Bees are dying of thirst: SOS Drought Crisis

For more than 10 days now, bees and pollinators, especially in Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia, have been suffering one of the most worrying drought-related deaths. Plants have reduced their nectar flow and water sources are drying up more and more. Our pollinators are experiencing a crisis. Our sentinel bees are recording alarming daily declines in weight due to the lack of water. We are recording that they are losing about 300 to 400 grams every day; they have almost exhausted all their supplies. Fortunately, there are the beekeepers 4.0 who manage to feed and water them, so that major nutritional problems can be avoided. But who takes care of the wild bees?

Try not to plant seeds you do not know and carefully select seeds of plants for pollinators. Seed planting campaigns are a marketing gimmick that serve no purpose except to salve our consciences and make us all feel better. Certainly offering plants and flowers is a good practice, but we are talking about massive redevelopment. Seeds are useful if you have a green thumb, but then choose well-grown, nectar-rich plants to put on your balcony and in your garden. The best way to help pollinators and especially bees is education. If we learn how our ecosystems work as a community, we can upgrade our environment where we live.

The scarcity of rain and precipitation lead to major consequences: the decrease in flowering and thus the inability of flowers to produce pollen and nectar for bees. Strong is the link between climate change and loss of pollinators. The scenario is as follows: the plants cannot get the water they need to produce the bees' beloved sugary sap, and when they can, the heat is so great that the flowers burn and wither. The bees then no longer have the sustenance they need to feed themselves and starve to death.