I love the bumblebee's cuddly appearance. These fuzzy bees are usually 3/4 to 1 1/2 inch long and have yellow and black bands on them (although this property changes in some species.)
If you ever catch sight of a bumble bee hovering over a flower, feeding on its nectar and collecting pollen as it hovers from one flower to the other take some time to pause and notice the little creature that is quietly keeping this world green.
Unlike honey bees, bumble bees are not honey producers but they are social servers upon whom cross-pollination is greatly dependent. Although nature has created more than 200 species of bumble bees, but sadly they are facing a threat of extinction. Einstein believed that without bumblebees human race can extinct in four years. According to a research conducted in 2007 by the Food and Farming department of UK, the honey bee will be extinct in UK in the next 8 years. Sadly, bumblebees are also facing a similar threat.
Farmers around the world have good reason to be alarmed as do we all. We are interlinked with bumblebees through the complex ecological system . If the bumblebees die, there will be no pollination. If there will be no pollination, there will not be any flower. If there will be no flower, there will be no crops. If there are no flowers and crops, there will be no insects and birds. Without insects dead plants and dead animals will not decay and thus fertile soil will also disappear. Where will we be?
We might end up eating grass and hunting fish. Food scarcity will result in even greater challenges. In short, I don't think that floods, aliens or meteors will ring an end to the life on Earth. But I think this tiny creature, the bumble bee can become a reason for human extinction.
The only thing we can do is to take care of this wonderful insect created by God so that in return it takes care of us.
How can we thank our humble friend?
1. Plant flowers with rich nectar.
2. If you do not have flowers – make your own nectar! Make a water (70%) and sugar(30%) mixture and fill a little container such as bottle cap with it and put it between plants. Bees will appreciate it!
3. Bees can't resist apple, cherry, plum and pear flowers. They love hollyhocks, geraniums, poppies, roses, laburnum, corn flower, delphinium and sunflowers. Some herbs will also tempt them to visit your garden. Plant sage, rosemary, thyme, chives and lavender.
4. Avoid chemical pesticides.
5. Bumble bees would love to have a home inside a little hole in the a quite corner of the garden.
6. Make your garden bumblebee-friendly by simply planting some flowers!
Published on Express Tribune Blogs
After a couple of days from this post I found this http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=british-bumblebees-are-inbreeding-t-2010-09-13
ReplyDeleteBasically I'm a cactus lover but I do have several vegetable plants, shrubs, vines and climbers and bumblebees love to visit them. In pots I do have okra (Bhindi), Lemon and beans while luffa, gourd vines are grounded.
I recommend Okra plants since they bloom beautifully with yellow flowers and can be planted in pots.
Thanks for sharing the link Nabil.
ReplyDeleteAre you from karachi? I also like bhindi plant, but there are two reasons I dont want to grow them in pots.
1. one plant per 14 inch container will give 5-6 max 8 okras. Which I think is a waste of energy, space and time. If someone has piece of plot more plants can be planted and more crop can be harvested.
2. pests! my okra always get bad attack by pests. I dont want to use pesticides and everytime I have to remove the okra plant form my garden because my other plants can get the same problem.
Why dont you share some photos of your garden?
Yeah, why not!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Picasa who enabled me to search my PC for plants/garden related photos.
I'm quite lazy in blogging but planned to upload some pictures with a little detail about it.
But When...?
In a week probably...