Honey Bee Drone

I wonder about these bees every summer as I tend to my chlorine-filled, diatomaceous earth filtered pool. If I owned the house I live in, I’d convert the pool to a saltwater pool; it’s better for me and it’s better for the environment. Since I don’t own it, I haven’t converted it and thus, I buy chlorine and a variety of other chemicals to barely keep the algae at bay. I try to not over-chemical myself if I can avoid it. I’m not sure if a saltwater pool would result in less bee deaths by drowning but it certainly is a curious thing.

I’ve been very concerned for the bee population ever since I heard about the decline of hives and the mysterious demise of once healthy adult honeybees. I’m not an entomologist or a chemist, scientist or researcher but I do enjoy the planet on which I live and I strive to make sure that I tread as lightly as I can, leaving as little trace as possible as well as making sure I do not consume more than is necessary. I’m also a bit unusual in that, as a female, I’m rarely scared by insects or other creepy crawlies that happen by me. I don’t necessarily want them on my person but they do not freak me out, either.

Bumblebee

I was stung by a large bumblebee as a little girl; a large, fuzzy black and yellow guy that was on the ground. In my little girl joy, I was running across the yard barefooted and stepped on the bee, causing it to sting me. My father took care of the stinger and my tears and assured me that the bee didn’t mean to hurt me on purpose but that it was defending itself. In my innocence, I wanted to know why, if it was a bee that could fly, what was it doing in the grass. I don’t recall my father having an answer but what did stick with me is that bees and wasps really don’t have any intentions of hurting us when they are flying about attending to their business.

This is partly why I started saving them from my pool. I moved into my rental and with it came an unkept, pond-like pool. I was getting such a deal on the place and that was because I had a really hands-off landlord, which included no pool service. I took it upon myself to clean it up and learned all about taking care of a pool. With it, though, came the responsibility of playing lifeguard to the bees.

A friend of a friend was over last summer and, being a girly-girl, she started squealing and swatting at a bee that flew by. I asked her to calm down and ignore the bee; soon it would realize she wasn’t a flower (which she ain’t) and would quietly continue on. Instead, she panicked like a girl and flipped out. She jumped in the pool to escape the seemingly never-ending ambush of a singular honeybee, which was on the job of finding pollen. When she saw me later gently lift a struggling bee out of the water and carefully place it on the pool heater to dry in the sun, I thought for sure she would think I was some sort of crazy person for not just killing it.

I tried to explain the importance of the work that bees do. Without them, how would food grow? This is had to explain to her: what bees do, exactly, in our environment and what would be the result if they all went on strike and stopped pollinating not just flowers but crops and other agricultural plants humans rely on. I began to wonder what public school system she had attended…

Summed up concisely by one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, Albert Einstein stated, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” This is a frightening situation to be facing us but here we are, experiencing Colony Collapse Disorder on a scale never before seen. Scientists have stated that this enigma has happened before in our recorded history but never to the extent as it’s happening right now.

We can all surmise what is causing the bees to die unexpectedly: neurotoxins in the form of pesticides (most likely), genetically modified foods and plants, mites that attack the bees’ immune systems, cell phones and other electromagnetic wave producing machinery, increase in microwave towers and signals, or Olympic fever and the desire to be like Mike and go swimming and thusly drowning in my pool.

I am hopeful that the coming years will see the rise of the quantity and quality of honeybees and bumblebees and their hives. That they will grow and flourish again and tend to the ceaseless work of pollinating billions and billions of individual blossoms that eventually turn into the food that we all eat.

We can each do a little something to help them along.
• Of these things, the first is: Don’t kill them. If you see one flying by, ignore it. The bee will move on to sweeter things.
• If they are dying in your pool, rescue them. Scoop them up and put them in a place in the sun to dry on their own time. They will fly away and hopefully get back to work. The bee will not sting you if you haven’t aggravated it into defending itself. However, if you are allergic to beestings and go into anaphylactic shock, have someone else rescue the bee quickly.
• Don’t use chemical pesticides. The internet is LOADED with resources available in finding non-lethal, non-invasive ways to encourage perceived pests to move on to the next place. It might take a few more minutes but you’ll save money and you’ll save hundreds, if not thousands, of bees.
• If you find a hive near where you live, find an experienced beekeeper or bee professional to remove and relocate the hive. The planet is not in a position right now to be willy-nilly killing bees because they’ve taken up residence in our residence. There are people out there who can find a safe location for the hive, away from your home.
• Educate the next generation on the immense importance of bees and how to help them live longer, healthier lives. Teaching our children how every living creature interacts and supports every other living creature can only benefit us all.

We are all one here on Mother Earth. Humans may be at the top of the food chain but we won’t last long if we are the only link in that chain. It is our responsibility as the creatures of highest intelligence to maintain the environment in which we live. Without it, we are nothing.

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However, the industrial age brought with it an increased use of fossil fuels as a way of getting things done. Its not just cars that produce CO₂ in ever alarming rates, its also cattle and coal burning electric plants among others. The more things that are producing CO₂ and the faster we are cutting down our rainforests, the more we are contributing to the decline of our environment. Fillserv has always been committed to the environment by encouraging the refilling of ink and toner in printer cartridges as a way for them to not end up in landfills so quickly. There are other things that each one of us can do to help reduce our own carbon footprints. Sure they may take a little bit more effort or require a step outside the comfort zone but in the end, helping keep our little planet green and blue for future generations is something I can’t think of right now.

A few easy steps to keep your carbon footprint down:

1. Change all incandescent light bulbs to fluorescents. Sure they cost a few more dollars at the beginning but they burn as bright, burn cooler and last 5-10 times longer. Just be sure to recycle them appropriately when they do burn out. They should not go in the regular trash.
2. Walk to ride a bike. If you’re just popping in to the corner store or cafe for a snack, why not walk and get some exercise or ride your bike? Americans on average don’t get enough exercise anyway and you might meet some cool people along the way, like your neighbors!.
3. Dry your clothes on a rack of clothesline. It only takes a few minutes to hang things on the line or drape them on a rack. The fresh air will dry your things with a scene unmatched by dryer sheets. If you must use your dryer, use the energy efficient setting. Less heat means less electricty and that means less carbon in the air.
4. Turn off appliances and electronics completely! Electronics still pull power even though they are turned off. Plugging everything into a power strip and turning that off instead keeps them from using that little bit of power.
5. Insulate your water heater. Or better yet, invest in a tankless hot water system. These systems do no store hot water, only heating it up quickly when you need it. They can be pricey at the beginning but they save a lot of carbon doixide. Traditional hot water tanks hold gallons and gallons of water that need to be constantly heated so that its available when needed using lots of gas or electricity. By insulating year ‘round, your tank stays warmer with a minimal amount of energy.

Every little bit helps. Even if you only make one or two changes to your lifestyle that can help reduce carbon emmissions, our planet and our environments can only better from it. Do a little something today to make the Earth breathe easier.

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