We have all heard of the plight of the Bee, here in the UK we are campaigning to save the Bee, hoping we can somehow stop their decline.
The story that emerged a week or so ago, on Sky News, about the death of 50.000 honey bees found below the trees in a store car park in Oregon, US, was tragic and shocking. It turned out that the bees were busily pollinating the linden flowers on the linden-trees surrounding the car park. Bees love lime flowers, the scent to them is like heaven on earth. Unbeknown to them these trees had been freshly sprayed with various pesticides including ‘safari’ a deadly poison to insects and that includes the honey bee. They were targeting insects called aphids. They live in the lime tree to which they are a pest. They also excrete a sticky substance that causes marks and dirt on the people windscreens. Apparently customers had complained and this is why this exercise was carried out. Lime flowers are used in herbal therapy as a nervine, an aid to digestion and sleep. The honey from the flowers is regarded one of the best flavoured and most valuable in the world.( a modern herbal, by Mrs Grieves) Obviously all they are now is pretty but useless. This spray is so toxic that the men administering these poisons were wearing heavy gear and masks to protect themselves from inhaling the fumes. They did not connect to the thought that the lime flowers were in full bloom at the time of fumigation and undoubtedly attractive to the bumble bees for pollination.
In Europe the decline in the number of bees has been noted for several years. But now it is so critical that we must control this accelerated, excessive use of these poisons. Of course the US has been importing bees from Australia and even China for some years. But these bees don’t survive. They appear to have severe digestive problems, when dissected after their death and their colons are blackened and dried up similar to a human with late stage colon cancer and also they have no immune system.
Last year, In Poland, a link has been established with CCD, (colony collapse disorder) where they were using GMO corn. This corn is already impregnated with pesticide so the farmer does not have a need to spray. The pesticide is also present in the pollen of the corn. As the bees tend to collect and store this pollen, over a period of time they would have ingested enough to kill their entire colony.
Most of Europe is now banning GMO. The combination of toxic pesticides and GM farming is clearly having a detrimental effect on the surrounding environment. Of which the long term impact, environmentally, economically and on human and animal health is yet to be understood, but it is clearly something that must be stopped.