We've been trying to save the wrong bees

[sl8]

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/11/1250784224/weve-been-trying-to-save-the-wrong-bees
(6 min. audio, transcript at link)

We've been trying to save the wrong bees

MAY 11, 2024 5:58 PM ET
HEARD ON ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
6-Minute Listen

Popular slogans and ad campaigns have urged the public to save honeybees. But reports suggest those efforts were directed at saving the wrong bees.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

For years now, conventional wisdom, popular slogans and ad campaigns have heralded the same message - we need to save the honeybees. Products from peanut butter to shampoo were proudly declared bee friendly, and companies promised to do their part to promote bee conservation. But do honeybees actually need saving? Joining us now is Rich Hatfield, a bee conservationist with the Xerces Society. Rich, thanks for being here.

RICH HATFIELD: Thanks so much for having me.

DETROW: Let's start with this popular idea that we had for years that we needed to save the honeybees. Where did that come from, the idea that honeybees were at risk of extinction?

HATFIELD: Well, I think back in the mid-2000s, we started losing a large number of honeybee hives to kind of a mystery disease that we called colony collapse disorder at the time. And honeybee keepers were losing, you know, upwards of 50% of their hives every winter at that time, and people got concerned. They learned that, you know, 1 out of 3 bites of food that we eat comes from plants that were pollinated by a bee. And they learned that - you know, they knew that honeybees were important for that. And so there was this sort of large movement to save the bees. And so I think people sort of just learned honeybees are in trouble, and I need to do something.

[...]

[GreenWave]

1. Flies prepared to pollinate! Here they come to save the day!

Stop swatting them.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/flies.shtml

PS some flies have discovered those Japanese beetles and lay their eggs on them!

[NickB79]

5. Those maggots eat the Japanese beetles from the inside out

Finding lots of those white spots here in Minnesota, which is a godsend.

[Think. Again.]

2. Luckily...

...the same efforts to protect the charismatic Honeybees are also protecting the native bees and other pollinators we depend on for..well..our lives.

[sl8]

3. Mr. Hatfield suggests that some of the efforts to save honeybees may adversely affect the wild bees.

I.e, by installing more and more honeybee hives in an effort to save the honeybees, it adds increased competition to already stressed native bee populations.

[getagrip_already]

4. Not necessarily true

In many cases, the bees feed on different flowers. Their proboscus are different lengths and they are specific to certain flower types.

Also, more pollinators mean more flowers for pollinators to feed on.

The real pressure on pollinators is NOT honeybees, it's your damn green lawns and ornamental hedges and bushes.

Pollinators need flowers. Even clover, dandelions, blackberries, wild berries, goldenrod, wildflowers of all kinds. Everything your lawn care company has billed you monthly to kill. Everything you spend your weekends eradicating.

You want to know what's killing pollinators? Look at your own yard.

Note: I don't mean you specifically. I mean society. We live in urban and suburban desserts.

[Wonder Why]

6. In NM we used to have lots of rock gardens and lawns. The bees were welcome to polinate them.

[Think. Again.]

7. Yes, the push to be more concened about pollinators is helpin in many ways...

...and that push uses Honeybees as a charismatic species to attract the participation of the public. The efforts included in "save the bees" PR is helping to protect pollnators across the board, some of which would be a hard sell to get the public to apprciate.

[calimary]

8. Interesting thread. Learn something new every day!