Herbicides and Pesticides
Lots of folks are getting plants in the ground, especially here in the south.
I know there are some less lethal, more natural methods of removing weeds and pests, and I won't go into that here. What I would like to remind everyone is that honeybees like garden plants too. Especially cucurbit plants, like squash and watermelons. Please keep the bees in mind when you spray whatever you use.
Bees will get out and forage (in my yard) from about 10 a.m. this time of year, until about 5 p.m. Spraying should be done after the bees have gone to sleep. Bees are social creatures, and communicate inside the hive, in the dark, through grooming, dances, vibrations, and pheromones. This will put a bee with herbicide or pesticide on it inside the hive, killing many of the others.
Bees of all types, not just apis mellifera, are responsible for pollinating your plants and providing good yield from them. I witnessed a few german bees on some plants this week, covered from head to tail with a good dusting of pollen. Carpenter bees, while a nuisance, have longer mouth parts and are able to pollinate other plants that honeybees and german bees cannot get into with their short mouth parts.
Observation is key to knowing the times and conditions when bees will be in your garden. Please spray your poisons after they have gone home for the night. They are very important to us all!
One 40+ year beekeeper not far up the road from me has witnessed firsthand the destructive force of crop-dusters and pesticides being sprayed, and had a major die off of most of his bees in ALL his hives. There is a lot of talk about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In my opinion, and the opinion of a multitude of bk's I've talked with over the last year say CCD is a myth; hype; bogus b.s. Pesticides play a major part in unexplainable deaths of honeybee populations. Between the sprays, and natural diseases and pests that the bees deal with, many of the pests being carriers of diseases, we could presumambly eliminate this mysterious "CCD" and very scientifically discover the causes through expensive testing. Most beekeepers are not wealthy, and in hindsight, the bees are already dead and aren't coming back. The major thing I blame is PESTICIDES being sprayed IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, WHEN BEES ARE OUT FORAGING.
We use less destructive remedies, like soapy water, pepper-spray, and simple weeding and companion planting.
If you can't kill the bad bugs without killing the good ones...
