WEBVTT - Why are honeybees disappearing? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the Reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.400 from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.239 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Bryant. This 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.040 Stuff you Should Know? Oh and hey Jerry, Sorry, Jerry. 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.920 Jerry is the unsung hero heroin Yes, a little horse 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.680 for a little monkey? Why it's an old Mr Science 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.200 Theater three thousand long? Oh you through there? I thought 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:37.640 she had a little horse and a little monkey or 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.199 something under her. Wo be like, Jerry, what do you 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:41.560 tell me? A little horse and a little bit a 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:46.639 pony and a macaque with her? So? Uh yeah, that's 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.800 how we're starting this one. Why not? Okay, all right, Chuck, 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.240 I have a pretty decent intro this time. Well let's 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:55.640 hear it then. Have you ever heard of the lost 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.600 Colony of roan Oak? I have, but I would like 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.440 you too. You fill us in? Thank you. So back 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.520 in the I think seventeenth century the early seventeenth century, 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.399 Roanoke was one of the very first colonies, if not 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.960 the first American colony right um in what is now 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.120 North Carolina, Virginia, right, um. And it was thriving for 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:20.880 a little while. They had a nice little four and 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.000 they used to fight with the Native Americans and you know, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:29.560 pretty normal early American colonial stuff. Right. So, like I said, 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.240 everything is going happily along. And then about two years 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:37.400 after the colony is established, an expedition bringing supplies comes 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:42.160 along and they find the thing totally abandoned, no sign 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:45.160 of life. I don't believe there is any dead bodies 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:53.200 or bones, um. And the only trace of anything was 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:57.360 the word crow a town carved into one of the 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.280 posts that made up the fort. You're kidding, And I 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.720 think there were some There was there was a local 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.960 tribe called the crow Towan, but they were nowhere to 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.560 be found. Isn't it very creepy? This whole colony law 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.520 just vanished. I thought you can say wolverines was spray 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:16.880 painted on the front of it. But the they think 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.280 now that they may have been absorbed by another tribe, 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:25.840 the Lumbi, which actually um were completely alien to whites 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.400 until I think the early eighteenth century, very late, like 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:36.679 several decades after the colony at Roanoke vanish, right, um. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.960 And when the Whites didn't counter and they said Hey, um, 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.080 why does some of you look kind of white? And 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.520 why are you building two story thatch houses like we 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.400 have in England? Right? You know, how do you know 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:52.760 how to read the Bible? Right? Um? With this ball? Exactly? 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.600 They think so they think that the Lumbie tribe absorbed 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.160 the colonists at Rohanu. Wow, but that is among the 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:05.000 very few lost colonies of human history. I'll tell you 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:10.400 another species that has tons of lost colonies. Bees, dude, 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:16.600 best set up ever? Really, yeah, of course, really really good. Yes, Josh, 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.280 we are here today to talk about colony collapse disorder 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:23.560 because bees are disappearing at an alarming rate, much like 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.440 the people of the rowan Oute colony. Right, and Chuck, 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.079 I think that probably most of the people who listen 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.880 to our podcast said, why do I care that bees 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.480 are disappearing? I hate bees? They sting me and they 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.760 they chase me in my dreams. You know, you know 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.520 why I do? Why you want me to tell them? 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:46.720 Because bees are vital to almost any kind of vegetation 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.160 you can eat. And not only that. Let's say you're like, 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:54.120 I don't need vegetables I eat and meat? Did you know? Here? 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:55.760 Let me let me give you a little scenario that 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.720 was posed in this article take the almond population. Let's 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:01.880 for example, my new favorite nut, as you know, is 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:06.440 the almond chucks. Crazy about all they're so good for you. Um. 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:10.400 Beekeepers basically go to California every year with about forty 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:16.320 billion honey bees too, uh, pollinate the almond crop every February. 