Speakers share environmental sting of declining honeybee population

SAUGUS – With New England gardening season in full swing, Saugus environmentalists are encouraging neighbors to “bee friendly.”At its annual dinner Wednesday, Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment (SAVE) heard from Essex County Beekeeping Association members Marty Kessel and Peter Delaney on how to improve the rapid decline of the honeybee population due to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) used as pesticides.?It?s almost impossible to see honeybees in the wild now,” said SAVE President Ann Devlin. She explained that honeybees have been picking up pollen laden with pesticides and bringing it back to their hives, where it kills all of the bees.According to Kessel, who is chairman of the pesticide group of the ECBA, without bees to pollinate, New England and many other places won?t have much of a gardening season year-round.?Like the canary in the coal mines, (honeybees) are a barometer for the health of the environment,” said Kessel.Kessel and Delaney gave a presentation to SAVE members on what Kessel described as “what we can do to keep bees alive and doing their thing.” Their instruction included how to make gardens friendlier to bees, but the pair?s best advice was to buy produce from local farmer?s markets, where most farmers must register their crops and disclose any pesticides that were used.Delaney said even some pesticides labeled “organic” were not a good option. One organic pesticide that is tobacco-based was recently found to be disorienting so bees couldn?t get “home” to their hives, Delaney said.The pair said evidence of low pollination could be seen in oversized, undersized or unusually shaped produce. For best pollination results, gardeners can make a space more honeybee-friendly with natural, mineral-rich water sources nearby and a place the bees can build a hive.