Dear Mother: October/November 2007

Image Gallery Worker bee ISTOCKPHOTO/RYAN PIKE

You all have certainly sent in a bountiful batch of letters and e-mails recently — notably about Electric Bikes, Vanishing Bees, Winged Beans, Better Mileage, the Bible of Homesteading, Big Brother and Better Living. Contributing editor and herbal expert Dr. James Duke wrote to tell us about winged beans vs. cancer. Don Rylander provided a great tip on a super-easy solar water treatment. Beekeeper Nevin Hawlman sent a disturbing report on the status of bees and pollinating insects in Pennsylvania.

If your letter was not selected for publication, it’s probably because we are now receiving far more letters than we have space to publish. It’s a problem we are happy to have, and we plan to resolve it by adding a new section to our Web site so the Mother Earth community conversation can expand. Watch for more details soon, and meanwhile, keep those cards and letters coming!

Where Have all the Bees Gone?

I am writing with regard to the mysterious honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder that is affecting bees all around the world. I have been a beekeeper for many years, and my grandfather was a beekeeper before me. I make houses for bees that I sell on the Internet, and have many models scattered around my Pennsylvania property. This year they are all but empty.

Last week I picked up a wheelbarrow full of dropped apples, and saw only two yellow jackets, no other bees or wasps. In previous years there would’ve been dozens of bees, wasps and hornets on the apples.

The one plant in central Pennsylvania which attracts the most insects of all species is the wild clematis, now in full bloom. It is nearly void of insect life and much more fragrant than I remember; an indication that the nectar is not being consumed. This information worries me; I’m talking about no pollinators!!

I have not seen one honeybee for months; not on my apple blossoms, or even on the sweet clover they love. Nor have I seen one bald-faced hornet; they are usually plentiful in my area. Last year I raised over 100 monarch butterflies. This year I spent about an hour afield and could not find even one caterpillar.

I hope this information is helpful as you report on Colony Collapse Disorder, which I call “Insect Alzheimer’s.”

Nevin Hawlman
Sunbury, Pennsylvania

We encourage readers to post reports about the state of bee populations in their gardens on our Honeybee Decline page. —Mother

Better Living with Bikes

These days life can seem crazy at times. Regardless of whether or not global warming is taking place, we are polluting and expanding our concrete society over the face of the Earth. The United States has enough nukes to obliterate the planet four times over, and world hunger is at an all-time high.

Here in Fort Collins, life is going as usual. We’re paying for our fast food and then paying for our gym memberships to work off the fat. We’re sending our young men and women to the Middle East to fight terrorism, then hopping into our SUVs and buying fuel that supports this violence. We’re working every day, all day, all to pay for our monthly brain-killing cell phones, our cable TV, our iPods, our $200 jeans and worst of all ... our cars: our beloved toys.