You’ve probably heard by now, bees are dying. We recently got bees at my house, if you would like to read more about that I have another post about them. There are over 20,000 species of bees, 4,000 of them are native to the United States. Today I’m going to talk about why they’re dying and why it’s important that they don’t. I also will address how you can help.
Why are bees dying?
There are many reasons bees. One of them is fire. In some places we are intentionally burning areas of land to get rid of growing plants so we can plant new plants. This has many benefits but it can also destroy bee hives. Pesticides used on farmland also kill bees. Because of global warming bees are dying from high heat as well. There are many more things that kill bees, but I could only talk about a few.
Why are bees important?
The answer to this question is simple, they pollinate our food. As you most likely know the earth contains several intertwined ecosystems. When one part of an ecosystem is endangered or extinct it throws off the whole system. The same is true for bees. Bees are the main pollinators in the United States. If they go extinct our food will not grow as it would if there were still bees. If there were no bees more of earths population would go hungry.
How can you help?
The most obvious answer to this question is plants. Certain flowers are really good for bees, and can help them get the pollen and nectar they need to survive. Some of the best flowers for bees are bee balm, echinacea, black eyed susan, and even dandelions. I have a whole other post about how great dandelions are. One other really important thing you can do is learn more abut bees and what they need, and then share it with others. If you really want to protect the bees you can start your own garden. This will help because then you won’t be using pesticides that are used to grow vegetables form the grocery store.
