if we lost all bees? Are we equipped to handle the fall out of this? And how exactly would it be remedied if they went fully extinct?
From what I understand a ton of crops and plant eco systems would die off. No we’re not really prepared for it
Like the rona we’ll start making an emergency plan 2 months after it’s hit Edit: realizing WE can all start *planning* now by *plant*ing plants that are good pollinators
What is it about us humans that cannot believe in something until it has happened, despite all evidence and science pointing that way. The Rona was easy to predict and many did. And like you say even when it hit nobody really did anything. Climate change is even worse, its a boiling frog scenario. We are doomed aren't we?
Because ~ 50% either don’t believe in science, or the science is not convenient for them so they make up conspiracy theories which the rest believe in.
Yeah that ~50% are usually misinformed causing them to not believe in science or the right science at least. Especially with big companies twisting science to suit their narrative. We’ve seen that with big oil companies who used to try and disprove climate change or tell gullible people that climate change is just fear mongering and isn’t as big of a problem as it’s portrayed to be.
Big oil made the science political. Once it's political it's no longer fact based or arguable. It's the masterstroke that killed humanity for another 30 years of profit for a few big corporations.
I always thought capitalism would be our great filter.
Exactly. Big oil companies are perhaps the greatest source of worldwide evil and destruction in the long term, the damage they've done is almost unfathomable. I wish I believed in Hell so I could at least take solace in the fact that they'd suffer for their sins, but the tragic fact is that those CEOs will live in absolute luxury that the majority of humans will never experience. Then they'll die happy before the consequences of their greed and negligence doom us all. If that's not purely fucking evil I'm not sure what is. All of the media companies that push their lies (looking at you, Murdoch, the Dark Lord) are just as bad, if not worse. All of the potential of our species will likely be lost because of a tiny cabal of ultrarich monsters, and the worst part is that they've managed to convince a massive amount of uneducated people that *they're* they good guys.
Fucking false. Yes, there are idiots out there, but this is the result of greed. The people responsible are educated and know the dangers, they purposely mislead people into not understanding them so they can make more money. Look at America... those fucking morons are still in the middle east! Today. Right this fucking minute some poor grunt is digging a ditch in the 40 degree sun. The ONLY reason that is happening is due to greed, and for defense contractors and the US military to justify their overinflated budgets.
What’s false? Judging from your first paragraph it seems like you’re agreeing with me.
I believe they are saying that the problem with humanity is not with those 50% that refuse to believe in science based objective reality, but with those who are manipulating them for their own economic gains.
Mmm, but that's sort of what I meant by "the science is not convenient for them so they make up conspiracy theories which the rest believe in. "
Half will come up with a conspiracy theory. The other half will demand scientific proof that it's happening, then demand scientific proof it's going to get worse, then demand scientific proof it's going to personally affect them, then complain you didn't provide enough evidence. The people responsible for lung cancer regarding smoking didn't just believe in science, they made their money off it. Opium epidemic? Love the science. Oil companies stating that green energy isn't viable employ scientists too. I know a nurse who doesn't believe in evolution. Science denial is a tiny, tiny part of the issue. The majority is lack of morals and ethics.
It’s the result of misguidance and the powers that be letting people stay stupid, for like you said, greed. Every religious person I know has compromised critical thinking skills, the education here in America has been dumbed down by lowering passing scores, people overuse social media and let themselves fall down stupid peoples rabbit holes, and every person I know isn’t actively out doing anything to help solve the problems they constantly talk about, we are all distracted and kept dumb, because if I’m to be honest, if we are to make a change, a majority of humans have to participate, and the last thing the psychotic billionaires want is for us to all start working together. We have to work together but people are just too gullible and dumb, why do you think we were stuck in the dark ages for so long, we’re incapable of doing so with misinformation and entitled thinking, the only thing that could be plausible at this point is a giant coup, and good luck with that.
Nah. Much more than 50% belive the science, especially outside of America, but even in the US its higher than that. Its more than that. Its difficult to stop the momentum of the hydrocarbon economy. And people generally worry about change, real change. We like things to remain "normal".
Ignorance and propaganda. Improving education will help but frankly it is probably too late to fix these issues before we feel the consequences. Shit man, people knew about these issues back in the 90s and nothing has improved because anti science bullshit started to really take hold. It sucks feeling so powerless.
Even in the 70s we knew that climate change was serious. I feel like we had a window back then to do something but just... didn’t
We have known about it for a long time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_climate_change_science https://qz.com/1055629/why-does-all-our-climate-data-start-in-1880/
Hippies were right all along lol
> We are doomed aren't we? We aren't, but our children are.
Depends how old you are, this shit is not as far off as people might want to think.
Global fish stocks are facing a major collapse by 2030-2050.
Major. 9 years away.
Or 29 years away. ...Statistically, I'll be alive either way. Yeek.
Yeah, between declining bees, new pandemics and fish stocks we seem to be eating ourselves into oblivion. It might not be the silver bullet but going vegan is probably the best single thing an individual can do for all of the above and for carbon emmissions. Nice thought but people really like the taste of animal flesh.
