The bee is a remarkable animal – flowers are pollinated mostly by bees; up to one third of all plant pollination on earth are by bees. In short, this means that one in every three spoons of food you put in your mouth was a direct result of the work done by bees. And they do it for free.
Bees do not have ears, but they have an excellent sense of smell with chemoreceptors in their antennae. Bees see colors differently than we do. They are insensitive to red but detects ultraviolet light which is invisible to us.
But the bee species themselves are under severe attack: in recent years thousands of colonies were destroyed by two parasitic mites, acarapis woodi and varroa jacobsoni. Scientist have not discovered a remedy yet, but have noticed a disturbing trend: the highest numbers of infested bees and the highest infestation rates were seen at high stress sites, ie. polluted areas. In addition, as the human population rapidly increases and take down woods and forests the ideal breeding space for bees are destroyed. However, we can make a difference. The challenge to individuals like us is to protect these amazing animals by making our gardens bee-friendly.
