Closer Look at Pollen

I'm growing lots of echinaceas this year - I hope they attract some British butterflys - alas they are very much in decline here and nobody seems to know why. I try to be tolerant of catapillars in my garden.

That's a shame. I hope they find the reason, same as I hope they figure out what's happening to all of the honey bees. I personally think it's insecticides. Maybe with butterflies it's loss of habitat too. I wish you much luck with your echinacea and hopefully it'll bring in the butters. I don't know a thing about British butterflies and would love to see some posted !

Will post some piccies when they are about. The only ones about at the mo are the Commas - Jacqui has some picture of those I think. Loss of habitat is definately one of the reasons, but the decline has been very dramatic, so I think there must be other factors. Re the bees, i've heard there is a parasite that is effecting bees - I wonder if that has reached the USA? Bee keepers here have been v worried about it here. I have built a bee box for my garden, but no takers as yet! :-D

The parasite affecting honey bees is called Varroa, comes from Asia originally, it has been in the UK since about 1992. Unfortunately Defra were about 10 years too late in their attempts to treat the infestations.
I believe it is also in the US as well.

I think the parasite has been a problem for a long time here but I thought that was taken care of by adding something to the entrance of the hives that kills the parasite. Unless there's a new parasite now. I watched a program the other night about a certain insecticide that could causes memory loss in bees......the bees just can't find their way home. And that seems to be the big problem here. They're just gone. Not found dead by the hive, in the hive or anything like that. The man that runs the largest honey bee operation in the country is very worried about it. He lost a major part of his bees. He replaced them last year but he thinks he's already losing his new bees. He ships his hives all over to farmers and orchards, and without those bees, there will be no crop produced.

no bees.... no crops......no food!

Exactly. I think we're headed for either a change in diet, or very very high prices. Probably both.