Bee Friendly Plants

Bee Friendly Plants or a Trojan Horse of Poisons?

Why the plants you’re buying to help bees could be harming them.

Let’s take a quick look at the horticultural industry’s real dirty little secret.
Peat was only the starter.
Get ready for the main course.

Spoiler alert:
Bees need more flowers.
Buying flowers at your local garden centre, DIY store or supermarket?
You might be inadvertently harming bees.
Plants are likely pre-treated with chemicals with the potential to harm bees.
The horticultural industry knows this.
You probably didn’t.
Check before you buy.
Don’t buy plants if they are treated.
Demand change.
Seek out organic/chemical free suppliers.
Grow your own from seed.

So you want to help save bees?
And part of saving bees means more food for bees.
Which means more flowers for bees.
Makes sense yes?

There are more species of bee on the planet than the combined total of mammal and bird species!

So you look at your garden/yard/patch and you decide to add some bee friendly flowering plants. You look up which garden plants are best for bees. You make a list and you head off on a Saturday morning to your local garden centre, DIY store, supermarket etc in search of these bee friendly plants.
The plan – buy the plants in the morning, plant them in your garden in the afternoon and that evening sit among the buzzing, cold drink in hand rightly pleased that you have done something positive for the planet.
And that’s a good plan.
A noble plan.
It’s what it should be…except…those ‘bee friendly’ plants you spent your hard earned cash on, that you so carefully transported home and so lovingly planted in your patch…well they might not be as bee friendly as they should be.

In fact they may actually harm the very creatures you hoped to help. And a lot of other creatures too.

You see plants sold in garden centres, DIY stores & supermarkets are generally speaking not what we call ‘bee clean’. Often, and even mostly, they have been pre-treated with a cocktail of chemicals before you buy them. Chemicals that are likely not good for bees, insects, mammals, soil, water and even you.

A study published in the UK in 2017 found that of 29 plants tested only 2 had no pesticides, 22 contained at least one insecticide and 11 had 2 or more insecticides. 70% of the plants contained neonicotinoids and at much greater concentrations than have been shown to bee harmful to bees.
This study confirmed similar studies undertaken in other countries.

So how do you find out if the ‘bee friendly’ plants that you are about to buy could actually be a trojan horse full of nasty chemicals?

Ask.
Ask the staff if they are treated with chemicals.

One teaspoon of neonicotinoid pesticide is enough to kill 1.25 billion bees!

And when you do here is what will happen:
You’ll get a quizzical look.
You’ll have to repeat the question.
The staff member will say that they don’t know.
You’ll ask if they can check.
They’ll disappear for a few minutes and return to tell you one of two things:

First Option: Yes they are treated.
If yes – then leave the plants with them and tell them you’ll be back when the plants they sell aren’t covered in poison.

Second option: No they aren’t treated/sprayed here. Here is the important word. Where? Here. Where? (See what we did there?)
‘Here’ is the important word -‘not treated/sprayed here’.
If they tell you they aren’t treated/sprayed ‘here’ ask them if they were treated before they arrived ‘here’.

They’ll disappear again and again return a number of minutes later to tell you another one of two things.

First option: they don’t know – which likely means yes – though they genuinely don’t know as they’ve never thought about this before.

Second option: Yes they were treated before arriving on their premises.

Regardless if you want to do the right thing – leave the plants with them either until they can confirm to you that the plants were not previously treated or they start stocking plants that are untreated with poisons.

If you want change you need to demand it.

The more people that demand clean untreated plants the more likely suppliers/growers will supply that demand.

Create demand to create change.

So in the meantime what can you do in your garden/yard/patch/neighbourhood?

Search for and support organic/chemical free growers.
Source and sow organic/untreated seed yourself.
A little effort and patience. Plant swap with neighbours and friends that you can trust not to use chemicals in their gardens.

This isn’t a swipe at garden centres and growers.
This is a call for honesty, transparency and positive change.
For nature.
For bees.
For better.

Maybe we should remove the misleading ‘bee friendly’ labels and replace them with labels displaying the chemical treatments the plants have had since seed and thus allowing people, their valued customers – you – to make an informed decision?

You have the power to create change.

Use it!

Let's Talk!

Bee Friendly Plants

There are more species of bee on the planet than the combined total of mammal and bird species!

One teaspoon of neonicotinoid pesticide is enough to kill 1.25 billion bees!

We’re saving endangered native wild bees.
We educate.
We advocate.
We take action.
We disrupt.

Want to help? Get in Touch

(+353) 87 950 1285

info@worldbeesanctuary.org

Quick Links

Contacts

World Bee Sanctuary is an AI Free Zone

ALL images captured on and copyright World Bee Sanctuary except honey bee images.

Let's Talk!

Bee Friendly Plants

There are more species of bee on the planet than the combined total of mammal and bird species!

One teaspoon of neonicotinoid pesticide is enough to kill 1.25 billion bees!

We’re saving endangered native wild bees. We educate. We advocate. We take action. We disrupt.

Want to help? Get in Touch

(+353) 87 950 1285

info@worldbeesanctuary.org

Quick Links

Contacts

World Bee Sanctuary is an AI Free Zone

ALL images captured on and copyright World Bee Sanctuary except honey bee images.

We’re saving endangered native wild bees.
We educate.
We advocate.
We take action.
We disrupt.