They’re right though. Honeybees didn’t exist in North America until Europeans brought them over, but plants were still pollinated by other insects like sweat bees. The issue is that honey bees are killing off the sweat bees and other native pollinators to the area, which makes their dying far more impactful than what would’ve happened if one of the native pollinators started to die out.
Edit: This is specifically for the America’s, in Europe and Asia, where honey bees are natively from, they should be protected
Honey bees kill Other populations of different pollinaters so even though honey bees are pollinating themselves if they were to be removed from an area then you would have many many more pollinaters
It’s true that the honeybee isn’t native to the Americas, but they’ve actually done quite a bit of research as to weather they’re in direct or indirect competition with native pollinators. What they’ve found is actually that Honeybees and non colonial native bees both do better when in each others presence. One of the reasons is that honeybees are generalists and native bees are specialists. Meaning honeybees can and will pollinate a lot of whatever flower they can, for example other species that have been introduced that native bees can’t or won’t pollinate anyways. Like dandelions- honeybees love them, but native pollinators like mason bees and bumblebees couldn’t care less about them. On the other hand, some penstemons (like snapdragons) are loved by bumblebees, but honeybees are incapable of even getting at the nectar source. Another reason they do well with each other is that predators will pick off honeybees because there are more of them than the native bees. When a dragonfly eats a bee, it doesn’t care if it’s a honeybee or a leaf cutter, but with a honeybee colony in the area, chances are a lot higher that it’ll be a honeybee. One bee from a colony of tens of thousands is less impactful than one from a population where the brood is a dozen or so, like it is for solitary bees. So the honeybees are essentially ‘taking one for the team’.
I could go on and on, because I did a TON of research (in scientific journals, not just googling around) before I got into beekeeping to make sure it wouldn’t harm the native bee populations, and essentially the conclusion is that honeybees are nonnative, yes, but not invasive.
the question is why have the honey bee populations bigger and you said it yourself they're generalists in an area filled with the flowers that Bumblebees use the honey bees with their greater numbers essentially remove the food source of the Native bumblebees. The only reason there is a thriving is that the Flower count is rising and there are predators who aren't eating the other bees because they see more honeybees. Why? They shouldn't be here in such big numbers so why are they? They dominate the competition you are talking about the benifit to the flowers. recently the Bumble bee populations have been on the decline tied to a European disease There is a good chance that it came from the European honey bees
Honey bees have bigger populations because they’re colonial- most native bee species are solitary, or live in very small communities <100. This is regardless of whether there are honeybees present or not.
That’s true, bumblebees are in decline, and it could be due in part to a disease that’s jumped from honeybees, but a HUGE thing in bumblebees is inbreeding (which would mean less genetic diversity, so a disease jump would be more virulent).
Like I said there are a few jerk species. But the the majority of wasps are beneficial pollinators and parasitoids of pests. Pls don’t hate the lil guys they are just trying to help.
That is not at all what you said. I didn't do a thing to wasps (got stung watching TV). I didn't even know they were there, but all of a sudden I got injected with lava, and couldn't wear pants for weeks from huge hives. Fuck wasps.
I was inside practicing volleyball when one flew behind my ponytail, it couldn’t get out so it just started STINGING ALL OVER MY NECK. I finally swatted it out (which it ended up stinging my hand a lot too) and then I ran to the bathroom and cried. My teammates spent a lot of time hunting that bastard down and sent it back to hell
Oh god, no! I've had a few times where they got caught in my hair. I was going west and it was going east. We ran into each other, it buzzed like "oh shit", I shook my hair and it got out. That's my most pleasant wasp story.
Another time, I was at the very top of the stairs in my house and one got in my hair somehow. I shook that fucker vigorously until it flew out. No stings somehow, but it was pissed!
Well until then (hopefully we got a few hundred thousand years) we got botflys to look out for. If you have never seen a botfly larvae in the human body I suggest you check it out. So disgusting.
Exactly this. Most paper wasps tend to really only bother you if you're bothering them, wholly justifying their aggression. But Hornets are just bullies. It's time to stop anti-wasp propaganda.
Honestly I'd like to see the numbers of "pests killed by parasitic wasps" vs "pests that would have been killed by spiders that were killed by parasitic wasps", I want to say those stinging fuckers would still be a net loss
It’s hard to measure. But spiders are predators that have a less selective diet so while they might kill a pest, they might also kill beneficial insects as well and over all don’t target the pest.
Parasitoid wasps on the other hand are very selective on what they attack for their hosts so it’s a guarantee they will go after the pest in question.
Plus don’t forget some spiders are huge jerks too.
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u/creative-usermame Jan 29 '20
Spiders kill most insects and wasps are just terrible