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:21.040 Every February, and over those few weeks of the world's 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.560 almond crop is pollinated and about a billion dollars in 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.040 exports are generated. So you might think, okay, well, I 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.200 don't eat almonds either, tough guy. Those almonds the almond 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.720 holes are sold as cattle feed. Part of the cattle feed. 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.760 They're also crushed as shells for bedding for livestock, and 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.960 the dust, almond dust is collected as an additive to 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:47.320 the top soil, so that hamburger has almond juice running 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.279 through it, which has bee juice running through it. Yeah, 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.279 and that's just almonds. Yeah. I think a total of 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.240 fifteen billion dollars worth of agricultural products are pollinated by 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.840 commercial honey bees every year, every year, and we s 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.839 that bees are disappearing. Um, mostly it's honey bees that 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:09.160 are disappearing. Under the colony claps disorder, right, chuck, Yeah, specifically, 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.839 that's what we're worried about. So it is important obviously 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.560 honey bees are kept happy and healthy and um that 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.920 they not mysteriously vanished without a trace. Yeah, it's not 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:23.200 just about honey, folks. Let's although honey is delicious, it 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.880 is delicious and nutrition. Let's talk about what colony claps 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.920 disorder is, chuckers, Okay, uh, I think they. I think 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.640 Jessica Toothman said in this article that attrition rates in 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.880 a bee colony is normal because bees do have wings 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.279 and they will fly away, and about is an average 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.000 of what you're looking for. I think it's like an 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.920 average maximum average maxim because I mean, when you let 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:46.960 the bees out go pollinate, some are just gonna be like, 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.839 I like this colony or I think I'm going to 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.640 um go hit the road with Neil Cassidy or something. Right. 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.080 You know, they don't always come back, that's true. Uh, 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.839 And so starting as early as two thousand two, but 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.960 really in two thousand six is when it really really peaked, 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.040 or not peaked, but when it really showed its ugly face. 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.400 The bees started leaving and not coming back. At it, 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.560 and we suspect dying at a rate of anywhere from 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:18.760 thirty that's huge. And do you remember you said a 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:23.839 minute ago that every February about forty billion bees. That's 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.960 in just one million hives. So if of a hive 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.320 is dying off or it is a lot of bees, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.279 the just one hive, which we should probably specify, is 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.120 virtually interchangeable with the word colony. Hi, haven't call any 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.400 same thing. Yeah, you know what's creepy? What is sometimes 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:41.960 when they when they come back and they see the 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.640 all the vs the bees are gone. Sometimes you'll just 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.679 see the queen and larvae and a few younger bees 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.320 and that's it. And they're like, where's everybody gone? And 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.160 maybe crow uh, what's over it again? Croat? Maybe crowatons 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.760 like scrawled into the bee hive in honey. Yeah. Um, 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.760 so yeah, that's colony cleps disorder most of the most 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.320 of the time, it's the workers are just gone vanished, 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:08.320 or at least of them, right, um. And what I 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.440 guess another kind of interesting and almost unsettling aspect is 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.280 that when a when a bee hive gets abandoned and 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.080 all its left is like the queen and some larvae 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:22.160 and and especially when there's tons of honey in it, moths, um, 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.680 other kinds of bees, wasps, any other insect with the 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:30.520 taste for sweet, sweet honey, beetle vades it immediately. Not 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:35.400 so with colonies that have been hit by colony collapse disorder. Yeah, 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.680 they wait a few days, right, Yeah they do. That's creepy. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.560 It's real creepy. That'd be like leaving some steak out 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.560 in the hot sun in July and they're being like 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.760 no flies or animals buzzing around right until like the 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.840 following Thursday. That's really creepy. Yeah, and it definitely gives 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:52.240 you an idea that something serious is up, right, So 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:57.800 we have mystery, mystery, mystery, tons of bees dying or vanishing. Um. 