Honey Bee Colony Port Charlotte Fl.

The Bee’s Needs

Pollinators, what are they? Simply put a Pollinator is “anything that carries pollen from the male part of the flower (Stamen), to the female (Pistil).” www.nps.org So who provides this service? Pollinators come in many shapes, sizes and species. We all know that bees and butterflies are pollinators, but how about flies, moths and bats? Anything that spreads pollen from one plant to another can be considered a pollinator. That’s right. That means mammals like bears and humans.

The pollinator that is in the most danger is the bee. There are many reasons for this both natural and man-made. There are parasites like the varron mite which bite the bee and feed on its blood and injects a pathogen and there are viruses that can kill honey bees in all stages of life. Both of these are factors in Colony Collapse Disorder, (CCD). CCD happens when a Colony loses most of its worker bees and leaves a queen honey bee and a few workers to try and revive the hive. Other natural factors that figure into the bee’s downfall are nutrition and genetics.

Man also plays a role in the health of bees. Pollution and insecticides are two ways man has impacted the bee.

Are Pollinators really that necessary? Pollinators are more important than you may think. Did you know that pollinators help keep our ecosystems healthy? Bees and others pollinate over ¾ of all flower bearing plants, helping to keep our air clean. This also helps stabilize our soil, oxygen supply and helps support wildlife.

Collecting Pollen

Pollinators sustain our food supply. Let’s take a look at fruit trees; they all have flowers to produce the fruit, some trees have both male and female flowers, some only have male or female flowers on their branches. These trees would be barren without the bees flying from flower to flower to collect pollen. Without bees we wouldn’t have berries, seeds or nuts. And we can’t forget the most important of all chocolate and coffee. So next time you sit down to relax with your first or fifth cup, pause a minute and thank a pollinator.  Bees and other insects pollinate over 1,200 food crops and over 180,000 other plants. This means that they help out our bottom line. That’s right, bees and other pollinators play a major role in the economy. In 2010 over 16 billion dollars in crops were grown with the help of bees and that’s just in the United States. www.cornell.edu  Worldwide, the number explodes to approximately 188 billion U.S. dollars. www.sciencedaily.com

 One thing that seems to be on everyone’s mind is, what effects do pollution and pesticides have on bee colonies? While we as a society are working to keep our environment clean and limit our use of pesticides, there are certain things we need to live our lives. Coal produces 65 percent of electricity in the United States, even with the possible environmental hazards of coal mining, Americans wouldn’t imagine living without heat or air conditioning in our homes. The fact that pesticides help prevent many diseases spread by insects like the cockroach, flea and mosquito, makes them necessary. Diseases such as; Salmonella, Staph infections and E. Coli are all spread by cockroaches. Fleas and ticks can spread Lyme disease and tapeworms. While mosquitoes have been known killers throughout history, with the spread of malaria and now the zika various which can affect unborn babies.

What effect does air pollution have on our pollinators?  The U.S. Department of Agriculture www.usda.gov states that “honey bee populations have declined between 25 and 45 percent a year since 2010 including a 44 percent decline in 2016.”

In an article from Penn State University, www.psu.edu Liam Jackson informs us that “air pollution interacts with and breaks down plant-emitted scent molecules,” and since bees rely on this scent to find food, this breakdown makes the bees less effective in providing the hive with nourishment to sustain the colony. 

Bee in Englewood Fl.

Do pesticides adversely affect the pollinators? One of the worst incidents of bee exposure happened in June 2013. A landscaper in Oregon treated over 50 trees for aphids in a parking lot. In doing so this landscaper exposed wild honey bees to a product called Safari, killing over 50,000 individual bees and 300 colonies. So, what went wrong? Human error.

Anyone who applies insecticides by law, must read and follow the federal pesticide label and should know what the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) says about the product he is using. The label for Safari states in the second paragraph, under Environmental Hazards,

“This compound is toxic to honey bees. The persistence of residues and potential residual toxicity of dinotefuran in nectar and pollen the possibility of chronic risk to honey bee larvae and the eventual instability of the hive.” The label goes on to say, “This product is toxic to bees exposed to treatment for more than 38 hours after treatment. Do not apply this product to blooming, pollen-shedding or nectar producing parts of plants during this time period, unless the application is made in response to a public health emergency declared by the appropriate state and federal authorities.”

The SDS on Safari has a seven-word statement about bees in section 12, Ecological Information; “Dinotefuran Technical is highly toxic to bees.”

Why this landscaper treated these trees at this time is unclear, however if he had read the label and the SDS he would have known not to use that product at that time and this catastrophic mistake would have never been made.

