Around the world pollinators are under threat. The most well-known to us is the Honey Bee, due to their importance in pollinating many of our crops and of course the sweet delight that is honey. However, Australia is also home to more than 1500 species of native bees and then there are many other pollinators including species of butterflies, moths, beetles, weevils, wasps and flying foxes to name a few.
Quite a few years back on Facebook, a story did the rounds that was fake but attributed as coming from David Attenborough. It proposed that we assist starving Bees by putting out little containers of sugar water. This was a classic case of social media pop environmentalism at its worst, suggesting that we can solve the problem in 5 seconds by putting a spoon of sugar out for the bees, before quickly getting back to our coffee and screen looking for the next big cause. The irony of the sugar solution is the damage that the production of sugar does to the environment – including bees!
Surprise, surprise, bees need flowering plants for all their pollen, nectar, resins and waxes so as to survive and thrive. To produce sugar we clear or have cleared vast areas of forest that used to produce a mix of flowers throughout the year and then replaced the forest with a grass (sugar cane) that we then have to put through the agro-industrial process to produce an energy source that is not only questionable in our diet, but a very poor substitute for the nectar from flowering plants.
To actually save bees and other pollinators, stop spraying insecticides (they do kill bees) and plant a variety of native groundcovers, shrubs, vines and trees in your gardens and throughout the wider landscape – it’s really that simple … oh yes and remember to be wary of pop, easy solutions on Facebook (but I don’t have to tell you that as you’re sensibly reading this paper).