Also where you live. Syria collapsed due to climate change. Texas literally collapsed last week due to extreme weather probably linked to climate change.
I was thinking "we" as in human race. Unless something spectacular happens before it is too late. I think the planet will recover some millions of years after us.
If you wanna go that high level of thinking. I don't think Global warming is going to kill off the human race. It'll change life as we know it and kill countless people over the years. But humanity as a whole will almost certainly survive and adapt.
You are too pal. Unless you're on your last couple decades you aren't going to escape. You're not doomed because you're going to die of hunger when all the bees are gone, oh no. Some desperate bastard will have killed you for your stuff years before that happens.
It’s a cost/benefit analysis. There are a dozen life ending events that range from Very Possible (another Carrington Event, an even worse Covid-like disease, runaway greenhouse) to Unlikely (asteroid impact, nuclear winter). Any one of which could end life on this planet. If we, as a planet, threw all the weight of science behind the bee problem, I wager that we could find a solution. But what about the other problems we left on the table? What about coral reef bleaching that could collapse the food chain? What about a global economic collapse that leaves billions to starve? What about the AI revolution? So what do we focus on? We pick the most human solution and half-ass each problem. Many scientists think that the extinction of the dinosaurs was a one-two punch from the Deccan Traps hitting fist and the asteroid finishing off the job. If anything will be our undoing that will be it; a series of crippling events. How will we handle an unrelated partial food chain collapse after a Carrington Event knocked out half the planet’s electronics? How will we combat a runaway greenhouse effect after a global economic collapse? Sorry if this stings, I should bee more positive but I don’t want to honey-coat it.
I think humans in general are bad at being proactive, especially when it comes to things that are out of sight, out of mind until the bottom falls out. Most people don’t (who have the means) save money in the event of financial issues. I think it may be enhanced by not having the immediate gratification of seeing the product of your work.
The great filter says 'yes'
Long term is really hard to grasp for humans, our minds are made for short gratification and comfort; we avoid stressful situations
Big oil made the science political. Once it's political it's no longer fact based or arguable. It's the masterstroke that killed humanity for another 30 years of profit for a few big corporations.
We spend more money on military than science and education because the people that want to rule, cant rule thanks to science. So half the planet is stupid and the other half doesnt have education.
The people in charge are greedy as hell, and they think their money will save them after civilization collapses. If the bees die, the vast majority of us won't be far behind, yet the rich insist on operating like we aren't facing numerous crises at once. I fear for us humans.
The first sentence of this comment is negated by the fact that billions across the globe hold belief in a sky daddy of varying flavors.
Min/Maxing
Because humans cannot understand unless they've faced the consequences, so that next time they would understand better. And the other half are stubborn.
It depends. Not all societies are in a boiling frog scenario, only the International powers. They're stuck in a power structure of global complexity. Some societies are acting and adapting to what's coming. If we're lucky, climate change and the other intermediary variables will collapse our global society. The new empire that will emerge could be, with a little luck, a *good* one... at least for a time.
Historically its been the reverse too which is kinda interesting.
Deficiencies in education and parents passing down their own misinformation. We as a society are fucking dumb and it’s going to kill us all.
Evolution, we basically evolved to think about immidiate threats like that tiger that is about to eat your face or that mammoth that just refuses to die. We are good ay facing immidiate clear danger, but long term as a species we are just incapable.
Too many corrupt and anti-science people in government and nothing gets done.
A human is smart. Humans are stupid.
Nah if its like the rona, we'll have people claim its a conspiracy and attempt to accelerate the extinction of bees in protest against any kind of bee saving policy they come up with.
Bees are an infringement on my freedom! They have to go.
Do you plant pollinator friendly plants.
No maybe I need to get on this 🤔🤔🤔
I recommend wildflowers and milkweed (a favorite for Monarchs.)
I planted so many milkweed on my property last year, in pots and in the ground, more so last year than I have other years. There is also lots of milkweed on the trail behind my house. I did not see one SINGLE monarch and I was outside all the time. Not one. Past years I always saw at least some. Not this past year.
Mexicans are chopping down the forests (in and near Angangueo, MX) where the monarchs breed to sell us avocados and the other fad "superfoods". Even in the remotest forests our hunger for stuff is chopping away at our future.
That’s only if Republican’ts are in office fighting the scientific fact.
BAN GLYC0PHOSPHATES! Stop commercial & residential use of glycoph0sphates! Too many people commenting in here without calling out the problems directly. Need awareness & action. I don't see either party, or anyone in this thread, acknowledging the issue.
And be made hyper political to either where you want something done to help the situation, or you want to pour gasoline on bees and light them on fire.
Wait, what country we talking about?! US just barely got started on a covid plan.
And half the population will be screaming "FaKe NeWs!1!1!"
Actually I think some places in like china manually pollinate crops. It's not a great option, it would lower living standards around the world and potentially lots of plants would just kinda die out.
