5 years ago we planted watermelon sage and tangerine marigold as pollinator attractors to complement the indigenous wisteria and globe wisteria. In addition to real live no kidding honeybees, we got numerous species of butterflies and moths. You can hear (and feel) the buzz as you walk from box to box in the backyard. Mixed emotions with the black swallowtails as that means our fennel and dill are short lived experiments that are typically field stripped in a day. I mean were…
Still trying to sort out exactly how the hummingbird moth has any aerodynamic capabilities at all.
The watermelon sage explodes to about 7 feet high and 8 feet wide each spring after being aggressively trimmed back to 2 x 2 each fall. While the flowers of watermelon sage (salvia microphylla) are very edible, the leaves should be avoided as they contain the same diterpenoid kappa opioid agonists found in salvia divinorum (albeit in lower concentrations). Do not ask me how I know this…
One of the more enjoyable activities this time of year is watching the hummingbirds line up like planes into O'Hare. Our highest count is 14 in a holding pattern.
But it is so sad but comforting that i am not the only one wo feels this way not just about the bee situation but the way our government does everything these days. Its like the power that be have decided to speed up their destructiveness of nature and human beings in all ways possible. The last 3 to5 yrs seem like like the destructiveness is twice as fast as the previous 10 yrs. Do "they" have some deadline they're trying to make? Financial destruction, human destruction, destruction of all living things and generally scorched earth policy on the whole earth. What do they win for doing all this? He/she who has the most money and most destroyed lives wins?
I have been moderate Democrat all my adult life but now even they sicken me with their support of eternal war and their dishonesty.
This is one sane place to come so thank, you, Chris and others.
most are fungicides to cover the A$$ of the gardener/farmer who plants in too cool soil.
robie,husband,father,farmer,optometrist
ps, i've lost no hives since going to natural cell, foundationless, and only feeding honey from their own hive back to them if neccessary. ie. we rob only after spring flowv (end of May in northern hemisphere zone 7A) if too few stores are realized by the hives during summer/fall then will feed their own honey back to 'em. (only had to do that once) each hive should weigh about 80lbs at first frost to get thru winter without concern.
We will be the next colony to collapse.
This is what "the collapse" looks like, BTW. A whole series of stupid and entirely avoidable self imposed hardships that utterly screw our civilization. Between economic, social, cultural, environmental, energy, and political decline - we are doomed. Pick your favorite self-imposed hardship - it's all part of the national suicide that is the USA today.
Rector
And I thought I was cheerful .
Date palms developed large spines as a defense against ardent dinosaur herbivores. They are useless against rats.
Date palms are also sexual. (The delicately prudent may turn away now.) The thing is, how do I get the pollen from my boy flowers to my girl flowers without blushing?
It appears as though whatever vector used to do this act is nature is absent, and I have to climb up amongst those dinosaur killing spines and do the deed myself. Who knew that sex could be so painful?
More dirty deeds
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/dirty-jobs/videos/date-palm-pollinator/
A government task force that's going to spend government money on habitat, rather than addressing the pesticide issue immediately. Pesticides will conveniently be left for the next administration to deal with.
I was really hoping for a honey bee czar to be appointed.
You'd think with the widespread use of the neonicotinoid seed treatments that there must be great benefits to the industrial farmers using the stuff. Well is turns out that the EPA has actually studied the 'benefits' of using this stuff (they apparently don't believe in costs) for soybean production. Note in Chris' article that the Imidacloprid graph soybean (green) shoots up in 2010-2012. Well here are the results quantifying our massive returns for gutting our nation's ecosystems…
The whole report is on the linked webpage.Benefits of Neonicotinoid Seed Treatments to Soybean Production
EPA analyzed the use of the neonicotinoid seed treatments for insect control in United States soybean production. This report provides the analysis and EPA’s conclusions based on the analysis. It discusses how the treatments are used, available alternatives, and costs.EPA concludes that these seed treatments provide little or no overall benefits to soybean production in most situations. Published data indicate that in most cases there is no difference in soybean yield when soybean seed was treated with neonicotinoids versus not receiving any insect control treatment. (link)
Note, if this stuff kills birds then it is also going to be toxic to us too. We are literally killing ourselves for nothing…
Mark
Mark, your factette has done me in . I am a fit of incoherent giggles. Killing the planet for digits on a computer?
Can it get any more absurd? Please no. I am not offering a challenge to the gods.
I am starting beekeeping this year. I ordered two nucs. It is possible that I get two Caucasian queens - very gentle, winterize in smaller clusters, well adapted to cold climate.
I did a small experiment this week-end: Put some honey on the patio table and see how does the competition to my future bees looks like. Guess what? In three days nothing. Not a single bee. We have seen some small wasps, but no bee. It could be that it is still early in the Laurentians. Will see in the next weeks…
We live at more than 10 miles from agricultural zones. We expect that our bees will have a healthy diet. We hope that there is enough nectar supply in the area.
