There is a lot of concern in the news about bees and a new disease called colony collapse disorder (CCD) that might eventually affect our food supply. The good news is that CCD does not seem to have affected the total population of domesticated honey bees in the US. The bad news is that wild bee populations are definitely on the decline.
Overuse of pesticides (including by homeowners wanting to "prevent" "bugs" from getting in their yards or homes) and destruction of habitat (by farmers and homeowners who would rather not have clover in their lawn - it's a "weed") are taking a toll.
Why worry about wild bees? Two good and selfish reasons are that 1) while CCD is not killing off as many domestic bees as reports have led me to believe the domestic honey bee could face future problems that would reduce their populations and low populations of domestic honey bees means less crop fertilization means more expensive and less available food (breathe!) and 2) wild bees are much more efficient at pollinating crops than domestic bees. In fact many small farms (and almost all backyard gardeners) get by on wild bees alone.
So tl:dr - healthy wild bees mean cheaper and more available food in the long run.
What can you do?
Reduce or cut out your pesticide use. If you can't stand bugs in the house then treat when they become a problem, not just every time the owner of your pest control company needs to make another boat payment and tells you to spray. [small side rant: there is a good bit of evidence linking pesticide use to human ailments, cutting back on pesticides can help you as well as helping the environment]
Plant flowers that bees like. What kinds of plants? Oh, this is soooo easy. Go to your local garden center or big box store or wherever you buy plants and look for the plants with bees on them. Buy those. And don't do a very good clean up job before winter. These guys need fallen leaves and dead perennials to survive the winter. How easy is that?
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