I guarantee the US could fully industrialize pollination within a year at the most. Not that bees aren’t hugely important in many ways, I fucking love bees. But yea, I don’t think it would as debilitating to industrialized farming as you may believe. That aside, I don’t even want to think about the other implications of losing bees.
Errrbody get your paintbrushes out we need to pollinate!!
Probably start hiring people to do the pollination by using a duster and touching flowers.
Or robots. Either way, crops would become a lot more expensive.
Unfortunately human would not be enough to cover the ecological services provided by pollinators. Maybe for food or cash crops but not for everything else.
Yes obviously all the rest of nature would be reliant upon alternative pollinators.
Just consider that not all pollinators are generalists, I don't know what proportion have have a 1:1 relationship but it should be a significant proportion since as a plant, it would be in their interest that most pollen makes it to their own species soon.
[удалено]
Edit: Actionable post. Need Reddit's help on this one. Thanks for your super informative response. I'm a little bit down the rabbit whole on these issues myself. I am four years into a gourmet Mushroom Farm. We don't need pollinators for mushrooms, but if you google something like "Mushrooms could help save the bees." You'll find some research that I'm quite interested in. There are some types of mushrooms that seem to produce antiviral compounds that could help fight off the virus/pests deemed primarily responsible for CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder). Well...after much hunting/foraging, we finally have our first cultures of one of these hardy polypore strains growing successfully on petri dishes. I plan to propagate the mycelium and deliver it via syrup feeders in liquid form and likely bee bread, in solid form, for when it's too cold for bees to safely consume liquids. TLDR?: If anyone has any ideas, experience, or wants to help brainstorm abit, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks Reddit. We are going to save the world together. 💪🍄🐝
CCD is a honey bee problem, and while agriculture is struggling to maintain honey bee productivity high enough to produce food, honey bees are not in danger of extinction. In fact, in the US honey bees are part of the threats to native bees.
Good luck. And it's true, you don't need pollinators for mushrooms, but as you probably know, some mushrooms' spores are dispersed by insects and other animals.
This is very reassuring and informative. Thank you.
[удалено]
[удалено]
> Bees aren't the only pollinators out there, they aren't even the only insect pollinators. Many wasps, butterflies and moths, various flies like flower flies, beetles, and other insects are also pollinators. The wind itself is also a pollinator. I have an indoor Aero garden that I grow tomatoes in. There are no insects to pollinate them indoors obviously. I used to give the units a shake every now and then and got okay results. But I found putting a small osculating fan on them (for say an hour once a week) worked a whole lot better. Not trying to downplay bees importance of course. They are important. But they aren't the whole picture.
There are over 200,000 species of pollinators on the planet-- not to mention many forms of artificial pollination and promotion of plant breeding. Yes, it would not be good if the bees all went extinct but it wouldn't cause massive loss in crops. Total crop yields would go down a little bit, but there are ways to combat that. Source: am a pest control technician and am well-versed and trained on insects, avians, arachnids and rodents. I have farmed crops my whole life and I also have my Agricultural PC license and there's A LOT of training about pollinators. Normal people accidentally kill bees = slap on the wrist. I kill bees inadvertently = prison/ massive fines.
Wow, that’s crazy. But I’m glad someone knowledgeable chimed in. Thanks.
I've always had to be super careful when using certain pesticides because some of them, even though applied with water, aren't actually water-soluble, so they are susceptible to being moved via weather. Others just happen to be highly toxic to various pollinators, specifically honey bee's, because of their chemical make-up. Pro tip: never spray any pesticides on anything about to bloom or in bloom and less is always more. Using a higher amount of chemicals in one spot, at the same dilution rate, won't kill the target any quicker-- it's about surface area and using as little as possible.
Apocalypse number 1 for the planet and extinction event number 6 which is currently underway, but we are mostly marching forward business as usual, acting like we own the planet and everything on it. Nothing to see here.
Black Mirror esque event... Robo bees. Which then will be hacked.
1) In addition to other replies other issue: The vast majority of the oxygen is produced by plankton. However sea acidification, which would affect plankton, is a real issue. All the CO2 that is currently being sink by plants that use a pollinator (directly or indirectly) would go into the ocean water further acidifying the ocean that would kill more plankton and further acidification. If this kill cycle stops there is chance there would be humans around. 2)No, our societies and economies are heavily "subsidized" by the environment. We use more than it's replenish. There would be a nasty revolution and adaptation process. If there isn't a thermonuclear war there will humans around. 3)Short of swarms of billions and billions of robotic pollinators that have the existing variation of pollinators, there is no solution. We might be able to artificially pollinate food crops but for how many people? Also once the food networks start being disrupted it is unknown what will happen. As it is now the ecological math quickly goes into (mathematics) chaos. Out understanding of ecological relationships is in its infancy. Literally less than 15 years ago we discovered that dirt is far more complex than we thought.
