BeeCause

I love this photograph of two pollinators visiting summer flowers. That’s a honeybee on the left, and a big, fat bumblebee on the right. I love to watch bees, all kinds of bees, and other pollinators enliven my garden. But you have probably heard that honey bees are severely threatened by a syndrome that has been named Colony Collapse Disorder. Although multiple causes may be implicated, the smoking gun points to one major culprit: neonicotinoid pesticides. And you can bet that it’s not just honeybees that are being affected. Other pollinators, birds and aquatic life are all at risk as well.

In Europe, precautionary bans of some neonicotinoids are being instituted.

The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association is supporting a call for a ban of neonicotinoids in Ontario. The banner, above, is from their website. You can sign their petition and read more information at ontariobee.com.

The Sierra Club of Canada is also supporting a ban. You can sign their petition and read more information at Sierraclub.ca.

The American Bird Conservancy have looked into the effect of neonicotinoids on birds.

ABC commissioned world-renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research. The 100-page report, “The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds,” reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act. The report evaluates the toxicological risk to birds and aquatic systems and includes extensive comparisons with the older pesticides that the neonicotinoids have replaced. The assessment concludes that the neonicotinoids are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.

The beauty of bees and the desperate crisis that threatens them, and by extension, us, is documented in the award-winning video, The Vanishing of the Bees. I was able to borrow a copy from my local library and highly recommend it.

Another source is David Suzuki’s Nature of Things special, To Bee or Not to Bee. If you missed this show, you can still watch it online. Time well-spent.

In addition to becoming informed and supporting a ban on neonicotinoids, you can help by buying local organic honey. Did you know that a lot of commercial honey isn’t pure? It has been ultra-filtered to disguise ingredients:

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.

Food Safety News found that more than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores had been ultra-filtered.

Note: additional images here are copied from my facebook page where they arrived from unknown sources.

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Busy Bush

At the corner of the house, there is a large hydrangea bush. Over the past few weeks, it has been putting on a magnificent display, with huge cones of flowers billowing over it. The flowers are much appreciated by a host of pollinators. The large, showy clusters of flowers mean that insects visiting the bush aren’t always conspicuous as they move from bloom to bloom. Rather, as you walk past the apparently-empty bush, you become aware of the hum of many insects at work. When you stop to look, it is clear that the bush is host to a small army of workers. Here are a few of the visitors.

The most conspicuous visitors are butterflies. Pictured above is a Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus), while below is a rather battered-looking Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma).

A few flies were among the visitors. The individual below may be a Greenbottle (Lucilia sp.).

The striped bottom shown here seems to be that of a Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata).

This yellow-striped bottom is probably that of an Eastern Yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons).

I was happy to see quite a number of Honey Bees (Apis mellifera).

This fuzzy bee, probably a Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) rounds out my roster of visitors. Undoubtedly, many others are also enjoying this bountiful hydrangea.

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Now, that’s a First Lady!

There is lots of talk about food these days. Slow food. Local food. Organic food. And now, no less a personage than Michelle Obama is leading the way to a healthy, locally grown, DIY organic diet. With help from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and a group of fifth graders, a 1,100 square foot vegetable garden was recently planted at the White House, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden of World War II. It has quickly become one of the most high-profile vegetable gardens in the world. The garden will provide fresh vegetables and herbs for the first family’s meals and formal dinners. In addition, it is hoped that the garden will play another important role, teaching children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern.

The garden will also include a couple of hives of honey bees, highlighting the plight of pollinators, with White House carpenter Charlie Brandts serving as the First Beekeeper.

Not everyone has been positively impressed by Mrs. Obama’s new organic garden, however. The pesticide industry is offended. In a letter, Mid America CropLife Association, an industry association representing more than 60 companies, set out information about the benefits of technology and pesticides in agriculture.

If you would like to follow Mrs. Obama’s example, but don’t have the time, space or inclination to grow your own vegetables, you can still enjoy farm-fresh organic produce. CSA farms (Community Supported Agriculture) are on the rise. To find one near you, check out the Ontario CSA site, or google your own locality.

Photo credit: Official White House, from The Daily Green.

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