Bee Safe!

  The other day while I was out enjoying the incredible fragrance of the wisteria, I noticed that a myriad of honeybees were also enjoying the vine.  There buzzing filled the air just as the scent of the wisteria blooms did.  Aww, couldn't get much better than that!  I am so grateful that the honeybees are doing well around the Bayou.  I worried a bit when they no longer inhabited the old oak tree down the lane.  I thought, at best, they had perhaps moved to a new location...at worst, the swarm had died.  Their presence here means that maybe my going chemical-free in the garden is working.  

  Then a few days later, a friend of mine was asking for suggestions of how to rid her gardenia bush of worms.  She had taken to the social media to find answers.  I was horrified to find that out of the hundred or so responses to her query, all but a handful were to use a chemical spray or dust.  Only two or three suggested alternate methods of removal.  To make matters worse, she was actually taking their suggestions to heart.  I did my best by posting the idea that something less toxic should be used but to no avail.  What surprised me is that this very same beautiful lady should know better.  She is well educated and therefore well informed.  Being in the media herself (she is a newscaster), I would have thought that she might set a better example.  

  That said, I was extremely happy that my honeybees did not have that worry here on the Bayou.  The lady in question lives in an entirely different state but, still, that does not help with the overall health and welfare of the bees and Mother Nature in general.  Every honeybee that is killed is like killing a little bit of ourselves.  We need the bees.  Not only for the obvious delicious honey that they make but to pollinate the plants.  Without bees and other pollinators (all are affected by the toxic sprays and dusts) there will soon be no plants.  It aches my heart to even think of that one flowering bush being coated in chemicals.  

  Please..please, folks, find something a bit safer to use if you truly must rid your life of bugs!  Hand pick them, try home "remedies", encourage birds to reside in your yard or invest in some praying mantises!  Do anything!  Just do NOT kill my honeybees!