I do have one question, why are Safari and so many other professional pesticides available on Amazon.com? The pest control industry is heavily regulated by the EPA, but home owners are able to use the same products without any fear of repercussions from the local, state or federal authorities. Most home owners don’t read or understand the label, yet lay much of the blame for over use of chemicals on the very products that they are using.

Wild Honey Bee colony in January 

What is the pest control industry doing to protect the bee’s needs? The industry has implemented a pollinator protection plan, which includes enhanced awareness of when bees and other pollinators are present, label changes and common sense training on how to stop pollinator exposure. They also have a website www.PollinatorHealth.org This is a great site for information on pollinators and how you can help save them. You can also learn the difference between good (bees) and bad (wasp) stinging insects.

What happens if we don’t save the pollinators? According to www.foxnews.com there are a number of fruits and vegetables we will lose without the bees pollinating prowess;

1.    Apples: “Without bees the cross pollination to produce…” the size of crop needed to supply the United States with apples could not happen.”

Close up hundreds of Honey Bees

2.    Almonds: “Are completely dependent on bees for pollination.” 80 percent of the worlds almonds come out of California.

3.    Blueberries: Most of the country’s blueberries come from Maine for a $593 million boost for that state’s economy and 90 percent of that crop is pollinated by honey bees.

4.    Grapefruit and Oranges: are almost 100 percent dependent on honey bees for crop pollination.

5.    Pumpkins: That’s right what would Halloween be without pumpkins? Without bees there would be no Jack-o-lanterns.

And that’s just the beginning.

While there are numerous threats to pollinators such as parasites and viruses that cause the bulk of Colony Collapse Disorder worldwide. There are also other natural causes that affect bees, that we can’t control like genetics and nutrition.  The protection of the pollinators is the responsibility of all of us.

First the government should consider enacting better laws regarding the sale of certain pesticides to untrained or unlicensed individuals. Home owners need to understand that the products they are using in their gardens are as toxic to bees as what the professionals use, possibly even more so because they have no formal training in mixing or applying these insecticides. The local Extension office is a good place to be properly trained in the use of Integraded Pest Management (IPM). The Master Gardener classes are very challenging and informative for the home gardener or anyone else.

Second, we can buy organic produce from the local farm market. Fewer pesticides on our food crops means less exposure to bees and humans alike. Plant more flowering plants in your garden or flower beds around your home. If you enjoy honey, buy it from a local bee keeper who uses proper methods to take care of his bees and their hive.

And lastly, tell people. Spread the word about how important pollinators are. If you see a bee colony do not disturb it, unless it is a health risk and then call a licensed bee keeper to safely remove the hive.

The health of the pollinators is a long-term issue that we all must take seriously. If we lose the pollinators then we lose our clean water, air and land as well as hundreds of thousands of plants and trees. Remember, no bees, no food, no humanity.

So, let’s all pull together and let the birds and bees do what birds and bees do best. By meeting the bee’s needs we ultimately meet our own.

Photo Credit D. Carroll

Inside the Colony, look at all that honey

In the midst of the storm

Nor’easter

I had to go up to the North East recently and they were calling for snow.  I have lived in Florida since the early 1970’s and haven’t been in a snow storm in forty plus years. Needless to say, this ol’ boy was cold. The snow started to fall on the drive home from the airport and by the time I reached my brother’s house, it started to stick. The snow was heavy and wet. The next morning, I made the first snowman I’ve made in decades and the snow kept falling.

Now don’t get me wrong it was an absolutely beautiful sight to see; the way the trees cradled the snow in their branches, the white fields and the snow covered stone bridges. That is until we felt the full force of the nor’easter. The winds picked up, the snow was blowing sideways and the temperature was dropping.

A snow covered Spruce

After about a foot of this heavy wet snow accumulated Mark, my brother said, “Looks like I’m going to have to go plow tonight. Want to go?” Now I’m always up for a challenge so I said, “Sounds good to me.” What was I thinking? His crew arrived a little after ten-thirty and we set out about an hour later. I learned a few things very fast. First, just because a snowplow driver heads out to take care of his customers, doesn’t mean that the town or county plows are out yet. Second, we had to dodge downed power lines, downed trees and people with a death wish in small out of control cars that have no business on the roads. I learned that to drive a snowplow when the power is out, with the only the glow of your headlights, you’ll need cat like reflexes and eyesight to match. It was definitely an experience.

Upon waking the next morning, I looked out my window, the snow finally stopped and for the first time in my adult life I was able to see the beauty after the storm. Although it will be a long time before I go to Connecticut in the winter again, we are planning a trip for the summer of 2019.

I flew out a few days later. It was 33 degrees and just three hours later, I landed in Fort Myers with an outside temperature of 77 degrees. I was home.