We also planted a lot of wild flowers around the house and along the street. Not sure if the seeds are coated. There are so small…
Ah, but Mark - you forgot the profits for the neonicotinoid's manufacturer and created jobs!
I believe one of the manufacturers - or at least a competitor from the same country also made some good profits manufacturing nerve gas for the Nazi death camps. Those camps created jobs too!
Think of all of the profits to be made and jobs to be created from destroying the biosphere and each other! (is there an emoticon for irony and sarcasm? - consider this it)
Ah, but Mark - you forgot the profits for the neonicotinoid's manufacturer and the jobs created!
I believe one of the manufacturers of neonics - or at least a competitor from the same country also made some good profits manufacturing nerve gas for the Nazi death camps. Those camps created jobs too!
Think of all of the profits to be made and jobs to be created from destroying the biosphere and each other! (is there an emoticon for irony and sarcasm? - consider this it)
Considering the widespread soil degradation, is it possible to feed the entire world population using natural and sustainable methods? If everyone on this planet decides now (hmmm… Utopia) to walk in the right direction, can we achieve this goal?
My guess is no. But I could be wrong.
Another amazingly good expression of the truth. Thanks.
Chris, have you ever looked at the ecological costs of the meat diet /it's unsustainability and destruction of the natural world. The costs in dollars, in health and suffering of all life are also astronomical. I would like to see your articulation of this truth and expression of your heart in this wise. The helpless and innocent need champions like you.
this is just sickening.
I was ruminating on the majority who, with their heads in the sand, make it possible for abuses like this to continue. The popular TV show "Walking Dead" came to mind.
We live in a society of self inflicted walking deadheads.
#winning!
(Edit: Some call it a zombie apocalypse.)
_
Unpleasantness extreme.
Yet another really quite extreme example of "Man against nature" ideal in our society
Us killing off insects, such as bees is really pure idiocracy…this terrible movie clip comes to mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vw2CrY9Igs
I really wish this terrible movie was a bit less prophetic… (Maybe this is similar to the discussion Obama and his advisers are having)
In more individualistic news, I have found four peach borer larva in my one of my peach tree this week, and slugs ate my cucumber plants this week as well. I have killed the peach borers and I need to keep them from coming back; I promised my peach trees I would protect them. I need to learn to live with the slugs. I have decided that need more centipedes and beetles to eat the slugs, but I don't know how to do that yet.
Most information about how to deal with insects is how to poison them. Kill the all…
We really need to learn to work with nature, I am trying but the mindset of "man against nature" is so pervasive. I read this crazy article and I can see this bad attitude or belief system reflected in me with slugs.
Unpleasantness extreme.
Sterling
I have always respected this site as one that will step out and discuss topics that mainstream will not give a notable mention to. The chemical soup that we find our selfs in presently is astounding. I think that it is very obvious that we have past the tipping point of climate change and chemical saturation… I've studied everything I have been able to find and I've done it with an open mind.
The policies that are in place allow the corruption that runs so deep to repeat all of their lies until they are somewhat accepted in the populace as fact (gagging me with a spoon). It has been extremely hard to listen to friends and family repeat talking points with little to no real education on the subjects.
We find our selfs in a situation that runs way past the danger point. If we are to leave this planet in any habitual form for our kids or our grand kids we are going to have to make serious sacrifices and complete some very serious civil disobedience.
The BIG problems come systemically from the entire system we all inhabit. We are attacking climate change and chemical pollution problems not in a progressive way but in a push for more capitalism (carbon tax…ect) rather than less… The bullshit components of the two party system use either side of the argument only to further an agenda.
There seems no real effort to find solutions. The government agencies are obviously tied up so thick with bureaucracy they simply cannot do the job in which they were originated to do. The EPA is largely a pawn of industry, a waste of money and a joke. There is no data available for at least 80% of chemicals in commerce. The federal gov National Toxicology Program only tests about 10-20 chemicals a year for carcinogenicity (nothing else), meanwhile 500-1000 new chemicals enter commerce annually, so our knowledge base steadily declines.
Take a look at the picture for my profile. That was taken on a sunny day above Bellingham bay. Does that look like a natural cloud? It is very upsetting that we cannot even have a conversation about SRMs, stratospheric aerosols, or geoengineering as it is clearly happening everyday, all over the world at least with UN doctrines.
This is a very good article but we are wasting the very little time we have left pissing in the wind if we do not look up and ask wtf is happening to our sky's. Maybe we need the chemo maybe we don't but I'm loosing my mind watching it happen and watching very little discussion about it because people don't want to be marginalized.