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:00.200 And like you said, check, this really stepped up. Been 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.880 two thousand and six, seven and eight, right, and it's 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.280 still going on. From what I understand, this is not 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:07.800 the first time that this happened though, Yeah, you said 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.720 it was the worst case ever. Was when it's not 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:12.640 the worst. I think this is the worst case ever. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:17.400 But before it's been pretty bad. Uh uh. In Pennsylvania, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:22.200 um beekeepers reported fifty three percent of their hives just 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:26.840 knocked out. Spanish gone um or dead. Uh. We have 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:32.400 um mysterious bee hive abandonments uh dating back to the 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:37.120 eighteen eighties, the early twentieth century. Um. And in nineteen 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:43.440 oh three in Utah, Uh, two thousand colonies were mysteriously lost. Yeah, 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:47.120 just gone. So this isn't if you'll notice it's Utah, 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.040 Pennsylvania here or there. You know, with colony collapse disorder, 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:55.439 it's spread around. There's there's there's evidence of it in Australia, 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.280 in Europe, in the US. Yeah. Actually Australia said they've 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.200 been doing Okay, okay, well there's evidence of it in 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:07.040 not Australia, but the US I apologize. Australia did say 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.320 they had reported. But things seem to be back on 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.600 track in Australia, So you were right? Should I say 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.160 it again? Now you just smack me? All right? So 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.920 chuck the apiarists? You like that? Very nice? This is 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.560 another word for beekeeper are getting a little bit concerned. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:27.600 It's widespread, the numbers are high. It's mysterious. What possibly 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.360 is going on here? Well they're not quite sure, Josh. 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:33.800 That's why it's a little distressing. I know this mystery 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.760 of the vanishing. They do have some ideas, and after 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.520 reading this article and a few other UH supplementary articles, 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.319 my belief is that it's a combination of factors. It's 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.760 probably not one thing. Yeah, And actually the U s 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.760 D A Steering committee on Colony collapse disorder, it's a mouthful. 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.040 They just released their first UM, I guess white paper 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:59.040 on colony collapse disorder this past July, and they concluded 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:00.920 the same thing. I real that there's a bunch of 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.559 different factors at work. UM. There were some ideas thrown out, 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.120 like some unknown organism or pathogen was acting them. They 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.400 said probably not. There's a study done in Germany UM 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.720 as to whether or not cell phone and cell phone 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.080 towers were putting off radiation that was screwing with the 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.560 bees homing abilities and this. Uh. These Germans did that 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.320 study and they said no, not happening. And apparently the 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.320 opposite was picked up by the news cycle to the 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.160 point where the guy who conducted the study wrote the 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.320 A p. A letter saying we found no link between 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.480 colony collapse disorder and cell phones. Anybody who says or 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:41.840 writes anything else is a liar. But they were linking 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:47.560 that and journalists were linking that. Journalists loved it. Link stuff. Yeah, 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:52.280 correlative not causative. Let's talk about a couple of these things, Josh, alright, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:56.640 Let's talk about the Israeli acute paralysis virus. This seems 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.520 to be the most important factor. If there's several factors 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.600 involved in colony claps disorder, this seems like right at 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.400 the top. I would agree, Uh, just from reading about 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.360 it. It It is a virus discovered by Israeli scientists in 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.439 two thousand two, and it causes trembling, paralysis and death 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.040 and bees, which is it just makes me really sad 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.400 to think about a trembling paralyzed and then dying. Be 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.760 What's cool, um, is that they these researchers in the 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.080 study in two thousand seven, UM, I guess introduced I 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.240 A p V into some hives and then kept some 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.280 other ones separate, um, so that they wouldn't become infective. 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:36.440 Because honey bees are very social and they frequently interact 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:40.520 with bees from other colonies. Um. But they infected them 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.839 in this greenhouse, creepy, and then as the bees were dying, 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.760 the researchers noted that the healthy bees were dragging the 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.880 dead ones to the outskirts of the greenhouse as far 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.720 away from the high as they could, quarantining these dead bees. