arthropods

[lobelia321]

I am very sad about the bees.

And very worried. We have a buddleia globosa in our garden which is a beautiful huge bush with sphere-shaped yellow flowers that bloom for three weeks every year around this time. A few years ago this bush was one big ball of bees buzzing for the entire time. They love those little round flowers! I once sat surrounded by this bush, as in a bower, and listened to the buzzing all around me. No bee came near me as they were all much too interested in the bush. It was glorious.

This year I'm seeing hardly any bees. And today I found two dead bees underneath the bush.

I am very worried. I want to get a hive and plant bee-friendly flowers and put the hive in the back of our garden.

It's weird; back in the 70s we used to have fantasies about a post-nuclear-holocaust world in which human life had become extinct and insects ruled the roost. And now: it's the insects' survivals we're having to be worried about. Because ours depend on it.

P.S. I know, of course, that my icon is not a bee. But it is an arthropod!

Comments

[junalele.livejournal.com]

Damn. But I thought the bees were better again, that they recovered from those....was it 'Milben'?

It is really weird. I remember not eating outside in summer because there would be trizillions of wasps. And I remember standing in front of the Schmetterlingsbüsche in my parents' garden and petting one of the many butterflies being too high on the nectar to care. Now, you can easily eat out all summer and there is maybe one butterfly on those bushes at a time. Just not right.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

The disappearance of butterflies is also very sad. They are importing New Zealand bees back into England because so many bee species have become extinct in the UK. But one strain was exported to NZ in the 19th century and is now being brought back here. :-(

[junalele.livejournal.com]

How sad is that? Good God.

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

Um. While I get that disappearing bees is a bad thing, I'm also just a little bit relieved since I'm slightly allergic. Though I'm more afraid of wasps; they seem more unpredictable. If there's a patch of flowers, I can sort of trust bees to buzz there happily but wasps seem to zoom around dangerously and not care about the flowers.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

But if bees die out that means the end of pollination and that is basically the death of us. Also the end of honey!! :-(

[azdak.livejournal.com]

When I read this, I rushed out to check out to check my lavender bushes. Which are usually a bee magnet. And, thankfully, there are bees there this year, although I do have the vague feeling that there were an awful lot more last summer. But Wolfgang, who used to do bee-keeping when we lived in Oxford, says that worldwide the bee population is undergoing a worrying decline - you should definitely get a hive! But only if you like pottering, because they need a fair bit of attention over the year.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Ooh, hello, newfound living-locally friend! *waves somewhat nervously but also excitedly*

Oh good, I am very relieved you still have bees! So can a private non-apiculturist actually embark on this beekeeping venture? How did your Wolfgang 'do' bees?? And what sort of attention is it they need? And what happens if you move house?

[azdak.livejournal.com]

This is a good place to start.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Wow. I just spent a good 20 minutes reading all of the info for bee-newbies. Thank you!