Bees are in serious trouble. The tiny little pollinators, which save U.S. farmers billions of dollars in pollination services, are dying off by the thousands—a travesty that has led many a home gardener to plant “bee-friendly” plants in his or her yard or garden to provide a refuge for bees, far away from the toxic agricultural pesticides many scientists believe could be playing a role in their die-off.
But a new report, titled Gardeners Beware: Bee-Toxic Pesticides Found in “Bee-Friendly” Plants Sold at Garden Centers Nationwide, from Friends of the Earth US, Pesticide Action Network, and the Pesticide Research Institute finds that home gardens could be poisoning bees just as badly as large farms. The groups bought plants marketed as “bee-friendly” at big-box home-improvement stores in the Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Minneapolis metropolitan areas, and found that 7 out of 13 tested positive for neonicotinoids, pesticides known to be deadly to bees.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced that the agency has developed new pesticide labels that will sound an alarm on any neonicotinoid pesticide, whether for use in homes or on large farms. The labels state that the use of those pesticides is prohibited anywhere bees are present.
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Plant Wildflowers
Attract and feed wild bees by growing lots of flowering plants from spring though fall, especially native wildflowers, which attract not only bees but also birds and other wildlife that thrive in your local climate.Leave Your Yard Alone
Keep a part of your landscape uncultivated. Many native bee species are solitary, rather than social, meaning they don’t build hives. Some nest in the ground, others, in shrubby, weedy areas.
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Article source: Rodale’s Organic Life
Image source: same as above