Delia McCrae Article and Photos

These tiny, fuzzy, buzzing creatures that pollinate plants and provide delectable honey are in decline and need our help.

The bee’ s superpower is its ability to pollinate, which is key to the ongoing health of the plant world and the world’ s ecosystems. When bees suck nectar from flowers for energy, pollen sticks to their fuzzy bodies. As they go from flower to flower, they pollinate plants. Once a bee returns to the hive, it deposits the nectar to nourish larvae and transform into honey. The honey is stored in the wax honeycomb for later consumption by bees and humans.

Wind and other insects pollinate plants like wheat and corn, but bees are important pollinators of many foods humans depend on for sustenance. Bees pollinate apples, blueberries, cucumbers, almonds, pumpkins, sunflowers, and far too many more to mention here.

It is difficult to envision our planet without plants and food crops, but the critical decline in global bee populations has raised concerns. Some of the reasons behind this decline are habitat loss caused by industry, large scale monocultural agriculture, deforestation, urban sprawl, and accompanying factors such as crop dusting and the increasing use of pesticides.

Bees are fragile creatures. Native bees in North America are in decline, in part, because of competition from bees introduced from elsewhere and the practice of moving hives for pollination. If an imported bee carries a disease when it comes to North America, it can spread throughout an entire colony and beyond. These diseases can affect native bees and decimate a bee population.

In recent years, increased use of insecticides called neonicotinoids has raised red flags. Neonics, once applied, stay in the soil, eventually leaching into streams and affecting the entire ecosystem. Studies show that bees encountering plants sprayed

Giant purple allium, or wild onion, is easy to grow and a magnet for bees

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