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.719 It is that seems to me to be a real 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.199 red flag here. You know what else that when they 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:04.679 um studied some there was another study in two thousand 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:10.560 and seven that looked at already infected um colony collapse 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.400 disorder hives and then non CCD hives, and they found 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.480 that in nineties six point one percent of the infected 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.120 hives I A p V was present, but it wasn't 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.680 in any of the non c c D hives. So 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.640 it's definitely a huge factor that seems like it, but 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.080 not case closed because there are some other factors that 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:33.320 may weigh in as well. Pesticides is a big one, specifically, 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:38.439 Chuck the neo nicotinoid. Nice people knew that. It took 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.720 twenty minutes for us to spit that out, they laugh. Uh, 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.400 they are neurotoxins, Josh. And they are pesticides and they're 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:50.760 used to protect crops against pests, which honey bees as well. Yeah, 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:54.439 and um, I think the Germans, once again, the beekeepers 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.880 in Germany are blaming this for massive die off rates, right, 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:01.400 the same Germans who said that the cell phones had 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.240 nothing to do with it, so much so that some 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:07.960 countries are starting to ban this type of pesticide um 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:11.199 even though I don't think there's been any causal link established, 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.679 it's the correlations enough that, right, you know, do you 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:19.080 want to hear the saddest factor? For me? It's sad, 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:21.720 But at the same time, I imagined some be in 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.160 like a crumpled fedor carrying a briefcase returning to the hive, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.720 you know, Joe versus the b the bee hive. I 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.400 love that movie me too. Uh, stress, Josh, is what 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.160 we're talking about. And these poor little bees because of 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:39.200 beekeeper stretching out the pollination season, basically giving bees less 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.760 time to recuperate before carrying them around to another crop. 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.839 They're overworked and they're stressed out, and it could be, 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:50.080 you know, disrupting their immune systems and killing them off. Sad, sad, sad. 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:52.520 And then the last factor in the article that was 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.400 mentioned as impossible culprit was the verroa might what's the 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.079 deal with these suckers? They actually transmit I A p 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.680 V two okay, um bees, Well, there you have it. 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:08.040 Through little jerks, little jerky mites. So the like we said, 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:12.400 fifteen billion dollars worth of agricultural crops products in the 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.439 US alone. We're pollinated by commercial honey bees. So you 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:17.560 can imagine that the U. S. D A Is a 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.720 little worried about colony claps disorder. Right. Yeah, they're actually 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:26.320 looking to alternative methods of pollinating, like synthetic methods of 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.600 pollinating plants because of this, uh naked guys running through 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.560 the fields. That's one and the other bees are trying 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.160 to put other bees to work, Like which one was it, 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.280 the blue orchard bee? Yeah, they're seeing if that works. Uh, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.840 And then of course they're also trying to do what 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.680 they can to take care of the honey bees and 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.680 restore their population. Um, but it's not just the U. S. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:52.240 T A That has a hand in honey bee repopulation. No, no, no, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.760 it's you and I too, Chuck, You and I and Hoggendoz. 0:14:56.520 --> 0:14:59.200 Oh yeah, well, we're gonna give you some tips here 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:01.520 in a minute on what you can do as an individual. 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.840 But I did want to point out that Delicious Haggandas 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.720 ice Cream has has nearly fifty of their all natural 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:12.440 ice creams it sounds like I'm reading an ad because 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.040 it's from their website. Nearly fifty of them use honey 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.400 bees in some way, shape or form to get their 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.040 ultimate ingredient. So they've got a little deal going where 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.440 they ultimate ingredients. Well there's fifty of them. Okay, well 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.920 now sorry. Uh. They have created a special flavor called 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.360 Vanilla Honeybee and they call it a delicious tribute to 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:35.200 these essential creatures. And of course when you buy this 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.080 this kind or any of them that have the ingredients 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.080 that come from the honey bees help they donate some money. Cool, 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.320 which is pretty cool. And you can donate just straight 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:49.120 to a cause via the cause via the Hagganda site, 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.880 or you can be nice to your local apiarists and 