Frazz by Jef Mallett for July 13, 2021

Flowers are a lot more than merely nice… they’re necessary. A huge proportion of all the food we humans eat is pollinated by bees. Without bees, we starve. And yet we still can’t get rid of neonicotinoids because “profit”.

Someone didn’t pay attention in science class.

It’s great to see bees and (other pollinators) around our chrysanthemums in the fall – it’s almost like the flowers are bubbling.

It’s a system if it works for you.

It’s a racket if it doesn’t.

She continues teaching outside her classroom….

I have an agreement with the rabbits: I leave some plantain & clover growing in the yard & they leave my ornamentals alone.

The only regret I have regarding bees is that I don’t see enough of them. We used to have a hive in an old tree near my house. The bees are gone now, I’m happy anytime I look down and see bees gathering pollen & nectar in flowers.

Racket and system as synonyms – Jeff is being political for once again.

I’m with Mrs. Olsen.

Over the years, we have stopped using pesticides, such as those that kill grubs but also dozens to hundreds of other life forms necessary for a healthy yard and a strong bird population. OK mosquito collectors, yes, but not wide species sprays. We also plant white clover along with grass seed and cutting the grass a about 4" to encourage bees, butterflies, and other nectar feeders. Anything that shows a blossom gets a bye until its seeds have fallen.

So the results are lots photos of birds in the yard and at the feeders year round. Squirrels in the flower pots. Lightning bugs and cicadas at dusk. Chipmunks running the deck. A rabbit that sometimes suns itself just outside our kitchen window. Hawks that for some reason will walk the yard, scratching for whatever it is they find there. Blackbirds, whose voices match some we hear on the all-music station.

This happens in a half acre yard in a small suburb in central Virginia. It takes less time and less effort each year. I’ll take that over the golf green perfection every day.

everything I plant is for the bees and birds. love to watch the bees!

Watching bees enjoy my flowers is a soothing activity. It’s a reminder that at least some things are still right in the world.

Just say ‘no’ to manicured lawns.

Mrs. Olsen… once a teacher, always a teacher.

With such a “Olsen positive” Frazz today, I invite you all to go back to the beginning when she was just a foil. Nice job, Mallett.

Excellent!(And bats!)

I think it was in the most recent reboot of Cosmos that I encountered the idea that humans weren’t even the 2nd species on the planet to develop complex language. Bees had beaten us by millions of years, and dolphins probably had a good head start on us as well. And, for all the SF stories written about how we’d be able to communicate with alien civilizations, we still haven’t figured out how to do it to those 2 species that share a planet with us.

great message! Insects are essential to pollination and plant reproduction, and as a food source for thousands of other species. As insignificant as they may seem, they are key nodes in the web of life. ‘We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon,’ one of the scientists said. ‘If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.’

Bees are cool. Host a hive if you have the room.

Now, if they were wasps…

What’s amusing is that we went for a bio reserve for our garden. Our neighbours looked at all that grass and flowers growing wild with a frown, but now they are quite happy because their own vegetable gardens are thriving thanks to all those pollinating insects buzzing around.

The honey bees that fetch the nectar

From the flowers to the comb

Never tire of ever buzzing to and fro

Because they take a little nip

From every flower that they sip

And hence (And hence),

They find (They find)

Their task is not a grind.

I am very appreciative of how good a portrayal of Mrs. Olsen this is and of her intellect.

Insects are necessary. I wish more people realised that.

Honey bees alone pollinate 80 percent of all flowering plants, including more than 130 types of fruits and vegetables.

Farming.org

get rid of bees? Sacrilege!

Bees I like. The yellow jackets that are infesting my garden beds, not so much.

My daughter has started bee keeping. Proud of her and all. Other bee keepers.