Gardeners Told to Give Exhausted Bees an Energy Drink 200
In an effort to help Britain's declining bee population, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is urging gardeners to leave out a homemade energy drink for tired bees. The RSPB says that a mix of two tablespoons of sugar with a tablespoon of water makes a perfect bee-boosting drink. Val Osborne, head of wildlife inquiries at the RSPB, said, "Many people keep seeing bees on the ground and assume they are dead, but chances are they are having a rest. Much like us, a sugary drink could boost their energy levels and a simple sugar and water combination will be a welcome treat."
nothing new (Score:4, Interesting)
my Unlce used to keep bees, before he became allergic to them. leaving sugar water was always SOP. especially during those times of years when flowering was low.
i really dislike this bee paranoia. first honey bees are NOT native to North America, although the article is from the UK. in fact Naive Americans called them the "white man's fly". Bees are not the sole pollinators of everything either. the major crops grown in my home state don't rely on pollinators. corn and wheat are not pollinated by bees, nor are numerous other species. many crops are grown and produced from cloning/cutting and still many plants use other insects as pollinators. look at the many species of figs that often are associated with just one species of wasp.
Why not (Score:1, Interesting)
Just remove the bee excluders from your Hummingbird feeder. They both feed on the same thing. Duh !
Re:Fix one thing, break another... (Score:5, Interesting)
That, and you'll end up with an army of ants swarming the sugary concoction. Pretty much all insects will find it tasty.
A simple trick from hummingbird feeders is to have a cup of water the ants would have to swim through to get to the nectar, likea so [birdersworld.com]. Ants can't swim, so they can't get to it. Okay, some species can form ant-bridges to cross water. Hopefully those kind aren't around where you're keeping your bees. :)
This is obviously a plot by the Society of Birds to make more food for their feathered friends.
Maybe! Certainly hummingbirds will like the sugar water as much as bees do.
Here's another trick that would probably work if you are only interested in attracting bees to your feeder: Paint it yellow. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, not so much to yellow. That's why hummingbird feeders are red. Some though have yellow "flowers", and I've learned that you should avoid those if you don't want bees and wasps on your feeder because they like yellow. Flip that around, and you have a feeder that should attract bees (and wasps) but not hummingbirds.
Re:Traps are great (Score:3, Interesting)
22 rifle loaded with the "snake shot" or "rat shot" pellets. Whole bunch of little tiny shot, good for 10 yards or so at most before the pattern opens too much.
Re:Open sugar water (Score:4, Interesting)
Wouldn't putting the sugar water in a hanging basket help?
I use a painting of motor oil to keep ants out of my dog food bins, just a swath around the bottom of the bin. Soap also works but motor oil lasts a lot longer.
Any idea why starving bees would reject sugar water? Here in the desert, during the dry season there's often NOTHING for them to collect. My local wild beehive (nice gentle bees so I'd like to keep them healthy!) follows me around for water, and they arrive in clouds when I start spraying down stuff, but when I put out sugar water they ignore it, even tho they are often clearly starving. (They look poor and weak.)
I used to work for a beekeeper, tho mainly in the honey house. If most folks could see honey at that stage, they'd never eat it. :)
Bees need good nutrition, too.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Hello,
I've been reading that one of the reasons US bees may be having trouble is a poor diet. Bees need other nutrients in their diet than pure sugar. They get it from pollen and genuine plant nectar. Sugar water doesn't contain these.
A lot of US bees, instead of having a variety of foods available as would be in a wild environment, have just one type of flower to feed upon, like apples, and maybe some corn-syrup-water. Inadequate nutrition results, and CCD is an effect (so the theory goes).
How about we give bees sugar + complete bee nutrient solution?
--PM
Caffeinated Hive Building? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'd be curious what result giving bees caffeinated beverages would have on hive construction. Judging from what the stimulant does to spiders, it'd definitely be an interesting experiment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caffeinated_spiderwebs.jpg [wikipedia.org]
I'd also wonder if it'd give new meaning to the phrase "making a bee line" for something.
Re:Traps are great (Score:3, Interesting)
We use those zappers a lot to kill mosquitoes in my house.
The trouble is, after some years of that, the current generation of mosquitoes now seem to be smaller and faster. They even bite faster - they can land, draw blood and fly away to escape in a short time.
Worse is, when I'm drifting off to sleep with the zapper nearby, the mosquitoes seem to stay away when I'm alert and waiting, but just when I am about to doze off - one or two start to attack. So I "wake" and try to swat them. I might get a few. But after that if I lie down, wait and stay alert (eyes closed) they still seem to not approach till I start to doze off again. I think future generations of mosquitoes in my area would be the ones that tend to attack when I'm asleep.
The "doze detection" might just be my imagination, but the "small and fast" is definitely true (in other places the mosquitoes are so slow - and "fluffy" that I can even slowly prod them in the air with my finger and they don't zoom off).
Re:Even better idea (Score:2, Interesting)
Not to mention that CCD is overplayed in the media. Yes, its real but its not exactly the bee rapture.
On top of that, bees are an evolutionary mess. They dont have the genetic variety to withstand a lot of nature's attacks like viruses and fungus, which are the most likely cause of CCD not this bullshit from the GP.
At this point E) is their best option. Humans must intervene to keeps bees going because mother nature is doing her best to kill them. Someone needs to teach the GP and his ilk that mankind/monsanto/pesticides arent the villians here, its good old mother nature herself.
Its also worth pointing out that the honey bee isnt even native to north America, so its an artificial situation to begin with. Nature doesnt want bees alive here. Again, its up to man and technology to keep them going.