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.840 maybe having a bad day and that could just help, right, sure, 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.080 that would help. UM. So we have we have some 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:58.360 tips for you, Josh, you want to go over some 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:02.040 of these. My favorite is um contact your member of 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:07.400 parliament and tell them to start funding bee research. For 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:11.280 you to contact your member of parliament throw their wig 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:14.080 at me the number one on the list of and 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.000 this is clearly England, but imagine you can do the 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.360 same things here. This has become a beekeeper. That's a 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.200 good one. Sure, cool job. The more hives the better, 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.240 unless they're infected, and then the opposite is true. Yeah. 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.520 Another thing you can do is protect swarms. If you 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.960 see a swarm of honey bees, don't go out there 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.520 with the can of raid or your can of hairnet 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.560 and a lighter. Yeah, that's that's even the worse idea. 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:41.040 You You should contact um, a local authority, and supposedly 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.040 they will contact a beekeeper that will come and round 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.120 them up. You want to make sure that they're going 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.880 to contact the beekeeper. Actually there's people who do swarm 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.520 removals and just kill all the bees. Yeah, you want 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:52.240 to make sure that they're going to be taken to 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.360 a hive by a beekeeper and then the guy comes 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:57.680 out with this can of raid and the lighter some 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.680 local redneck. Uh. Plant your garden with bee friendly plants. 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:03.720 This is the biggest one that you can actually make 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.600 an impact here at home. So we're talking single flowering 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:12.240 plants and vegetables, and they recommend the Aliam family meant 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.359 beans except for French beans, and flowering herbs and bees 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.640 especially like daisy shape flowers, so sunflowers, sunflowers, are big, 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.440 are really big for helping to uh, helping the honey 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:23.960 bees out. And if you have your hands in your 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.600 pockets right now and you're feeling nothing but lint, and 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.119 you're like, I really love to help the bees, but 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.280 I can't afford any sunflower seeds. Man, I'm not like rich. 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.240 You can actually contact a group called the Great Sunflower 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.560 Project and they'll send you some seeds. Uh. In return, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.639 all they ask is that you spend h thirty minutes 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.840 twice a month. If you can't swing that, then you 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:50.320 need to take stock of your life, um thirty minutes 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.639 twice a month in the garden. Uh, noting arrival times, 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.840 departure times, and uh whether or not you even see 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:01.680 any bees on your sunflowers and sending sending in the information. Yeah, exactly, 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:03.560 because if you don't see any bees, that's really important 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.240 to tell them as well. Right. And don't use pesticides 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:08.560 mid date chuck. Oh is that a big one. Yeah, Well, 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:10.800 that's when bees are most likely to be out foraging. 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:13.480 So if you're gonna spray any kind of pesticide, don't 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.639 do it in the middle of the day. It's bad news. Right. 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.840 They also say, if you're going to use pesticides or 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:25.200 pest control to use insects specific pesticides, So don't buy 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.600 kill all and don't buy kills honey bees. Yeah, exactly 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.240 a few other gardening tips for you. I know you're 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.080 quite the gardener. Uh. They say, if you have space 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.720 to use ten or more bee plants in a group, 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.520 you can group them together. That's a good thing. Sure 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.199 makes pollination easier. Sure, and if not, you know, do 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.359 what you can plan as many as you can. Uh. 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.159 They also require water when they're foraging in your garden, 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.480 so you know, put out a little bird bath and 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:52.399 if you don't have a bird bath, maybe just a 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:54.760 dish of water in your garden. I didn't know that, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:57.320 did you. I did not. It's a good one. And 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.320 they also um burrow in the ground, so they say 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.399 not to completely mulch your entire garden, to leave some 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.240 bare areas maybe where you don't see it, or maybe 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.080 put a little mound of sand and the bees can 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.680 home down in there. So another little tip you can use. 