After the storm

                                                                       

Sawgrass, Gators and Bears, Oh My

Fuzzy Wazzy 600 lb Florida Black Bear

It’s not often that we do touristy stuff here in our beautiful state of Florida, but my oldest boy flew in for a surprise visit. It was a perfect late winter day, 79 degrees outside, a bright blue sky with cotton white clouds that seemed to just hang there, as if painted by the hand of God.

My wife, my son and I loaded up the SUV and headed 100 miles south into the Everglades. Our destination was Captain Jack’s Airboat Tours www.captainjacksairboattours.com They along with Wooten’s Everglade Airboat Tours www.wootenseverglades.com provided the “Ultimate Everglades Combo.” This includes a one-hour airboat tour through the mangrove forest, a half hour airboat run through the sawgrass (and mud when the water is a low as it was on this February day), a swamp buggy ride, an alligator show and an animal sanctuary.

The ride through the mangrove canals was fast and exciting. Over fifty miles an hour with fast turns, quick stops and donuts that left us laughing and wet. The captain was very knowledgeable, he explained that these canals were man made when US 41 was being extended south and in the 1920’s and 30’s were used by moonshiners like Al Capone. Then in the 1970’s and 80’s these waterways were used by marijuana smugglers. Enough pot was smuggled into Everglades city to supply the entire continental United States.

In 1983, 200 federal agents and Collier County Deputies descended upon Everglades city and over the course of their investigation arrested 300 of the 526 residents of this small South Florida town. They confiscated much of the commercial fishing fleet and locked up 85% of the local men ending Everglades City’s lucrative but illegal marijuana smuggling industry. 

The ride through the sawgrass was a totally different experience. The airboat was smaller, but just as fast and seemed more maneuverable. We were in the middle of a high-speed donut, when the boat stopped with a jolt. The airboat ran-a-ground. For shock value he asked us to get out and push the boat off the mudbank, but instead the captain cut the engine for a quick question and answer session. He dipped a paddle into the water and hit bottom in about six inches. He went on to explain why the Glades were so shallow.

We were off again. After a few fast turns and wake jumping we stopped in a small cove where the Captain got to know us a little better. There were people from Paris France, Wisconsin and my family. Since we were the only Floridians in the group he picked on us a little bit and reminded my wife that the favorite food of alligators in the Everglades was pretty blonds from Englewood.

The Captain also explained that 100 years ago there wasn’t a mangrove tree in the glades. Then the government got involved (The Army Corps of engineers), decided to improve the Everglades for sugarcane farms and urban development, they drained it too fast which allowed the saltwater to rush in and bring in new plant and fish species. Along with the alligators there are also crocodiles, otters and one of the worst invasive specie the python. On this stretch of the trip he let a woman from Wisconsin steer the airboat into another cove full of gators for all to see. Back at the dock the Captain took pictures of his passengers and thanked us.

Everglades

Next up was the alligator show. This show was impressive and informative, performed by a man from the Seminole tribe and a ten-foot gator named Charlie. There were several tricks done with Charlie including holding the gators mouth open with chin to upper lip contact and placing his hand into Charlies mouth, which got him bit a few months earlier. He explained the history of the Seminole people in the glades and how they would use every bit of the alligator down to the teeth and bones.     

The last thing on our schedule was the swamp buggy ride. Our driver was an eighth generation Floridian and her family lived in the Everglades the entire 160 years. She seemed to know everything there was to know about the history, wildlife and living in the glades. She was definitely a character.

The ride took a little over thirty minutes, in that short time we saw a deer and two black bears. Fuzzy Wazzy is a 600-pound male. If you didn’t know any better you would want to get down and pet him. We passed a cypress tree bent 100 years ago by the natives to mark the trail and a rebuilt village. This village was built with the same technology and materials that the Seminoles used generations ago, and recently withstood the category 5 hurricane Irma. Seems that the Seminoles knew something we don’t.

When the topic of pythons came up again, she told us that the invasive species is wreaking havoc on the natural ecosystem of the Everglades and is putting some native species close to being endangered including the Florida “bunny rabbit” because the snakes are eating so many.

This was an amazing way to spend a day with the family. Be sure to tip your Captains and drivers. If you bring your cameras, I would suggest a GoPro for the airboats, just because of the possibility of salt spray and water. We saw many expensive cameras heading out and the Captains will take every possible precaution to keep you and your camera safe. On the swamp buggy ride your camera is a must. You never know what you may see. If you are lucky you may even get a picture of the Skunk Ape, Florida’s version of the elusive Bigfoot. 

 

Everglades Alligator