Saving Our Bees and Other Pollinators

 

Busy Bee At Work

I'd like to talk about bees and how we can save them. We need bees to pollinate our crops, but they are in trouble due to many factors.  There are steps that we can take to help them out.  One of the easiest is to plant lots of flowers, so there is something blooming in your yards at all times.(see: Minnesota Plants for Bees) Natives are preferred, but any flower helps - as long as they haven't been treated with pesticides.  Unfortunately, most plants and seeds that we buy in nurseries have been treated with these chemicals that threaten, in particularly, our bees.  My neighbor, Margot Monson, sent out an informative letter recently that I would like to share with you.  She knows her bugs and explains the issue well.  She knows her gardening too.  I've been in her back yard.  The tomatoes in particular were amazing! I'll follow up in the next post with her list of nurseries and seed houses that sell untreated plants and seeds. Here is her letter:

For all the gardeners and lovers of healthy ecosystems, please be aware that most nurseries and garden centers, especially the larger ones, are selling seeds and plants pretreated with systemic pesticides.  They are listed by many different names and sold by many companies.  Systemics affect the entire plant, so include the nectar and pollen, and will remain in the roots and soil for years; after perennials die back in the fall, they become a part of the entire plant again the next year.  Contact sprays may be shorter lasting, but if in contact with the flowers,  will affect the pollinating insects.  Even for self pollinating plants, if treated with systemics like our agricultural crops, the insects will still forage on the pollen.

Research is revealing that honey bees are bringing many different synthetic chemicals back to their hives and together with a lack of enough diverse plant resources that provide them adequate nutrition, the pesticides further weaken them, making them more susceptible to diseases. Just like humans, insects need a balanced diet to be well nourished, and they struggle to find diverse resources in our cities and in our rural landscapes devoted to genetically modified monocultures.

As an entomologist and beekeeper, I do not use any synthetic preparations in our gardens, and with a diverse assemblage of plants, I have few pests - occasionally there are large populations of a particular pest species, like the Japanese beetles of 2 years ago which were definitely a problem, but the numbers of predatory wasps, lacewings, beetles, flies, ants & spiders that I regularly see in our gardens take care of anything that does show up.  Honey bees and Monarchs are attracting a lot of attention now because we can recognize & identify them as special and responsible for pollinating at least 1/3 of our food crops, and we can count them, so to speak, so know their numbers are declining rapidly.  However, whatever impacts these insects will affect all our pollinators, and there are thousands of different species of native insect pollinators at risk as well.

Please ask the managers and growers of the nurseries and garden centers where you purchase your seeds and plants, and ask the catalog companies if they are using seeds pretreated with systemic pesticides and if they pretreat their plants as well - our laws do not require pesticide labeling, so you will not know unless you ask.  If they do not know or will not disclose, then go elsewhere.  We need all our native insects for us to have healthy environments to grow our gardens and for all our wild creatures, including the insectivorous birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, and so us.

I have been researching the local nurseries and garden centers about their methods by calling and asking questions and am compiling a list to share of those I feel who are answering my questions candidly, and several have.  This is by no means exhaustive, and I welcome any additions that you are aware of.  Please contact me off line if you have additional information and/or are interested in a copy.  I also have papers with more detailed explanations of what scientists are finding and can give you the references.  One good one is in the MN Conservation Volunteer:  A Sticky Situation for Pollinators by BrianDeVore  July-Aug 2009;  Yes, this is not new information, so we need to be responding now before it is too late.  I have included it below.

Happy spring planting and may your gardens be buzzing this summer!

Margot Monson