+
upworthy
Heroes

Bees are in trouble. A big part of the solution couldn't be easier or more delightful.

What's good for them is good for you.

Q: What do you give a sick bee?

A: Flowers!

Seriously, flowers are the answer. Here's the full story.

You've probably heard about mysteriously disappearing bees and colony collapse disorder. It's true: Bee numbers have dropped at horrifying rates.


This matters. We depend on bees for a third of our food. We can thank honeybees for pollinating cherries, blueberries, pears, strawberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, and apples just for starters. And they also pollinate alfalfa — OK, that's not tasty, but it does feed a lot of animals that are pretty tasty. Tomatoes are pollinated by bumblebees, and their numbers are down too.

Professor Marla Spivak calls this the "big bee bummer."

But she also sees a solution.

For one thing, it really helps to know that bees have great health care.

Honeybee societies work in mysterious ways, with no leader, but 40,000 to 50,000 individuals collectively making decisions and communicating about important bee things, like where the flowers are. Care-taking bees collect resins from plants that they bring back to the hive that are a natural antibiotic (propolis). Propolis fights bacteria and fungus and boosts the health of the hive. So with a little help, bees are very capable of taking care of themselves. In fact, they've been doing just that for some 100 million years.

Another key piece of the picture is that it's not just one thing that's killing 'em. It's a combination:

  • Endless, flowerless landscapes — they're food deserts for bees
  • Natural bee diseases and pests like the varroa mite — they're like giant ticks
  • Pesticides


Where's lunch?

Spivak describes how all these things might come together if you were a bee. It's not only the giant blood-sucking mite on your leg or just that you have to go miles to find any joint with nutritious food. It's that also in your weakened state, if that food has even a small dose of a chemical that makes your head kinda fuzzy, you might forget where you are.

"Oh, just where did I leave that hive?"

A lot of bees just never come home. No one knows exactly what happens to them.

But here's Spivak's delightful solution.

1. Plant flowers.

Even just a window box is a wonderful thing. There are lots of bees in the city. If you rip up a whole lawn and replant it with flowers, so much the better! Go native. You'll get butterflies and maybe hummingbirds too. Be sure to purchase your plants from a source that's pesticide-free.

2. Don't spray pesticides. Just don't do it.

It's that easy.

Here's Spivak's fascinating talk. Send a friend this video (and some flower seeds) and spread the word.

UPDATE: Since Spivak gave this talk, the U.S. EPA has put a moratorium on the use of neonics, the class of pesticides she describes. Some places have banned them. There's even published scientific evidence that pollen from plants treated with neonics are actually preferred by bees. The scientists suggest that the bees get hooked on the nicotine, just like humans can. Some people are skeptical. But while the scientists, farmers, and pesticide companies are duking it out, we have plenty of reasons already to push for diversity in agriculture and to do all we can to support a healthy, flower-filled landscape full of bees.

Pop Culture

Here’s a paycheck for a McDonald’s worker. And here's my jaw dropping to the floor.

So we've all heard the numbers, but what does that mean in reality? Here's one year's wages — yes, *full-time* wages. Woo.

Making a little over 10,000 for a yearly salary.


I've written tons of things about minimum wage, backed up by fact-checkers and economists and scholarly studies. All of them point to raising the minimum wage as a solution to lifting people out of poverty and getting folks off of public assistance. It's slowly happening, and there's much more to be done.

But when it comes right down to it, where the rubber meets the road is what it means for everyday workers who have to live with those wages. I honestly don't know how they do it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

5-star Scottish resort offers whimsical afternoon tea experience with 'naughty sheep'

Cameron House's Woolly Wellness retreat includes tea in the garden with adorably rude guests.

Cameron House/Naughty Sheep

Cameron House's Woolly Wellness retreat includes a unique sheep encounter.

Remember when "goat yoga" was all the rage? And then "cow cuddling" and "turkey cuddling" made everyone's bucket lists?

Now we can add "nuzzling with naughty sheep" to the mix, but with a fancy Scottish twist.

