We’re pretty sure it’s the Monsanto pesticide and anyone who suggests it is hit with a litigation threat. Curiously, as we’re speed-breeding domesticated bees the wild bees are dying out faster, so as the bee population dwindles it also becomes more domesticated and less wild. I know that’s a bad thing, but I am fuzzy on the why details.
I’m a brown thumb, and plants wilt as my shadow falls on them, but if you’re a green-thumb, plant pollinators, which will help the bees.
Some beekeepers actually mentioned that they’ve been scraping the beeswax clean off their hives more frequently because its known that the beeswax collects pesticides and herbicides over time which affects the colony due to exposure.
The problem is its not just monsanto acid, there’s a ton of other issues also correlated like weather/climate, seasonal flowering, untreated parasites, bacteria, etc.
We’ve literally nuked the environment so hard that even if we fix one problem, the population will not make a full bounce back (although I would think monsanto is the biggest threat)
Biggest scam of this century was corporate produce monoliths convincing people Organic was about health and not the fact that it doesn’t use a scorched earth policy and scam one off hybrid plant seeds to grow food which has been setting us up for a widespread fammine for decades.
Some random superweed is gonna crossbreed with some rapid out of control growth plant and wipe out half of the food chain.
I forget the term for non native, non invasive plants (naturalized?) but those are good too. Native is best, of course. I see a ton of carpenter bees (native bees to my area) on my red clover (non native, non invasive).
Unfortunately, naturalized plants are not good. It’s a scale, with invasive plants being extremely bad. Naturalized plants aren’t as bad. But still bad
In the end, our native insects rely on native plants (with extremely few exceptions to not be distracted by). A native plant can support hundreds or even thousands of species.
A non native / naturalized plants cannot support even a fraction of that. They can also support… Non native insects. Which in turn fuck up the ecosystem, either by displacement or direct damage.
I’m not gonna tell you to rip out naturalized plants like clover. I’m not gonna say you should destroy your garden. You should just know that native plants are superior in literally every possible way, and your NEXT plant choices should be as native as you can get :)
If you can suggest native ground cover that is low maintenance and easy to start I’d consider it. I’m not going to put plugs in my yard when I can just over seed with clover. Clover is strictly better than turf grass.
It is better than turf, but I’m not talking about grass lawns, I’m talking about plants like for a garden. It’s better to have more garden plant masses, less grass lawn.
Most people don’t need as much lawn as they have and reducing down to more what you actually use is great, but it’s totally situational.
If you wanted a NorthEast suggestion for general ground cover I’d say wild strawberry. But if it’s like … Lawn then just stick with what you’re doing.
That’s a good point. I’ve got a little 4x4 raised bed. I didn’t do anything with it last year and haven’t gotten around to anything this year. I’m in the south east. I was considering just dumping a bunch of sunflower seeds in. I’ll try to do some research though and get something better.
Edit: turns out sunflowers are more native than I thought, but might be more Midwest.
Also, the domesticated bees are generally honeybees. And unfortunately, honeybee and wild bees don’t fulfill the same rile, so even if we replaced wild bees with honeybees 1:1, we still wouldn’t be able to polinate everything.
I’ll hop in here and add that your locality probably does pesticide fogging/spraying. For what it is worth, you can ask them not you spray your property. Make some local wildflower patches in your yard. Less stuff you have to mow, more food and habitat for native birds and insects. It’s a win-win.
We’re pretty sure it’s the Monsanto pesticide and anyone who suggests it is hit with a litigation threat. Curiously, as we’re speed-breeding domesticated bees the wild bees are dying out faster, so as the bee population dwindles it also becomes more domesticated and less wild. I know that’s a bad thing, but I am fuzzy on the why details.
I’m a brown thumb, and plants wilt as my shadow falls on them, but if you’re a green-thumb, plant pollinators, which will help the bees.
Also plant milkweed for the monarchs.
Some beekeepers actually mentioned that they’ve been scraping the beeswax clean off their hives more frequently because its known that the beeswax collects pesticides and herbicides over time which affects the colony due to exposure.
The problem is its not just monsanto acid, there’s a ton of other issues also correlated like weather/climate, seasonal flowering, untreated parasites, bacteria, etc.
We’ve literally nuked the environment so hard that even if we fix one problem, the population will not make a full bounce back (although I would think monsanto is the biggest threat)
Biggest scam of this century was corporate produce monoliths convincing people Organic was about health and not the fact that it doesn’t use a scorched earth policy and scam one off hybrid plant seeds to grow food which has been setting us up for a widespread fammine for decades.
Some random superweed is gonna crossbreed with some rapid out of control growth plant and wipe out half of the food chain.
Plant native. Plants that are native to your ecosystem. Those are the true pollinator powerhouse plants that bees need to survive
I forget the term for non native, non invasive plants (naturalized?) but those are good too. Native is best, of course. I see a ton of carpenter bees (native bees to my area) on my red clover (non native, non invasive).
Unfortunately, naturalized plants are not good. It’s a scale, with invasive plants being extremely bad. Naturalized plants aren’t as bad. But still bad
In the end, our native insects rely on native plants (with extremely few exceptions to not be distracted by). A native plant can support hundreds or even thousands of species.
A non native / naturalized plants cannot support even a fraction of that. They can also support… Non native insects. Which in turn fuck up the ecosystem, either by displacement or direct damage.
I’m not gonna tell you to rip out naturalized plants like clover. I’m not gonna say you should destroy your garden. You should just know that native plants are superior in literally every possible way, and your NEXT plant choices should be as native as you can get :)
If you can suggest native ground cover that is low maintenance and easy to start I’d consider it. I’m not going to put plugs in my yard when I can just over seed with clover. Clover is strictly better than turf grass.
It is better than turf, but I’m not talking about grass lawns, I’m talking about plants like for a garden. It’s better to have more garden plant masses, less grass lawn.
Most people don’t need as much lawn as they have and reducing down to more what you actually use is great, but it’s totally situational.
If you wanted a NorthEast suggestion for general ground cover I’d say wild strawberry. But if it’s like … Lawn then just stick with what you’re doing.
That’s a good point. I’ve got a little 4x4 raised bed. I didn’t do anything with it last year and haven’t gotten around to anything this year. I’m in the south east. I was considering just dumping a bunch of sunflower seeds in. I’ll try to do some research though and get something better.
Edit: turns out sunflowers are more native than I thought, but might be more Midwest.
Also, the domesticated bees are generally honeybees. And unfortunately, honeybee and wild bees don’t fulfill the same rile, so even if we replaced wild bees with honeybees 1:1, we still wouldn’t be able to polinate everything.
Honeybees cant buzz pollinate for shit, lazy ass bee
It’s Bayer’s now. Monsanto sold it to Bayer when they started getting heat for neonicotinoids killing all the bees.
I’ll hop in here and add that your locality probably does pesticide fogging/spraying. For what it is worth, you can ask them not you spray your property. Make some local wildflower patches in your yard. Less stuff you have to mow, more food and habitat for native birds and insects. It’s a win-win.
Native plant patches can also absorb some of the harmful crap like pesticides to a degree. It does help.