{"id":5618,"date":"2023-05-20T12:38:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T10:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/may-20-belongs-to-bees-and-other-pollinators\/"},"modified":"2023-05-20T12:38:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T10:38:43","slug":"may-20-belongs-to-bees-and-other-pollinators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/may-20-belongs-to-bees-and-other-pollinators\/","title":{"rendered":"May 20 belongs to bees and other pollinators"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Bee Day<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Today we commemorate World Bee Day, which was proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on 20 December 2017. The date of May 20 was determined on the basis of the birth of the founder of modern beekeeping and the first director of the beekeeping school in Vienna, Mr. Anton Jan\u0161a. <\/p>\n

\"MicrosoftTeams<\/a>Honey bee<\/em><\/p>\n

Through World Bee Day, the UN aims to raise awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators, their threats, and their contribution to sustainable development.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>Goldenrod firefly<\/em><\/p>\n

Most plants cannot pollinate themselves, they need animals, wind or water to pollinate and produce seeds. Did you know that in the world, in addition to insects, pollinators include several small animals such as bats, various species of birds, lizards, even monkeys, rodents or squirrels? In countries where there is already a shortage of pollinators, it must be pollinated by hand. <\/p>\n

Bees are among the most diligent pollinators. There are up to 2000 wild bee species in Europe, which represents 10% of all bee species in the world. Within the territory of Slovakia, there are currently known slightly more than 930 species of the group of wasps and bees (Apoidea), <\/em>or 185 species of bees (Apidae). <\/em>Surely you know which type of bee is the most famous. Yes, it is a domesticated honey bee, Latin Apis mellifera<\/em>, which is bred for honey, wax, propolis and other beekeeping products. <\/p>\n

Most plants are pollinated by about 30 thousand different species of bees. Bees are considered the most hardworking creatures. For 1 kilogram of honey, they have to visit up to several million flowers and are able to fly up to 6 km from the hive. The fact that they are diligent is also evidenced by the fact that they work from about four in the morning to five in the afternoon. Nevertheless, in its entire life, which lasts about 35 days, one bee collects about half a teaspoon of honey. <\/em><\/p>\n

But bees that hibernate in a winter tuft live up to 8 months.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>In addition to the nectar of flowers, the honey bee also collects pollen<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to bees, the most common pollinators include, for example, solitary bees, bumblebees, wasps, butterflies, ants and some species of beetles, hoverflies or other dipterans.<\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>Beetles also visit flowers for sweet nectar and pollinate them<\/em><\/p>\n

The advantage of the honey bee is that it has a large home range and prefers large and abundant food sources.<\/em>This is mainly helped by mutual communication in the form of “bee dances”, which allows it to quickly find and use mass food sources, e.g. monocultures \u2013 single-species sources. Therefore, it does not mind flying deep into the field and finally carries the load of nectar and pollen back to the only nest. The opposite of this is solitary species of bees, which have small home ranges and preferentially pollinate the surroundings of their nest. Bumblebees fly rather chaotically and often alternate not only the trees themselves, but also rows of trees in orchards. <\/em> <\/p>\n

At the same time, the honey bee is a very effective pollen collector.<\/em> This diligence is also reflected in the longer time he spends on the flower itself. On a fruit tree, it takes her about 7 flowers per minute, while such a bumblebee can handle even 14 flowers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>Bumblebees and bees are among the hymenoptera and the main pollinators of flowers<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>It is estimated that about 5 to 8 percent of the world’s current crop production is directly related to pollination by small animals. According to available sources, 84% of crop species and 78% of wild flower species<\/a> depend on animal pollination. Without pollination, they cannot form seeds. Pollination by insects or small animals also contributes to the diversity and better quality of fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. In other words, 4 out of 5 farm crops and meadow flowers in the EU are somewhat dependent on pollinators, insects. Crops that are almost dependent on insect pollination include, for example, apples, strawberries, apricots, cherries, pumpkins, cucumbers, beans, thyme, basil, chamomile. They are also useful for peppers, tomatoes and citrus fruits. <\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>Some solitary bees are smaller than honey bees, they do not live in families, they take care of the offspring themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n

Domesticated and wild pollinators are important for food security, biodiversity and also contribute to the production of textile fibres, medicines, biofuels and wood.<\/p>\n

Bees, but also other pollinators, are very important for our ecosystems. Their decline will cause the extinction of some plant species along with the animals that feed on the plants. Therefore, the production of our food depends to a large extent on them. Unfortunately, it has been proven that about a third of the population of bees and butterflies is declining and an estimated 10% of species are endangered. Their decline can be caused by environmental pollution, climate change. They are also threatened by urbanism and the loss of their natural habitat, intensive agriculture and pesticides, or alien predators and diseases. <\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>Bumblebees prefer purple and pink flowers<\/em><\/p>\n

The more species of insects with pollination capacity are represented in a given community, the higher and more stable the yield can be. It is therefore important to constantly emphasize the support and protection of not only the domesticated honey bee, but also wild pollinators, which are an irreplaceable link in the pollination process. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>Pearl butterflies look for plant flowers in forests, on their edges and in meadows<\/em><\/p>\n

Each of us can help pollinators. All you have to do is plant a mixture of flowering nectar-bearing plants on a piece of lawn, plant a melliferous herb such as mint, lavender or rosemary in a pot on the balcony of your apartment, build an insect house with your children or prepare a watering hole with water and moist soil. If you have more space, bees will love to feast on the nectar of linden, maple, or other flowering melliferous trees. Have you heard of the forest honeydew? It is not from the flowers of trees, but from the sweet juices of aphids, feeding on the leaves and needles of trees Their secretions are processed by bees into dark brown or reddish honey. <\/p>\n

\"IMG<\/a>Hoverflies imitate bees and bumblebees with their drawing, using the fear of their stings to protect themselves. They are also among the pollinators of flowers. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Text: Ing. M\u00e1ria Sir\u00e1\u0148ov\u00e1, Ing. M\u00e1ria Apfelov\u00e1<\/p>\n

Photo: Ing. M\u00e1ria Apfelov\u00e1, Pavel Plavec<\/p>\n

Sources: European Parliament, UN, Bee Support Club, IZPI, OL\u00daP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World Bee Day Today we commemorate World Bee Day, which was proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on 20 December 2017. The date of May 20 was determined on the basis of the birth of the founder of modern beekeeping and the first director of the beekeeping school in Vienna, Mr. Anton Jan\u0161a. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"World Bee Day Today we commemorate World Bee Day, which was proclaimed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on December 20, 2017.... ","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[148],"article_category":[],"class_list":["post-5618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fauna-and-monitoring","tag-insects"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5618"},{"taxonomy":"article_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/npvelkafatra.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_category?post=5618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}