For millions of years, both bees and flowers have co-evolved to help each other in pollination. Bees help plants by traveling the pollen from flower to flower, as it sits on their bodies, and they in return feed on it. There are flowers that depend very significantly on bees to reproduce. In fact, 35% of the world's agricultural land is supported by bees for pollination.
Over the past century, bee populations have plummeted and some have been listed as endangered, leaving their ecosystems vulnerable.
What are the reasons why bees are endangered?
Global warming - droughts, increased flooding, changes in the flowering season of flowering plants threaten the survival of bees as the environment becomes less and less friendly to them.
Industrialized farming techniques - Monocultures - this type of farming provides bees with a source of nutrients resulting in poor health and increased hive transport to meet their nutritional needs, which causes stress
Globalization - this facilitates the transmission of pests and other invasive species from different ecosystems that prey on bees, such as the Asian hornet that is capable of decimating entire hives in hours.
Heavy use of pesticides - they are toxic, affect the ability to learn, navigate, remember (so they return to the hive), cause lethargy making it difficult to gather food, etc.
What can we do to prevent their disappearance?
- Deforestation prevention
- Use only approved pesticides that are not harmful to pollinator populations
- Buy organic products
- Use of essential oils. Some essential oils such as peppermint and thyme have insect repellent properties. When used as natural pesticides they can help control pest populations without harming beneficial insects such as bees. Other essential oils such as cedarwood are known to repel ants and beetles, which can disturb bee nests.
- Planting aromatic plants on balconies and gardens that attract bees such as mint, spearmint, sage, rosemary, lavender, thyme but also flowers such as rose, geranium, calendula.
- Buy local honey to support local beekeeping
- Protection of bees and appropriate information so that there is no fear of them that leads to their killing every day.
So there are many ways in which we can contribute to the protection of bees. The easiest ones are to plant aromatic plants on our balcony and in our garden, and to use more essential oils in our daily life. So not only will we have fresh herbs, but we will also help the bees of our country in our own way.
