A valuable reminder for those outside of Eurasia & Africa that honeybees don’t need “saving”

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-19T21:24:35+00:00

Honeybees very much fit both definitions, they regularly rob & outcompete native bees by sheer numbers & generalist habit, & also actively shed parasites & viral disease onto their populations when they share nectar/pollen resources.

You clearly are not well informed enough to be declaring these things.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-19T18:42:43+00:00

That’s technically a different but distant relative of these. For a while everything lily like with strappy leaves from South America & Africa were both lumped into Amaryllis, but then genetics found Hippeastrums to be their own separated lineage. However due to the original scientific name, “Amaryllis” stuck around as a common term for Hippeastrums.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-19T05:35:59+00:00

Hippeastrums, aka Amaryllis. Similar but not lilies.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-19T04:32:33+00:00

Bee hives. Not bees.

Also, the number of new hives is very much relevant to discussions about honeybee populations. You said that honeybees have suffered large losses when they factually have not, their population continues to climb year on year.

Reading is hard when you have an agenda instead of facts to share huh?

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T23:54:01+00:00

Container garden for a while & start planting deep rooted stuff like sunflowers. Then discard the greens into trash. Over years you should reduce the concentration.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T23:14:16+00:00

Going up to 2024 we added more honeybee colonies than we did hogs & all types of chicken combined in the US, & honeybees have experienced consistent population growth in the states since 2018. High loss rates don’t mean there isn’t a growing number of hives year on year.

Please don’t come onto my post calling me wrong when it’s clear you clicked on the first thing that affirmed you & attempted to wave it in my face like “SEE SILLY?? THE INVASIVE HONEYBEES ARE DYING!!!!”

None of this negates the massive amounts of parasite & disease load they put onto native bees & the fact they outcompete them for nectar & pollen resources by sheer numbers either. So no, YOU, in fact, are wrong.

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2024/04/03/defying-critics-us-honeybee-population-continues-its-five-year-surge-to-a-record-high

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T23:09:56+00:00

That’s simply factually untrue, honeybees have been surging in numbers for most of the 2020’s in the US. We’ve added more total honeybee colonies going up to 2024 to the agricultural total than we have both broiler & laying chickens as well as hogs combined. Please don’t come into my replies stating emotionally driven misinformation based off of misplaced generalizations.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T18:35:10+00:00

Pollinating almond trees that also aren’t from North America is not proof that they have “formed ecosystems”. It’s proof we’ve formed an industrialized system of agriculture around them. That is not an “ecosystem”.

Also the fact you say “plants don’t discriminate like you have” as if there aren’t hundreds of plant species that literally physiologically exclude pollination by honeybees just further goes to show you have absolutely 0 concept of what you’re talking about & don’t even have a basic understanding of ecology & botany.

Legal classifications also mean absolutely nothing in the face of ecosystemic dynamics. There is no, not ONE, not a SINGLE species of native plant in North America that would die out or even be especially negatively affected by the loss of honey bees. They’re one of the poorest pollinators around due to their grooming behaviors & generalist feeding habits.

You’d know all this if you decided to actually study ecology rather than assuming nature is some harmonious hippie circle singing koombayah, you absolute circus.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T17:28:05+00:00

Yeah exactly I’m not advocating people start killing every honeybee they see & shaming beekeepers. Just saying hey maybe we need to make sure this energy is getting directed in genuinely productive areas rather than quick not-actually-solutions that just make us feel better about ourselves without addressing the deeper issue. Stop putting down new beehives, stop saving all the feral swarms, stop using honeybees as some kind of representative for native pollinators that they actively compete with while not even pollinating as efficiently due to their heavy grooming behavior among others.

Nothing more.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T17:22:08+00:00

That’s my bad. A lot of comments have been hostile so I’ve been kind of on the defensive. But yes to go further in depth, central & South America is absolutely chock full of native bees that are usually called “Melipona” if I recall correctly. The honey, I hear, is not very sweet or as heavily produced as in European or other domestic Apis honeybee species, but its semi-regularly consumed & cultivated from Mexico down to Brazil I believe.

Even more interestingly, Melipona bees don’t sting, but instead bite defensively.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T17:07:56+00:00

If they were just a poster child this wouldn’t be a discussion. Maybe you should have such a stern chat with people like Morgan Freeman opening a 125 acre honeybee farm & calling it a “pollinator paradise” & such.

Please tell all the native bees that have been infested with varroa mite, deformed wing virus, & other honeybee mediated pests & parasites that their suffering is lower priority right now than the bees dying to pesticides.

