Save our bees before it is too late

What do you do if a Bee buzzes around your head? Do you flap and swat the poor creature or think thank heavens we still have Bees?

If you live in the UK you should definitely be doing the latter, but perhaps no matter where you live this should be your stance.

Wild Honey Bees in the UK have all but gone.

They are to all extents and purposes extinct.

If we do not treat our environment with a little more respect even honey bees in managed hives in the UK will vanish. Already their numbers are dwindling.

There are many reasons for their demise but a notable one is the use of pesticides.

However in the UK the urban spread has not helped. Add to this the Brits love affair with their cars and you have double trouble.

In cities residents, even those with garages, have willingly ravaged their gardens and block-paved, laid concrete and more in order to provide off road parking. Similar has been done to make gardens low maintenance. The result has been a move back to a concrete jungle.

It is of course possible to block pave areas and still have some trees and shrubs but it needs careful consideration and thought.

The UK government said at one time it would halt some of the paving to small terraced gardens. This was deemed necessary as those changes had added to potential flood problems. In most cities though nothing has changed for the better yet

We can all do our bit to encourage Bees and enable them to thrive.

Plants such as Buddleias, Lavender, wild flowers, herbs, shrubs and trees will all encourage bees into your garden. The bonus is they will attract birds also plus these plants look and in some cases smell good.

Researchers have worked out the labour intensive work and cost of hand pollination, should the number of bees dwindle excessively, and it is worrying.

Working on the assumption that only the minimum wage would be paid, the mail online reported that, "Using humans with paintbrushes to pollinate crops including apples, pears, strawberries, oilseed rape, field beans, courgettes, peaches and plums would cost £1.8bn - the equivalent of 60,000 teachers or nurses. The shocking figure wa srevealed foir years ago just a week after two studies found pesticides are stopping bees finding their way home.

University of Reading, researcher. Professor Potts said: ‘It’s a very high figure and just rams the point home of the economic sense of protecting wild pollinators which do an incredible job. ‘It’s a no-brainer. We need to take action, and the government is just starting to wake up to that.’

As increased technology looks set to limit traditional work available perhaps hand pollinating plants will be a growth industry? Perhaps robots will fill in for Bees?

A much better option though is to save our bees.

http://www.nfuonline.com/cross-sector/environment/bees-and-pollinators/bees-and-pollinators-news/bees-and-neonicotinoids-whats-it-all-about/
http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/why-bees-need-help/