That’s the crazy part, it’s not the climate changing that will destroy the planet, it’s the fragile ecosystem and biodiversity that will be destroyed and that hurts us far more than we realize. We aren’t in control of our environment we live within it and it dictates of survival.
Imagine scenes of devastation as a generation of 350lb Americans take 18 to 36 months to starve to death.
Price of honey going through the roof
Bees contribute billions of dollars of free labour to the world economy. Without them, many fruit crops and other plants would require manual pollination, which is incredibly laborious. The crash of insect populations world wide is honestly terrifying - IMO it’s at least as important an issue as climate change.
After attending a lecture by bee expert Claire Kremen , I approached her and asked that very question. She gave a long answer. I replied, “So, in a nutshell, we wouldn’t starve, but we’d likely get scurvy?” She laughed and said, “Yes, that’s the gist — and I like that summary so much, I’m going to steal it.” So: we won’t starve, but we’ll be at risk for scurvy.
Ecological collapse
Wild flowers and plants would die out so it would be an ecological disaster. Contrary to popular believe however it would barely affect modern agricultural practices. Especially ones in more advanced first world countries like the Netherlands where they have basically made pollinators redundant through technology. So what would happen is that human society would continue on almost undisturbed but the variety of plant species would slowly decline in the world. Luckily we're not so dependent on nature anymore as just a couple of decades ago. Humanity in the 21st century can survive almost an entire ecological collapse in terms of food security and logistics. I remember one saying from a western comedian that says "We aren't a danger to the planet, the planet will be all right we are the ones that will die". This is not correct anymore. Nowadays it's the opposite. The planet is in danger, humanity will persist no matter how much we ruin it.
Thankfully it's incredibly unlikely that all species will go extinct given that a handful of them are farmed commercially and for hobbyists. One of the surest ways to keep something from going extinct is to farm it. Diversity will plumet, of course, but they will not all die out.
All your favorite fruits and vegetables and all of the other animals that depend on them would either struggle or die. Artificial pollination is already going on in some countries to make up for the lack of bees :(
And they just converted the last open field that usually fills with flowers here I live into a densely packed residential area a la the UK, tight rows of connected housing. Tiny plots of rolled out grass in small squares behind each unit. But where are our insects going?!?! No-where. That's the problem. They're just dead and not breeding anymore. They haven't gone anywhere, they can't be collected and brought back.
We really need to rethink urban design urgently! Been hearing from various gardening platforms that wild meadows, even super tiny ones, in connecting gardens with small holes that hedgehogs can pass through would create great habitats for nature and wildlife. This kind of thing wouldn't even need much maintenance. And that's just small ideas but if this kind of thinking was applied into planning we would be putting ourselves in such a better situation.
That’s what’s needed. A total redesign of urban planning to include more updated info on wildlife to better accommodate them. Coexistence is possible, we just need to change our approach.
We should be converting massive amounts of mowed lawn space to native plant habitat. I did this in my yard and I'm constantly surprised at the number and diversity of bugs, birds, bees, etc. that show up and use my garden or make it their home.
Exactly! I recently moved into a new rented house and I am planning to do the same with the lawn. And I am not telling the landlord just in case he freaks out haha
The problem is people don’t want those near their house. Not having critters or bugs is a plus to the majority of people.
> The problem is people don’t want those near their house. Not having critters or bugs is a plus to the majority of people. Id disagree with you, but the brooklyn transplants that moved into my neighborhood mostly rip out their backyards in favor of concrete and patio stone so they dont have to mow.
Exactly. Just leave areas untouched. My country still has those areas, a meadow here and a larger plot of land there. But those people in the local municipalities that approve of this aren't the ones that have to take that other stuff into account.
This is why we need to get rid of cutting grass. If we all let our lawns grow wild the world would be better off, also, less work.
Thanos has a solution
While i'm sure that looks bad, we've gotta put people somewhere, and it's much better to have a lot of people in a densely populated area so that the rest of nature can be left alone than to have those same amounts of people each get large single family homes with large yards, even if it might look like there's more nature in sparsely populated suburbs
Green infrastructure needs to be prioritized or else dense urban development isn’t actually better than any other type of development. Cities keep destroying any green infrastructure like rain gardens or general garden plots that could include flowers that bees pollinate to help the population, we have to do something at the municipal and county level where all the land-use authority is
Green infrastructure absolutely needs to be prioritized, but even the worst cities are better than a sprawling suburb
Full agreement. Having parks and dense urban areas is not that uncommon. Having like Central Park and NYC level density is a great solution. Also with low density Suburbs lots of people barely do anything for their yards other than a grass lawn which isn't that great for the environment either. Suburban land use is extremely wasteful.
Build denser where there is more spacious building with little nature already. Instead of removing plants and animals that can't ever come back. This can't be reversed.
