Insecticides Will the bumblebees die soon in this country?

The stocks of bumblebees are falling dramatically. This is due to neonicotinoids, insect killers, as in bee mortality. These act on the nerve cells of the bumblebees and ensure that they lay fewer eggs. In addition, the animals become addicted to the substance.

Crop protection makes you infertile
An experiment has now shown that neonicotinoids reduce the number of laying bumble bees by a quarter.

The bee eater lives on insects like bumblebees and bees. If they die out, then he too dies. (JuergenL /fotolia.com)

Collapse of the bumblebees
This can lead to the collapse of the bumblebee populations. British researchers estimated in "Nature Ecology & Evolution" the risk of bumble bees dying to 28%. The basis was a model calculation.

Experiment with thiamethoxam
The scientists hibernated 319 fertilized bumble bees, altering the length of hibernation, the parasite infestation, and thirdly added thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid.

Less eggs
In a brief hibernation, the likelihood of a queen laying eggs also decreased with parasite infestation.

Ten weeks observation
The researchers now fed the queens with the syrup containing thiamethoxam and observed them for ten weeks.

The devastating result
The result was devastating: 26% more queens were planted without the poison.

Early egg deposit
The queens also laid their eggs earlier. This is a typical sign of stress.

Extinction is possible
Gemma Baron worked on the study and says, "If queens do not produce eggs and produce new peoples, it is possible that bumblebees will die out".

Neocotinoids related
Dirk Süßenbach from the Federal Environment Agency sees a connection between pesticides and bumblebee as obvious: "It is already striking that the decline of bee populations and other insects in different regions coincides with the beginning of the use of neonicotinoids."

insects dying
Not only the bumblebees die out. Likewise, bee mortality and a general decline in insects in Germany is up to 80%. The insect killing, in turn, leads to a bird dying, as the birds can no longer find food.

who's to blame?
Not only the neocortinoids are at fault, but also the massive destruction of living space.

Which habitats are destroyed?
Urban gardeners and farmers are destroying green strips whose wild flowers provide food for bees like bees. they can not feed themselves in gravel gardens. Landowners are cementing fallow land to build homes - or parking lots or shopping malls.

Collapse of livelihoods
If bumblebees and bees die, then the foundations of life are destroyed. Namely, these animals pollinate flowering plants. Without bumblebees and bees, there are no apples or pears.

What can you do?
Create "wild corners" in your garden or on the balcony with native flowering plants, or at least plants that can use the bumblebees, such as wild carrots, borage, thyme, lavender and summer lilac.

Urban Gardening
A relief for the bumblebees is Urban Gardening. Take care of bumblebee food in the city.
You can get "seed bombs" that contain native flower mixtures and leave them on roadsides, in flower boxes or on the roadside.

Green roofs
All types of areas are suitable for planting wildflowers: flat roofs as well as house facades. An old washing machine can be converted into a bed. An old wardrobe gets a second life as a bumblebee rescue station.

Which plants are suitable for a Hummelbeet?
For bees and bumblebees are: columbine; Besenheide as loosestrife, Dost such as flakes and bluebells, daisies, but also grassland, Greiskraut or Günsel, as well as heather, Herbstzeitlose and Johannisapfel, various clover, the Mullein, the toadflax, mint in all flowering variants, yarrow, to blackthorn, cowslip and Summer lilacs such as soapwort and gorse; Thyme, willow, fireweed and lemon balm also provide the animals with the best nutrition. Dr. Utz Anhalt