No hum

Just been sent an email from sumofus about Syngenta and pesticides.

act.sumofus.org/go/5695?t=4&akid=7071.1669823.gTCgnQ

Keep up the pressure and publicity; people forget very quickly, especially in the winter when the bees are not around.

Sudden loads of hone, bumble, solitary and assorted bees in my garden

38 Degrees follow-up email on bees and pesticides. apologies for the length, but it saves GNs having to try and use a link!

This morning, 38 Degrees members handed the world’s most-signed greetings card - signed by a whopping 125,000 of us - to the new environment secretary, Liz Truss MP. In it, a clear message: protect our bees. [1]

Together, 38 Degrees members asked Truss to do everything in her power to protect bees. Including championing the EU ban on harmful pesticides. The card looked really impressive as it was carried into the Department for Environment! Here’s a pic:


Truss’ predecessor, Owen Paterson, wasn’t a friend of the bees. [2] Instead, he stood up for pesticide companies and big agribusiness. He made his views clear in an article he wrote for the Telegraph newspaper last week when he brushed aside people calling for a sustainable environment as the ‘Green Blob’. [3]

Now Liz Truss has his job - and she'll be under pressure from the same pesticide companies. But with our record-breaking card, she also knows that she’s bee-ing watched by thousands of ordinary people. A sobering prospect for any politician in the year leading up to an election.

The likes of Syngenta and other pesticide businesses are waiting in the wings to put in new applications to use pesticides that harm bees. [4] But together, we’re ready to pull out all the stops to make sure protecting our bees is at the forefront of Liz Truss’s mind.

Thanks for everything you do,

Rebecca, Maddy, Megan, Becky and the 38 Degrees team

PS: What do you think 38 Degrees members need to do together this year to make sure bees are a top priority for Liz Truss? Please share your thoughts on Facebook or comment on the blog:
Facebook: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bees-card-facebook
Blog: blog.38degrees.org.uk/2014/07/24/bees-liz-truss-mp-receives-our-giant-card/

The warm/hot weather may be affecting bees - they do also need to drink - I have made a shallow watering hole for them. A shallow dish filled with either small pebbles or marbles and water just to the level of marbles etc. They can then drink without drowning. It does seem to be a late season here in Hertfordshire although this week we have noticed the peacocks, comma, meadow brown, gatekeeper, small skipper, green veined white, large white and small tortoiseshell in our garden along with several different species of bee including leaf cutting solitary bees who have made a 'home' in our bee box. Lots of hover flies and a hummingbird hawk moth did visit a couple of weeks ago. I live in hope that they will continue to flourish in our garden.

Did anyone else read this article about wild honeybees and varroa-mite tolerant bees? It's interesting.

And again. One bumble, Nowt else!

Here too, we are Butterfly Central. It was so mild over the winter that we had a vast quantity of black, white and greenfly, but the ladybird larvae polished them off, and the bees are just everywhere.

That's good to hear. Makes a change from all the doom and gloom.

Having starts this thread almost exactly a year ago I come back to report that this year our local footpaths and fields are awash with the sound of buzzing insects. My morning walk is once again accompanied by the humming chorus.

Signed the card, minimouse.

Our bumble bees seem to have gone and we had just one lone bee in the lavender yesterday. Hope they have gone to pastures new and not died.

Article, Guardian, Monbiot

Was it on GN that I heard of this bumblebee survey ? There are two surveys actually. One wants photographs of the bees you come across, and has a guide to identifying them, the other wants volunteers to walk a fixed route (you chose where) each month and send them your sightings.

There is that about rhododendrons and Himalayan balsam – bees luv 'em.

We have had loads and loads of bumblebees (several species) as usual, and honeybees too. I rescued a honeybee this afternoon that was buzzing frantically against the window in our wash-house.

Just seen I bumble, still no honey bees

The flying ants are early this year - just had a swarm of them take off from our dining-room windowsill...! (outside, of course)

I've just put this on the 'Worrying research about pesticides thread', but here's an updated link to 38degrees, who are asking people to sign a 'card' which will be sent to Liz Truss (the newly re-shuffled MP)

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bees-card

Here is the content of the email that I received today from 38degrees:

"Could today mark the fresh start we desperately need for Britain’s beloved bees? Owen Paterson - the minister responsible for bees - has been given the boot in today’s cabinet reshuffle. He’s been replaced by Conservative MP Liz Truss. [1]

Now Liz Truss has a choice: she could follow Owen Paterson’s lead and champion mega pesticide firms over our bees, or she could decide to protect them. [2]

As she settles into her new role, she’ll hear from lobbyists in the big pesticide firms congratulating her. But together we can make sure the voices of thousands and thousands of us drown theirs out.

So let’s send her a congratulations card, signed by thousands of us, to make sure she knows we want her to protect our precious bees. It’s a bit cheeky but with a hard-hitting message. And signing the card is just as easy as signing a petition. Let’s get thousands of signatures on the card in the first 24 hours of her new job.

Owen Paterson wasn’t a friend of the bees - in fact he put them in huge danger by backing bee-killing pesticides. But if Liz Truss knows that the British public want her to do everything she can to protect bees, she could plough a different furrow.

Our bees don’t have a voice, but that’s where 38 Degrees members come in. Together we have helped fight for their survival. Just a few weeks ago we helped stop a controversial application to allow bee-killer pesticides back on UK fields. And we’ve worked alongside campaigners from across Europe to get these killer pesticides banned. [3]

If bees go - so do we. Can you sign the card to Liz Truss now? The more people who sign, the more impact it will have. Imagine receiving a card signed by thousands of people!"

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bees-card

Have also put it on the TTIP thread as that appears relevant to this situation.
Wonder who has shares in Syngenta.

Already signed - for those wanting more information click here.

Yes, it has come up as blank on my tab, djen. However I will sign later when I can get on the PC.

we have had bumble bees nesting in our eaves but they seem to have dispersed now which I believe they do; I am not sure if the queen will produce more offspring this year.

Just remove my info and put your own in.
I do not seem able to get a blank form on the htread.

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/m/74c0444f/2d420d21/4ac69965/465b7b58/2725735509/VEsD/

Important enough to resurrect this thread.

Someone on gardeners question time said just a few pollinators can cover a lot of ground in some plants. So maybe your raspberries got the right kind of visitor just at the right moment. There are lots of pollinating insects, some very generalist and some incredibly specific. Bees tend to pollinate short tubed flowers as they have short probosces. Butterflies visit things with deeper tubes etc.

PPS thanks for that link