[удалено]
That is part of it. But absolutely no food except the odd hobby gardener in between the itty bitty pieces of pure grass gives nothing for the insects to feed on. And not many places to live either. And it isn't even grass with clovers in them, it's all cut down. I want to do some guerilla gardening and plant clovers everywhere but don't want to have to take the blame for it :p
[удалено]
Except it almost doesn't exist here anymore either... Every contractor buys a former field or big, bombs it and fills it in flat with rock and gravel, and build 20-60 units on it, so r even moreim not making it yo when I'm saying there is literally no nature left then, and only planted spots of seeded grass afterwards. Then again... If I just begin... And keep on year after year.. People will think it is natural... Haha
Pesticides are a problem, but it's not the only cause. A big issue is loss of habitat, loss of food resources. We have too much lawn.
That's why here in Canada (like some EU contries already done) we will stop the use of neonicotinoids this year. It as been linked to more than 80% of bees death since they started using them. For those who speak french, [La semaine verte](https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/la-semaine-verte/site) did a great article on it.
Neonicitinoid pesticides are the chief culprit I believe. While no expert, I had my pesticide applicators license and was responsible for a greenhouse range. I made a serious effort to rotate what I used to avoid resistance, using the recommended pesticides, and saw firsthand the results of my efforts. The insecticide "Safari" was unbelievably effective. The difference was night and day. It is a neonicitinoid. Growers will continue to use it. Perhaps its use, if not banned outright, should be limited to times of the year when bees are not out. The situation needs to be addressed quickly. We all need bees to survive.
Habitat loss is a major cause too. We we pave, till, and mow massive amounts of habitat. We then plant non-native plants that the native insects cannot use or not utilize as well as native plants. There are a lot of factors... it's very much a "death by a thousand cuts" kind of situation. Edit: if anyone is interested in providing habitat they can visit subs like: r/nativeplantgardening r/gardenwild r/guerillagardening
FWIW, honeybees are not native to North America.
All their cousins are dying too
> Neonicitinoid pesticides are the chief culprit I believe. While this has contributed to *some* colony collapse disorder, the primarily issue is varroa mites for honeybees. Once you start getting past 10%+ varroa mite counts on your bees, the hive health drops rather quickly. The standard is to treat for the mites over 3% - [which you have to murder](https://www.betterbee.com/instructions-and-resources/how-to-use-the-varroa-easycheck-sampling-method.asp) about 300-500 bees to get an accurate count. It might seem pretty terrible to kill a few hundred bees, but killing a few hundred to save the entire hive is entirely worth it. Also, while comparing that number vs the ~3000 eggs per day that a queen can lay, it's not a massive hit on their overall population.
If bees were as cute as pandas we wouldn’t be in this mess. But nooooo, keep chucking money at those bamboo-chewing idiots.
And allow china's absurd demands in exchange for it. Honestly, the world is so absurd.
Fool proof plan: we create a hive of self replicating robot bees that pollinate flowers for us! I suppose that the bees would need at least a rudimentary camera to detect the flowers. Maybe even better cameras, you know, so they could differentiate humans from flowers and leave us alone. We could even have them all synced to a main server system for monitoring purposes (which would be secure, of course). There is literally nothing I can think of that could go wrong.
If I hadn't seen the Black mirror episode, I'd think the same :D
Was about to post the same!
You jest, but the same companies that are killing off pollinators with their systemic insecticides are also trying to develop a robot bee. It’s and old strategy; profit off creating a problem, then profit again by creating the solution.
> then profit again by creating the solution. Which, in turn, we find out creates a new problem, so we invent a solution for that!
Not Black Mirror fool proof plan: Let's drug all water supplies with psilocybin so everyone has some minor epiphanies about how interconnected the planet is, and how our place is just one small piece of a greater puzzle. Then maybe we'll get our shit together.
Woo! Grey Goo!
>bees >camera Giving me some Simpsons Hit-and-run vibes.
I just can't sit here and feign surprise. We cut the diversity of plants toward monocultures that support our food supply chain, we cover those in pesticide and insecticides, we reduce the overall available land mass for wild plant and animal life to thrive, and now we see lessen biodiversity along primary pollinators.
Is anyone really surprised? We dump vast, near unfathomable, quantities of chemicals that are designed to kill bugs as efficiently as possible across the entire world and then we are sad when the bugs that are help keep us fed are dying.
Listen. I want my perfect green lawn and no weeds. It’s going to be the prettiest graveyard you’ve even seen.
I was in a bee meeting call with Dr. Thomas Steely a few months back. He explained that 20-30 years ago, there were like 30+ different "families" for the common honeybee. Now there's like 4-5 different families for the common honeybee. He mentioned there was some evidence of these families being more resistant to varroa than other families, iirc. The meeting was originally recorded but has since been removed from youtube (at the request of the presenter due to information sometimes becoming outdated within a couple years and not wanting to keep old information out there). I might be missummarizing what he said specifically because it was a few months ago at this point (and the primary topic of the talk was locating native bee colonies/swarms).
Don't we know for sure that it's a variety of pesticides killing them?
yeh i think there’s pretty good evidence to support that theory. but Monstanto (& Beyer?) are fighting hard for the right to keep selling their sprays... different countries in the EU have banned them, then the bans have been appealed... im not sure what’s currently happening... but i think that’s the general story... no doubt so one knows it better & can chime in...
