Bees Deserve Our Kindness!

Imagine this: you plant acres and acres of a single crop, ignoring the time honoured wisdom of 'if you build it, they will come.'

If only this farmer had thought to include an ant garden
to ranch those aphids. Yee haw!

An animal, let's say an insect, that eats that crop is all like "It's a buffet! There is endless food here! Holy moly!" etc.

Said insect goes to town, eating and eating and eating. Because of the fact that there is only a single crop for acres in every direction, the more temperamental predators who could control that population explosion are likely nowhere to be found - at least, not yet. Maybe a few of them have arrived and are slowly expanding their populations to deal with their own buffet.

But, you don't have time for that. So you spray the place with stuff that is meant to kill insects. Sometimes, you skip the story altogether and plant seeds pre-treated with insecticides.

Not only does this kill off whatever predators may have been able to help you defend your crop (if they can find the proper habitat among all that corn or wheat), giving the original 'pest' insects a chance to swoop back in and chomp merrily again...

Well, it's going to kill all sorts of other insects, too.

Like Bees.

Last year, almost 150 million acres were planted in seeds treated with neonicotinoids - nicotine based insectides or pesticides. Bees exposed to these chemicals, which are actually nerve toxins, get lost. They can't find their way back to their hives. Sound familiar?

Colony Collapse Disorder is the name given to mysteriously abandoned beehives all over North America.  This strange affliction is causing bee populations to dwindle. 

Worse, hives exposed to neonicotinoids produce up to 85% fewer queens - meaning that there are 85% fewer new colonies being established to replace those destroyed by Colony Collapse Disorder.

Oh yeah, and then there's the fact that we eat the food that is crawling in nerve toxins made from nicotine. It reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons when Homer's creative use of nuclear waste results in a hybrid tomato and tobacco plant.

Needless to say, hilarity ensues, as various barnyard animals become addicted to the snack and go on a wild, possibly-nerve-toxin induced rampage.

But I digress.

There is a very important petition that you can sign to help reduce the impact of these terrible chemicals on our bumblebee friends.

They deserve our help.