Less than an hour from Glasgow, Scotland, the Cameron House resort sits on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, looking as if it were plucked straight out of a fairy tale. Sprawling green grounds, gorgeous lake views and a four-story castled mansion greet guests as their "home away from home" (only better), and a perusal of the reviews show guests raving about the 5-star resort's elegance, beauty and exceptional service.

I mean, just look at this place:

drone view of cameron house grounds and lakeCameron House sit on Lake Lochmond in Scotland.Cameron House


Keep ReadingShow less

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less
@caitlin.the.realtor/TikTok, used with permission

Wait, so 90's fashion is in, but 90's hair is out?

Every era has its own version of what’s attractive. And very rarely does that aesthetic hold power with the following generation. In fact, it often becomes the opposite of cool.

Just think of Elvis. He might have been a universal sex symbol for a time, but it also wasn’t long before his pompadour became passé. Same goes for Paul Newman’s rugged manliness, David Cassidy’s babyface, Tom Selleck’s mustache. Indeed, for everything a season.

Which brings us to the 90s. The age of beach blonde surfer boys (real surfing skills not required, but a plus). Of flannel, lots of flannel, and super chiseled bodies. Let’s not forget this was the dawning of the term “metrosexual,” and also the time period that brought us that Calvin Klein ad with Mark Wahlburg.

How exactly would these guys measure up with the Gen Z kids today?

Keep ReadingShow less
popular

A wild Eurasian crow befriended a toddler and won't leave his side

Crows are so much smarter than we think.

A Eurasian crow.

A family from Denmark has created a touching video montage documenting their unique friendship with a wild Eurasian crow. This crow, affectionately named Russell, has become an honorary member of their household, forming special bonds with each family member, including the pets.

However, the crow's relationship with their son, 2-year-old Otto, is truly extraordinary. “They could spend hours just playing,” Otto’s mother, Laerke Luna, says in a video shared by The Dodo. "When Otto is outside, he will never leave Otto’s side.”

Russell, the free-spirited crow, ventures away from the family's home from time to time, but never for too long. He always comes back and announces his return by tapping on the door, swooping in to lounge on the sofa, or awaiting Otto's return from school atop their roof.

“When we are inside, he will sit inside the window because he wants Otto to go outside with him,” Laerke said.

The family’s relationship with Russell didn’t come out of nowhere. When Russell was a young bird, he had health problems so the family took him and nursed the bird back to health. Eventually, they witnessed his first attempts to fly.

Recently, Russell became friends with another family member, their second child, Hedwig. Although he does get a little annoyed with the bird’s frequent attempts to nab his pacifier.

Even though it’s rare for humans to strike up such a close bond with a crow, according to research, it’s not that surprising. Audubon says that crows are “some of the smartest animals in the world” with an intelligence “on par with chimpanzees.” They are also very social and family-oriented, so no wonder Russell loves Otto and his family.

Crow Named Russell Waits For His Favorite Kid To Get Home From School | The Dodo


Learning

Why you shouldn't throw your dishwasher pod into the bottom of your dishwasher

Dishwashers actually use the dirty water to know how to wash your dishes.

Photos by cottonbro studio and PhotoMIX Ltd. via Canva

Why your detergent shouldn't go in the bottom of the dishwasher

There always seem to be something going on with the pods and powders you're supposed to use in the dishwasher to clean your dishes. Either the pods don't dissolve completely or the powder gets all goopy and hard, never really fully dispensing into the dishwasher.

The inconsistency in product dispensing can leave you wondering if the dishes are even getting cleaned, causing some to toss the detergent pod into the bottom of the dishwasher. It would seem that placing the detergent at the bottom would allow for it to actually reach your dirty dishes. But Melissa Pateras, a domestic expert, explains that doing it that way isn't doing what you think it's doing.

Pateras actually breaks down exactly how dishwashers work to clean your dishes while explaining why putting the detergent on the bottom is ineffective.

Keep ReadingShow less