World Bee Day is celebrated every year on May 20th. The annual event takes place every year to raise awareness for the essential role bees and other pollinators play in our and the planet’s survival. (World Bee Day first came about in 2017 after the United Nations adopted the celebration from the Slovenian Beekeepers Association.) Today, bees face threats from our industrialized way of life such as climate change, pesticides and lost habitats. Pollinators like bees are behind nearly all our crops worldwide, and so much of the food we eat such as fruit, vegetables and seeds, including crops eaten by livestock too. Without these intelligent creatures we would struggle to produce enough food to feed everyone, which is why it is so important we do all we can to protect them!
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What can you do to protect bees?
♥ Use only non-toxic weed-killer in your garden
♥ Mow your grass less
♥ Plant bee-friendly flowers (like lavender!) that are essential for pollinators. A study by scientists at the University of Sussex found that lavender grosso plants are a favorite among bumblebees.
♥ Buy honey from independent brands…this helps local beekeepers cover costs of protecting bees
♥ If you see an exhausted bee – often one that’s away from nature or flowers – experts advise that you move it onto a nearby plant or ensure it’s out of harm’s way and feed it a couple of drops of the sugary water solution
♥ Recommend Bees as a topic for students to research and write about
♥ Give to bee protection charities
♥ Get a bee house!
See other FIREPAW posts about bees:
The secret lives of honey bees
To the Rescue with Artisan Bee Hotels
Bee Sanctuary Owner: Morgan Freeman
Bee Havens: Holland Converts Bus Stops to Bee-Helping EcoSystems
Bees Smarter than Thought, Can Link Symbols to Numbers: New study
McHive: Tiny MickeyDs to Save Bees
The intelligence, memory and planning capabilities, and emotions of Bumblebees
The Birds and the Bees: New Scientific Studies
Bees Know What Nothing Is: New study
Bee Talk, Health Monitored by Technology-based Science
How do birds and bees cool off during hot summer days?
Pesticides Sterilizing Bees: New Study
Impending insect apocalypse threatens human health and well-being
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Also see this just in (May 20, 2022):
Honeybee Populations Could Be Wiped Out Worldwide By Wing Virus
The virus variant, which causes serious damage to the insects’ wings before killing them eventually, has been detected by an international group of researchers…The new variant of the virus is spread by varroa mites which are widely considered one of the biggest threats to honeybees in the world.
KW
FIREPAW, Inc. 