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I recently discovered that my 15-year-old daughter has developed a strong dislike of bees. Something about the way she ran, squealing from a manuka, covered in blossom, and buzzing with bees, yelling “aahhhh – bees! Get them away!” suggested that this may be the case.
Fond memories of the days when she toddled around the garden with me, excitedly peering into flowers to watch bees at work, came to mind. What has happened in the intervening 12 years? As far as we know, she is not allergic to stings, but no amount of her parents talking about how our food supply is reliant on bees, how fascinating and hard working they are, or even how much we all love honey, has made any difference.
It seems to be an example of a separation from the environment, with soil seen as “dirty” and insects (any insects) best avoided.
I hope this will change in time, as we certainly put the groundwork in as parents. I would encourage parents, caregivers and other educators to lead by example and show children that people are part of the natural world, not separate from it. It obviously doesn’t always work, but we do the best we can!
By contrast, I am over the moon when I see bees buzzing around the flowering plants in my garden. The discovery of a bumblebee nest at the base of our banana palms last week was also a cause for excitement.
More than ever, bees need our help. And the things we can do as gardeners are not onerous –simply planting more flowering plants to provide a source of nectar, and avoiding the use of toxic insecticides, is a great start. Looking around the Coast, I can see that it is possible to create gardens almost totally devoid of flowering plants, but although I’m no cottage gardener I can’t imagine why you’d do that.
In my garden, roses and citrus trees are in bloom now, as well as cabbage trees, bottlebrush, banksia, gazanias and lavender. Later in the season many of my herbs will be flowering and bees love those, especially rosemary and sage.
There is a list on the National Beekeepers Association of NZ website (www.nba.org.nz) of plants suitable for urban gardens that are particularly great for bees.
According to that site, nearly three-quarters of the diversity of our daily food is directly attributed to pollination by bees. So, while bees are crucial to our food supply, humans have unthinkingly threatened the bees’ food supply through loss of habitat and pesticide use. It is just another example of what can happen when we think of ourselves as separate from our environment and don’t respect the interconnectedness of all living things.
More than just bees
Research released this month by Plant & Food Research highlights that importance of other insects in pollination.
The study found that “non-bee” insects are as important as honeybees in pollinating flowers. The global research team analysed honeybee, other bee and non-bee insect visits to 480 fields of 17 different crop types on five continents.
The research found that total pollination services were the same for honeybees and non-bee insects (38 percent), with around 23 percent provided by other bees.
“Honey bees are well-documented as effective pollinators of many crops, but this research shows that insects such as flies, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths, are just as important,” says Brad Howlett of Plant & Food Research.
Editor, Hibiscus Matters
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