The Great Honeybee Fallacy

[LDAHL]

There’s an interesting article in the Atlantic that makes a pretty convincing case that honeybees are not in fact threatened as a species. They claim the panic is in large part a cultural artifact. I was surprised to read that, given everything I’ve been told for the last couple of decades.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/05/honeybees-at-risk-cultural-myth/678317/

[catherine]

There’s an interesting article in the Atlantic that makes a pretty convincing case that honeybees are not in fact threatened as a species. They claim the panic is in large part a cultural artifact. I was surprised to read that, given everything I’ve been told for the last couple of decades.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/05/honeybees-at-risk-cultural-myth/678317/

Thank you for posting this. It's an important article... the most important point it makes is that the campaign to save honeybees was driven by the people who profit from them. Meantime, all kinds of species of wild insects are, in fact, dying. But why don't people care? Because insects are more annoying than profitable.

A couple of years ago, I unwittingly nurtured what I thought were pollinating bees, but which were actually yellow jackets. The wasps didn't harm me in the slightest, but they freaked out my neighbor, and my son, and my daughter. I sacrificed them for the people who scolded me for making their outdoor eating experiences far less pleasant, even though no one got stung by any of the wasps.

So this last paragraph of your article really hit home:


What they are getting at is … an inconvenient truth: America does have an insect-biodiversity crisis. It is old and big—much older and much bigger than colony collapse disorder—and so are the solutions to it. The best require returning our environment into something that looks much more like the place the first American honeybees encountered. Having a backyard beehive isn’t the answer to what’s ailing our ecosystem, because having a backyard is the problem. Buying ice cream from a global food conglomerate isn’t the answer, because buying ice cream from a global food conglomerate is the problem. The movement to save the honeybee is a small attempt at unwinding centuries of human intervention in our natural world, at undoing the harms of the modern food system, without having to sacrifice too much. No wonder so many of us wanted to believe.

We need to value wildness for its own sake.. and ultimately, ours.

5849

[iris lilies]

There’s an interesting article in the Atlantic that makes a pretty convincing case that honeybees are not in fact threatened as a species. They claim the panic is in large part a cultural artifact. I was surprised to read that, given everything I’ve been told for the last couple of decades.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/05/honeybees-at-risk-cultural-myth/678317/

I heard that a couple of days ago too. We probably were listening to the same source, but I don’t remember where I heard it. Anyway – yes, the moral panic of the day was for once not those Wascally Wepublicans.

I’m not very interested in native plants even though that’s the big trend right now and has been for several years. We are supposed to tear up our lawns, plant natives, and leave the dry sticks, twigs,and ugly leaves until mid June for all the insects and pollinators to consume.

Yeah, I won’t be doing that. I think it’s kind of cool when someone takes their multi acre spread and plants up part of it in natives, but when most people have a small yard, I don’t think it’s good.

[pinkytoe]

Can we believe anything media feeds us anymore? I am always amazed at the different kinds of bees and wasps in my yard. I was tidying up an area and noticed a very round hole in the ground. Out came a huge buzzing bumblebee - so amazing. I think in the bee world, honeybees are considered invasive anyway.

[iris lilies]

we had several hummingbirds buzzing around lately. I wanted to shout at them to tell them to go find better sources for their sustenance, but they seem happy enough hanging out in my yard.

[LDAHL]

Anyway – yes, the moral panic of the day was for once not those Wascally Wepublicans.
.

Well, they are colonizers. You might be able to convince some students to occupy the Entomology Department and demand divestment of honey-related companies.

[bae]

I leave my yard in forest, though I do remove lower ladder fuels to reduce wildland fire issues.

[Rogar]

It's interesting how when people think of bees the imported European honey bee is the default when there are so hundreds or thousands of species of wild native bees that really are endangered. I don't know that my flower garden was designed with bees in mind, but I get tiny bees, mid-sized metallic green bees, and at least two sizes of bumble bees that buzz around like giant bombers.

Our local university has a bee watch program for citizen scientists to identify what native bees they have in their yards and what flowers or regions they seem to prefer, with the idea of helping the native bee populations. It's been on my list for a couple of years to participate, but have not got to it yet. It's part of a national program, so there might bee one in your area. I for one think wild bumble bees are pretty cool, but understand there are probably people who just don't care about them. They aren't exactly a glamorous mega fauna.

I thought the Atlantic article was decent for a journalist, but the Xerces Society, which she referenced, has a more rounded approach written by scientists.

https://www.xerces.org/blog/want-to-save-bees-focus-on-habitat-not-honey-bees#:~:text=Although%20we%20have%20seen%20colony, a%20real%20risk%20of%20extinction.




"Native plants need native bees. Native bees coevolved with our native plants and often have behavioral adaptations that make them better pollinators than honey bees. For example, buzz-pollination, in which a bee grasps a flower and shakes the pollen loose, is a behavior at which bumble bees and other large-bodied native bees excel, and one that honey bees lack."