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.679 And native plants are always good if you're a gardener, 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.760 plant native plants to your state because bees eat them up. 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.240 And aside from gardening, you can also buy local honey. 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.679 You know. I used to know an apiarist and related 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.439 him once for the Henry County Times when I edited it, 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.560 and um, he sold local honey. I got stung by 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:33.440 a bee, by the way, while I was interviewing him, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:38.200 really hurt man um and uh. Like three years later, 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.320 I was at someone's house, a friend's house, and they 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:43.879 just happen to have honey from this guy's farm. I 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:47.879 couldn't believe it. Yeah, if your city is like um, Atlanta, 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.080 then they're all manner of farmers markets. That story sounded 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.520 so much more interesting in my head before I spit 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:55.920 it out. I thought it was interesting. Things can't tell 0:19:55.920 --> 0:20:00.000 by the way edges breeze right over. Uh. If at 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:01.480 as like your town, you probably have all kind of 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:03.800 farmers markets, local markets, and I guarantee you there will 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:05.879 be somebody with honey. It does. And they say, if 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:10.520 you're into um immunology, uh, and you believe that you 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:15.640 can immunize yourself from uh local allergies using honey, which 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.040 is yet to be proven, but it makes a lot 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.360 of sense. You want to buy honey that's um created 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.919 within fifteen miles of your your house and buying the 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.280 local is always a good idea all across the board. 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:29.919 And I got one more unless you have one more? No, 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:31.800 I'm done, okay, because I want to finish with this 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.400 and it's so good. Uh. Under the heading be friendly, 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.399 some tips on you know, if you have bees in 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.679 your area, don't swat them, don't flap your hands around. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.720 Just stay calm and move slowly away into the shade, 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:49.600 they say, and bees will lose interest. They also don't 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.000 have as much interest if you smell like alcohol or leather, 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:57.840 and they regard regard dark clothing as a threat. So 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:03.640 put on some dark leather pants, get drunk, and hang 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.560 out in your garden. Apparently I will never get stung 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.600 by a being. Wow, I'd like to see that. If 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.440 you want to learn more about this mysterious colony collapse disorder, 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.280 you can read just k Toothman's fascinating article how colony 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.840 collapse disorder works. I imagine if you type in collapse 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.760 disorder or colony collapse or colony collapse disorder into the 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:27.679 handy search bar at how stuff work dot Com, it 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.320 will yield said article. Uh. In the meantime, let's do 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:37.080 some listener mail, Josh. These are two from two kids. 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.760 And you know, we like the kid emails because they're 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.359 always nice and super friendly and cute and not like 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.720 a cynical old rotten adults. So the first one is 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.800 from Betto, which I love. That name, Betto is what 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.320 is that Italian Portuguese? I would think it's Italian. Okay, 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.719 hey guys, my name is Betto pronounced b et Dash. Oh. 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:01.840 I know you're laughing, it's a laugh. I have listened 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:03.960 to every single one of your podcasts since the eighth grade, 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.240 and I am now a sophomore in high school. Now. 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.400 Doesn't that really put it in perspective? Yeah? I feel old. 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.679 All of a sudden people are actively We're seeing these 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:16.280 people grow up. This is it brings a tear to 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:18.440 my eye. You know, when we get a graduation imitation 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.160 from Sarah the eleven year old fan, then it's time 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.120 to hang it up, all right, he says. Beto says, 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:25.760 I have to wake up every morning at six am 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:27.960 to catch the bus at seven so I can go 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.320 to a school thirty minutes away from my house. It's 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:33.399 about an hour bus ride, that's how that works. And 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:35.520 all I can do is listen to my iPod every day, 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:37.720 I download two or more and prepare for my day, 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:40.280 and you have two. You two have become quite possibly 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.159 my two favorite heroes besides Matt Bellamy, who I had 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:46.080 to look that up. Who isn't He's the lead singer 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.920 of Muse. So where heroes along with this muse dude? 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:52.720