Silent Spring Revisited

[Anne Kilmer]

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to detect the difference between
honey bees and other bees, Mark. 
We're having a joyous resurgence of native bees here in South Florida
since we started "butterfly gardening" some 13 years ago. I noticed at
the Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach that their flower beds
are lavishly supppplied with bees and wasps of all sizes and
persuasions. 
The trick is to avoid the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. 
The plants looked splendidly happy (this was before Hurricane Irene) and
there was a fine population of little predators. 
As for the honey bees, many amateur beekeepers have quit, since you must
treat the bees for Varroa mites. This means the honey isn't exactly
organic any more, anyway. Fluvalinate is losing its effectiveness, and
they're looking around for other treatments. 
There's less public acceptance of beehives, since people are afraid of
"killer" Africanized bees, anyway. 
Butterflies are pretty negligible as pollinators, regardless of what
your second grade teacher said. Leps in general are important, but
flies, beetles, bees and wasps do most of the work. Maybe ants, too,
although they probably eat more pollen than they spread around. 
Honey bees and imported crops did indeed, as you surmise, crowd out the
native bees. 
To encourage their reappearance, plant hedgerows, don't use toxic
chemicals, leave fallow fields and wild areas along streams and rivers,
don't use toxic chemicals, don't be too quick to remove dead trees or to
pprune out dead wood, don't use toxic chemicals. If you live in an urban
or suburban area and can't have a brush pile, take scraps of ordinary
2x4 lumber, untreated. Drill it full of quarter-inch holes, right
through, and hide them among your hedge.   Many solitary bees breed in
such crevices. 
A brush pile, of course, is better, providing habitat for many neat
animals on the macro scale as well as the little guys. 
You can have a woodpile even if you don't have a fireplace. 
Many introduced crops can be pollinated effectively by bumblebees,
wasps, carpenter bees if habitat and other nectar sources are supplied. 
"Butterfly gardening" is a good strategy as people like butterflies and
are willing not to spray in order to protect them. In that sense, the
butterflies are important pollinators. But statistically, the numbers
will not bolster your case against spraying for mosquitoes. 
The mosquitoes themselves are an important part of the food chain, and
there are certainly far too many people, but these are also not useful
arguments when everybody is running scared about a new killer virus
carried by mosquitoes. 
This, too, will pass and the insects will inherit the world. we are just
killing time until the next Ice Age anyway. 
Cheers
Anne Kilmer
South Florida 

Mark Walker wrote:
> 
> Just curious, but what impact have the introduced pollinators had on the
> native species of pollinators?  While living in Vermont a year ago I heard a
> native farmer tell me that he has noticed a significantly reduced native bee
> population over the years.  If one believes that a Vermont farmer pays
> attention to beez by species.
> 
> Of course, none of this probably matters when we're talking about introduced
> crops anyway.
> 
> It would seem that man just doesn't fit into the natural way of things.  I
> suppose the whole problem would be solved if we would just stop eating
> plants.  Then we wouldn't need to tear up natural habitat to plant crops
> that would attract pests that we would need to spray with Malathion.  I
> still say we should just Nuke the whole lot of us...
> 
> I guess we need to eat more fish.  Just not Swordfish!
> 
> Mark Walker
> Mission Viejo, CA
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: pollinator at aol.comnospam [mailto:pollinator at aol.comnospam]
> > Sent: Friday, October 15, 1999 9:27 AM
> > To: leps-l at lists.yale.edu
> > Subject: Re: Silent Spring Revisited
> >
> >
> >
> >    Thanks, but please don't go hide, or whip yourself (at
> > least not TOO long
> > ; o)
> >
> >    You are in company with the majority of Americans, who do
> > not realize the
> > seriousness of the dwindling of this environmental resource.
> > We need not just
> > an occasional bee, but good pollinator populations. You can
> > help bring folks
> > attention to this dwindling, but vital resource.
> >
> > To Chris and all others on the board:   I have asked on this
> > board, and other
> > butterfly places for resources on butterfly pollination, and
> > almost none is
> > forthcoming, other than the mention that butterflies do
> > pollinate. I watched a
> > beautiful butterfly in obvious distress in the mosquito
> > spraying area the other
> > day, and it no doubt was dying.
> >
> >    There is massive environmental damage from this kind of
> > aerial application
> > over wide areas. The localized applications that normally
> > occur in populated
> > areas still leave reservoir areas from which pollinators can
> > repopulate. These
> > massive emergency aerial spraying projects, which are
> > becoming ever more
> > frequent, also wipe out the reserve pollinator populations.
> >
> >    In order to deal with this, I need concrete information.
> > It is true that
> > the label directions only deal with bees, but I believe that
> > compliance will
> > also protect other pollinators.
> >
> >    Can anyone give me leads to good studies on the economic
> > impact of butterfly
> > pollination?  Are there any works on butterly pollination of
> > specific plants
> > that are important as food sources for humans or wildlife?
> >
> >    I am a layman, not a scientist, but this is a vital area
> > of environmental
> > protection. You will note that there is little reference to
> > butterflies on The
> > Pollination Home Page, as I simply don't have it.
> >
> >    Help!
> >
> >
> >
> > Pollinator at aol.com     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
> > The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
> >
> > Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and
> > Beeswax Candles)
> > http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm
> >