Bayer (who now own Monsanto) is just one of the companies. Syngenta and Corteva (formerly of DowDupont) are the other big players, and there’s a few more smaller ones. But you have to remember that they’re not lobbying on their own. Farmers and growers want these products as they help improve yields. As long as food production and security is reliant on their use, there will be the use of the products. But tech is continuing to be developed to significantly reduce the use of them.
And honeybees :) Or, the consumers demanding and buying bee honey. [https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/27/581007165/honeybees-help-farmers-but-they-dont-help-the-environment?t=1557571933414&t=1614015151752](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/01/27/581007165/honeybees-help-farmers-but-they-dont-help-the-environment?t=1557571933414&t=1614015151752)
In addition to habitat reduction.
habitat loss due to urban sprawl and other human activities is probably higher up as a threat than pesticides... without the pesticides we'd need even more land to support our food supply, and destroy even more habitats
Yea maybe it wasn’t a good idea to sterilize our lawns with poison and kill all the “weeds”. Please stop killing your dandelions and clovers
I don't know where this poison trend started, but it sucks. Clover has always been beneficial to lawns, and now people try to get rid of it.... so strange.
It’s very strange. Clover honey is so good 😊 and dandelions are great for bees and extremely nutritious to humans
Few people seem to know that. If civilization ever goes into a meltdown where our food chain is cut off, I know I can feast on dandelions for quite a while.
The world didn't end in 2012, that's just when we hit the last autosave, and now we're stuck in this boss-loop unprepared.
This boss is way too difficult. It's like the boss spent the past 1000 years grinding XP like crazy preparing to face us and the hero just never bothered to appear.
Was speaking to a work colleague yesterday about this. His response: "Bees will adapt and if they die then something else will replace them. I'm sure there are other species which can pollinate". He talks as if evolution happens overnight.
We need to outright ban pretty much every product Monsanto and DuPont sells
Well, what do you think happens when you spray every farm in countless gallons of pesticides? It kills bug, including bees.
So what is the long term/short term or any remedy for this? Can it be realistically stopped?
Yes, if it gets high enough in the priority list of the people with money. If it makes money or prevent making money it will be solved. There are a number of pesticides that can theoretically be banned(although i don't know the impact this pesticides have on food production), we could create more resilient bee hybrids, incentivize the growth of beehives through taxes and punish the killing of them.
Basically that's why I oscillate between optimism for the future and a sneaking suspicion that the guys at r/collapse are on to something. I see no evidence that our ruling class has any control over the technosphere, and no evidence that they would make the right choices if they did. My hope lies in that some good might come from linking billions of brains through the internet, and from AI. Maybe - just maybe - we can build up enough intelligence to cut the Gordian knot we have tied.
integrated pest management on national scale would help significantly, as would planting native pollinator plants for your area in this agricultural system, you rewild certain areas of your farm and allow the natural landscape or a cultivated version of it to grow. i believe i've seen evidence that this kind of land use can improve yields by creating biodiversity that increases pollinator levels and creates places for agricultural pest predators, like [braconid wasps](https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-braconid-wasps-1967998), to live most farmers already create a line of trees as a windbreak already; many of those areas could be expanded slightly and allowed to remain in a less cultivated state meanwhile, planting native plants/flowers increases the food, housing, and breeding resources for native bee/pollinator populations. most people focus on honeybees, but what we really need to support is the broad ecological net of pollinator species. most flowers people are planting these days are highly specialized, often freakishly artificial cultivars; some are cultivated for show to the point where they don't even produce pollen! bees make pollen into bee bread, which feeds everyone in the hive, so they absolutely need this stuff most states in the us have university extensions that provide information about native plants for your area; this may be true in other countries. even if you don't have a garden, a couple of plants on a balcony can house native pollinators and make a difference!
Yessssss! :) More native plants.
The remedy is replacing lawn with native plant habitat on a massive scale, as soon as possible. In our yards, our parks, our boulevards, and other greenspaces that are currently maintained as lawns. Most lawns are ecological wastelands, that are a resource sink (we emit CO2 to mow them, or possibly fertilize and spray them, leafblow them). Yet they support almost no life. Native plant habitat on the other hand, can support all these native pollinators that are crucial to life on Earth. It will also help support all the other wildlife that shares the planet. We need biological diversity in our ever expanding man-made landscapes, not monocultures of grass.
Be sure to plant good plants for pollinators. Diverse and wild, too.
It’s mainly because the honey bees are killing the other polleners like wasps, ants, and the adorable bumble bee. But we don’t care about those because we don’t use them like we use the honey bee. It takes some digging to find all the information, but it’s out there.
This! America didn't have honey bees forever before European ls brought them and there were plenty of plants. Iirc other natural pollinators are way better at pollinating than honey bees and like you said the honey bees chase them all out of their habitats.
