Plight of the bumblebee
Posted on June 24, 2007 - Filed Under Activism, bees, colony collapse disorder, fireflies, spiders
Last summer, we were swarmed by bees. We have several flowering trees in our front yard and you could hear the buzzing inside with the windows closed. Upon closer inspection of the trees, you would find thousands of honey bees. It was a bit intimidating and I generally kept my distance since as a kid I was highly allergic to bee stings. I’ve hopefully outgrown my allergy, but I don’t really want to test it out.
This summer, we’ve noticed very few bees. The trees are still flowering crazily, but the number of bees buzzing around is drastically reduced. I’ve been reading a bit bout CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder (everything has to have a title and acronym if it’s to be taken seriously), which has claimed 90% of the commercial bee population. From what I understand, as the name implies, bees stop returning to their hive or stop contributing to the upkeep of their hive which results in the social and physical collapse of the hive. I’m not sure where the bees are going or if they are simply dying off. I also don’t know how this affects the non-commercial bee population, but if the drop in the natural bee population around our house is any indication, then my guess is they are being affected as well. I do know that this doesn’t bode well for the pollination of veggies and fruits, and therefore our food supplies.
Not surprisingly, scientists and experts can’t understand why this is happening. Hmmm…I have a few ideas:
- High usage of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. You can’t convince me that putting poison on food we eat not only negatively affects me, as a consumer, but also the insects who play an important part in the creation of this food.
- Genetically modified seeds and plants. Nature has created this excellent system which mankind just has to “improve.” Bigger, better, faster, more, more. Yet we have no idea how messing with the genetic structure of a plant or animal affects other plants or animals.
Every little action has a reaction…and not all of them are good. And perhaps, one cause is not the culprit, but a combination of causes (hey, it’s not just our fault…yea, it’s all of your faults).
Another insect I’m missing, although for purely aesthetic as opposed to practical reasons, is the firefly. I remember seeing droves of fireflies as a kid when I spent my summers here with my grandparents. I had visions of the stars twinkling in the sky and the fireflies twinkling in the air around me, like being in a bowl of Christmas lights. Nightly, I see a gazillion stars, but I have seen one firefly since we moved here. Really, one. Have we killed them off too or have they just moved to greener pastures? Who else have we unwittingly done away with?
Insects I unfortunately haven’t noticed a decrease in: flies, gnats and spiders. Spiders. Every nook and cranny has a spider living in it. Huge daddy long legs and jumping (it’s not bad enough they have 8 creeping legs and glowing eyes) wolf spiders live in abundance here. For several years now, I have had nightmares about spiders. Being confronted with them on a daily basis seems to have lessened my issues with them…a bit. I don’t really have much of a choice since I’m surrounded. Or maybe since I’m bombarded with them during the day, my psyche seems satisfied that I don’t need to be bombarded with visions of them at night. On a positive note, they eat lots of flies, but they’re going to have to eat a lot more flies in order to win me over.
Comments
Leave a Reply