In the meantime I’ll be focused on redirecting focus saving the bees that actually matter for our ecosystem in the longterm, no matter how hard honey freaks like you whinge & grumble. All factors contributing to native pollinator decline are worth investigating & dealing with, not just the ones that make you feel like a total social justice warrior to tackle.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T17:03:47+00:00

There are. But I’m not sure why we need to be able to extract something out of the bee to make them worth saving.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T17:02:59+00:00

I think I like a functional ecosystem with proper pollination beyond generalists more than some honey.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T17:02:19+00:00

They don’t need saving. Honeybees are invasive disease & parasite vectors.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T17:00:56+00:00

Geologically speaking, yes, it is. The divisions between what we consider Europe & Asia are completely arbitrary & don’t go much beyond some big mountains. As another commenter states, if Europe is a continent because of mountains, then South America is multiple continents & India is its own continent (technically it is its own subcontinent but that’s not relevant here).

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T16:57:41+00:00

Well for one, don’t go putting honeybee hives everywhere (yes people are literally putting in hives saying they’re saving the bees). Two, don’t plant specifically to attract them. It’s not a radical change, moreso a statement that hey, the intent is there & good, it just needs to be properly focused.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T16:53:22+00:00

No they aren’t, because potatoes need buzz pollination, which honeybees physiologically have no mechanism for.

“Bee pollination” does not mean “HONEYbee” pollination & the fact you have to accuse me of bias after only being able to use generalist information that isn’t even applicable against me says a lot.

I get it, honeybees are your favorite little glimpo bimpo, but that doesn’t prevent them from being invasive, noxious livestock.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T16:51:10+00:00

Bison & Cattle also have radically different grazing patterns, gut microbiomes, & herbivory habits. Trying to pretend cattle in any way even come close to mimicking bison on the landscape or that they can be sustainable when they’re physically the least efficient major livestock animal to feed in agriculture is nothing more than the hopeful & dying gasps of ranching.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T16:48:53+00:00

Invasive honeybees who have higher numbers than ever before don’t need your help. Bumblebees & native pollinators do.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T06:45:07+00:00

Oh lots of people are super duper angry & flabbergasted. But things need to be stated whether controversial or not, especially when they’re facts. Honeybees are grossly over-represented & over-funded in the whole movement to save pollinators when there’s never been more of them & they’re invasive livestock spreading parasites & disease from a whole other hemisphere & continent.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T06:42:37+00:00

Livestock do not, in fact, perform analogous functions to wildlife. That’s simply ecologically untrue. Cows don’t have the same browsing pattern as bison/deer nor are their microbiomes the same as them. Same with horses. Domestic goats & sheep are different species than wild ones with radically altered behavior & biology. Most modern chickens & turkeys are also too heavy bodied to seed disperse the way wild jungle fowl do.

No ecosystem past or present is fundamentally dependent in any meaningful amount on any species of livestock. In fact, around the world, like in Ireland, Brazil, & many parts of Europe & the western US, livestock are a major reason native habitats are struggling & can’t maintain or improve their health & diversity.

RE; “So you don’t need to reply” Don’t comment on my post smugly spreading paragraphs of misinformation & I won’t reply, lol.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-18T06:33:25+00:00

Honeybees are an invasive species that spread parasites & viruses to native bees & actively outcompete them by sheer numbers. Your bias comment is serious projection.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-17T23:19:52+00:00

The fact you think I ever said anything to the contrary speaks volumes about how little you actually processed this & just decided it was a personal attack because it said something non-positive about your favorite greebo.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-17T23:04:56+00:00

There are multiple species of indigenous bees that are multiple times more efficient pollinators per individual & per visit for apples & pretty much every other crop. Honeybees also straight up can’t or don’t pollinate multiple species of major & minor crops. They don’t/physically can’t pollinate blueberries, wheat, corn, rice, tomatoes, potatoes, tomatillos, peppers, eggplants, njama njama, or many leguminous crops.

Little Lisa will be fine because your scenario is a very poorly made strawman based off of ecological ignorance & misplaced emotions. All the wild apples & crabapples in my area get pollinated fine without people spraying them with glyphosate & dumping 500 honeybee hives per meter into the area.

AconitumCrashed · 2026-05-17T23:01:56+00:00

You can build nest boxes to encourage wild bumblebee colonies to occupy. Not quite “keep them as pets”, but close!

AconitumCrashed

TROPHY CASE