Quote:
Originally Posted by Balvenieman
General Schvantzkoph wrote:
In other good news, I have a concord grape arbor in my yard. This morning
I noticed that it was swarming with honey bees.
In what way is that "good" news? You have a problem: Because of
their herding behavior that leads to total domination of food sources,
AWA their spreading of diseases and infestations (mites) against which
native populations have no defenses, European honeybees are decimating
native solitary bee (such as bumblebee) populations; how, one might well
ask, is that a "good" thing?
The very behavior patterns that make "tame" European honeybees so
highly valuable to commercial, mono-cropping, Earth-damaging
"AGRICULTUREmoneymoneymoney" are the same behavior patterns that, along
with their diseases and parasites, make them so devastating to native
insect populations. The presence of honeybees in the "woodlands" is
always --100% the fault of negligent beekeepers--. Allowing honeybees
to roam freely in the "native" or "undeveloped" bush has exactly the
same deleterious effect as does allowing cattle, goats, and sheep (also
alien species) to do so, the scale is just different and we don't _see_
it happening, and the perpetrators deserve jail time, IMO, because it's
absolutely preventable. In my view, herders of domestic beasts do not
have a "right" to inflict them on the native ecosystem but, instead,
have a duty to that system to contain and control their animals.
I start most of my days killing honey bee scouts in order to
prevent them carrying the news of my garden to their pestiferous
fellows. Not only do I consider bee-killing to be an essential home
gardening activity, I believe it should be a priority of any gardener
who wants to minimize his impact on the native ecosystem and do his
little part in preserving native insect species.
With an early start each morning, it is easy enough to intercept
and kill the scout bees in order to prevent them from bringing the rest
of the herd to a truck garden but I don't know about grape vine; depends
on how aerial it is, I suppose. As a rule, I certainly don't recommend
any insexticide but, in your case, the thing to do might be to locate
the honeybees' nest and take out the entire hive at night when most of
its inhabitants are present and lethargic or occupied with domestic
duties. The few stragglers that spent the night away from the hive are
not likely to be of sufficient number to maintain it.
--
the Balvenieman
USDA zone 9b, peninsular Florida, U.S.A.
If your neighbor has a cow,
_He_ builds the fence. |
I think you'd better get your facts straight. First of all, the tracheal and varroa mites that are killing honey bees do not have ANY effect on native bees, so they are not "decimating native solitary bee populations" in any way. Secondly, your claim that honey bees "totally dominate food sources" depends entirely on the variety and number of plants in the area. There are many flowers that honey bees will not enter due to their shape and size, leaving nectar and pollen sources for native bees, and solitary bees fly longer hours, and in rainy and windy weather, when honey bees stay in the hive. And are you aware that native bumble bees are also used as 'managed' pollinators?
How disturbing that you begin your day killing honey bees. Like it or not, one out of every three bites of food we eat depends upon pollinators, and native bees cannot accomplish that alone - even if every honey bee disappeared. We need to encourage all types of pollinators, including honey bees.
So instead of killing, here's a healthier solution to the pollinator demands of our food system: let's all concentrate on improving habitat in our gardens and on our farms by planting native wildflowers and flowering shrubs into field borders, hedgerows, and buffer strips. This approach will reduce the need for all managed pollinators (both native and non-native) by supporting vigorous wild bee populations.