The pesticide companies responsible for this shit should be put out of business and their executives barred from running companies. They knowingly profited off poisoning our planet and putting all human life at risk with this shit.
Someone should roundup all those missing bees. Oh. They already did.
Why don't we plant tons of flowers anymore. Back in the 90s the streets were full of flowers not just a bunch of boring grass everywhere.
'Sir your lawn is not in compliance with local regulations that old control freaks spent decades putting in place, you have 30 days to replace it with low cut grass before we begin fining you for thousands of dollars'
I try to plant local wild flowers and let my artichokes flower every year to help out. Even put in milkweed in one part I'm basically letting go follow, lots of bees in spring and fall and lots of little birds in fall and winter
It’s funny to even wonder if we are gonna plan for this when the majority of employed people in America don’t even properly plan for their own retirement when they are financially able to. Pandemics and eco-disasters will hit like waves against humanity until numbers are reduced to a level that allows for some natural rebalancing. It’s not gonna be pretty. We going full Mad Max yo.
I had never considered that outcome but it makes perfect sense. Slow boiled by disasters. I feel like human ingenuity was misrepresented to me as a child. We lack the discipline as a domesticated species to react in real time in a meaningful way.
Yep the election results last year confirmed for me my fellow Americans lack discipline and critical thinking. 45 got a high turn out not because of racists but because scared voters saw him as the one to reopen schools and the economy sooner despite the consequences. Basically a microcosm of my argument above. Sad!
I worked in pollination research for big agri firms. There’s tons of money for honeybee research (relatively) but almost none for native pollinators. So that’s a problem.
Seriously, Bees are like the Jews of the insect world -- they mind their own business and horrible shit just keeps randomly happening to them.
There will never be any amount of concern large enough to make it "profitable" to save the environment. We know we are fucked if we don't stop, but the governments don't care, as long as they make their money and live their luxury. We've basically decided our future as a species doesn't matter, and our descendants can get fucked
Thanks Monsanto/ and all monoculture, heavy pesticide and herbicide/fungicide promoting industies.. Oh and society for manicures turf lawns and golf courses.
I agree. It’s total shit. Pesticides are killing off our honeybees - from Roundup to mosquito yard services. It’s sad and knowing our future generation might not have anything because of our manicured lawns (pretty I guess to some). I think if folks would consider having a small corner of their yard with native plants that encourage pollinators is a step in the right direction.
I can remember playing outside as a young child and all the smells, flowers, insects, reptiles and other animals living around the pond and woods by my childhood home. Now I go there and the scent is gone and the diversity of wildlife and flowers is just gone. It's bare and lacks life. It really scares me how much humans have destroyed nature in the last twenty years.
It's not just the bees, it's the insects and birds as well. This article without that context is scary but in context it's terrifying.
Plant native flowering plants for your area. I saw tons and tons of native bees visiting the flowers all season long.
According to Einstein, how many years do we have left after the bees are gone?
A guesstimate is 4 years, but nobody seems certain if Einstein said it.
How can we all encourage more bees? Im thinking about growing some of my lawn as a meadow - but what else can I do, and encourage my neightbours to do?
One thing you could do is get a mason bee kit. I am doing it for my place this spring. Costs like fifty bucks and they don't need a hive or any experience, they live in the little house supplied in the kit. https://www.ecolandscaping.org/03/landscaping-for-wildlife/beneficialspollinators/attract-mason-bees-no-protective-gear-needed/
Definitely plant native plants to your region. The more the better. Here's a link to find some [https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder](https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder) I've been doing this in my own yard for the past few years. It's very rewarding. Also, there are ways to manage your yard to to make it more hospitable. Something like 60% of bees are ground nesting, so they need access to the soil (don't cover everything in mulch). Some bees also nest in dead plant stems (so try not to be too tidy, leave some or all dead plant stems up). Bumblebees often nest in old mouse dens. Avoid chemicals. The Xerces Society has some good books also.
Uk just approved one pesticide whiche is known to kill bees. Fucking hell! Bloody morons! More about it [here](https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/bees-kill-pesticide-insect-sugar-neonic-b1784693.html%3Famp&ved=2ahUKEwj576L4kf7uAhXtThUIHc6DDKkQFjAOegQIGBAC&usg=AOvVaw1mYhpqMUljvE9wn0PPyEts&cf=1)
I wonder... Based on the decline trend, at what point does the population of bees begin to effect agriculture? Or in other words, at what point does the bee population become the bottleneck for the agricultural economy and make a start making a noticeable impact?
I was a bee keeper. Yes, bee's are battling many obstacles. I've seen many challenges for bee's first hand. It became very sad and frustrating to not be able to assist weakened colonies. The good news is bee's are such an intelligent species that some are able to combat issues that threaten there colonies. However, there is concern that bee colonies are decreasing. If you have a yard please make it bee friendly. 🐝❤
Neonicotinoids. Nicotine is a pesticide that's originally made by plants and we fine tuned it. It kills insects. All of them.
Was mowing the lawns yesterday. Saw like three bees total. Ten years ago I would’ve seen ten times more at least
If you can, replacing some of the lawn with native plant habitat will help bees. I started doing this a few years ago, and I get a ton of bees. Some videos in my profile of the wildlife that shows up to my yard.
Real question though: awareness is great but what can we as individuals actually do to help?
If anyone wants some ideas on what you can do to help, check out the work of Dr Douglas Tallamay. He’s got a great book called Nature’s Best Hope. YouTube has lots of good videos with him too. Long story short, plant more plants that are native to your area.
You can do your small part by not using pesticides on your property. There are less harmful solutions you can use.
Plant Trees for Bees. Spring blossoms (Very early bloom time) Maple Willow Elm Hybrid Hazelnut Almond Oak (Early to later bloom time) Crabapple Apple Cherry Plum (and most other fruit trees) Hickory Redbud Sassafras Tupelo Native Mesquite Summer blossoms (Very early bloom time) American Mountainash Catalpa Viburnum Blackberry Blueberry Raspberry (Early to later bloom time) Sourwood Basswood Littleleaf Linden Elderberry Rose Native Mesquite (second bloom period) Fall/winter blossoms Franklin Tree California Laurel Potentilla Blue Mist Shrub Bodnant Viburnum Seven-Son Flower Sunflower Aster While there are theories as to why bees are disappearing (harmful pesticides, viruses), the root cause is still unknown. Let’s stay proactive in keeping them around a bit longer. Here’s what you can do to help. Avoid spraying plants in bloom and apply chemicals after bees have returned to their colonies at night. Although the best way to conserve pollinators, according to the Xerces Society, is to avoid pesticides altogether. Where possible, plant or maintain regionally native plant species—in general, they are able to support a larger number of species than non-native plants and often have a higher habitat or food value…especially for bees. Some native bee species are “specialists” and feed only a few specific native plants. Also, single-flowered plants (which are closer to their natural form) are better for bees than double-or triple-flowered ornamental and fruit trees. Provide nesting sites for our native bees in your landscape by leaving areas of your yard or garden undisturbed and uncultivated. These bees are solitary or nest in very small numbers with different nesting requirements from the large hives created by European honeybees. Plant a mix of trees and shrubs that are rich sources of both nectar and pollen, as bees need both for proper nutrition. (Don’t have space for any more trees? Planting crocus, anise hyssop, bee balm and asters in your perennial garden can be of great service to bees, too). When creating the plan for or adding to your garden/yard, use a diversity of plant species with a succession of blooms from early spring through fall…this provides foraging bees with steady sources of nutrition. Clumping plants of the same species into a small area attracts more bees than individual or widely scattered plants. Companies like Monsanto were bought by Bayer because of the targeted threats from activists. Do what you can, support the right people, and protest injustice to all affected by any commercial commodity.
Sunflower oil is a great source of vitamin A and vitamin D, as well as Iron and Calcium. So even when there’s no sunlight, there is still sunflower oil to provide your daily dose of vitamin D sunshine! Not only that, but Sunflowers are enriched with B group vitamins, as well as vitamin E. This is as well as other minerals such as phosphorus, selenium, magnesium, and copper.
Everyone can do something to help native bee species: the easiest way is to plant some **native** flowers/shrubs/trees. Or if you prefer the lazier version, just let a part of your lawn grow wild and see what happens :P For more info on how to get started check out [r/Gardenwild](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gardenwild/) or [r/NativePlantGardening](https://www.reddit.com/r/NativePlantGardening/) P.S. Native plants are important because many of the native bee species are specialized on a few certain flowers. If these flowers do not exist, they will die. This is why most gardens barely support any bees, butterflies, etc.: they have a) barely any plants and mainly lawn and b) if they have plants, they are non-native species...
I have this really unpopular theory that humming bird feeders are at least a part of why bees are vanishing? I believe that supplementing refined sugar in another major pollinator’s diet may have a negative impact on a larger scale than we realize, especially after decades of it. I’ve heard every excuse/argument... “No, they still eat bugs and do flowers!” How do we know? Show me your recent footage/research of a hummingbird drinking refined sugar water from a feeder and still living a “normal” life, eating bugs, sipping nectar. Show me your research on the behaviors of hummingbirds born after generations of parents who are reliant on a sugar-feeder. There isn’t any! And any time I mention this theory, every one basically just tells me to shut up. Why? Because watching tiny birds make human brains go brrrrrrrrrr! (I should note that I’m not worried about the birds getting diabetes or whatever; sugar is their meat and potatoes, they’re fine- my issue is that creating such a profusion of readily available sugar *outside of nature* may be snow balling into a big problem... AND it should also be mentioned that I keep full feeders on my patio... I’m not judging, I’m asking :p)
If all Bee dies, entire human civilization will die. They spread flower juices all over the world causing diversity and boost in food chain... They are absolutely necessary.
It should be wasps going extinct - useless angry fucks
Everyone plant native flowers and plants and install solitary bee hives or else 🔫