Bee populations are in decline, and Cheerios wants to help.
So far, so good.
TheCalifornia poppyis nice in California, butlisted as an invasive exotic pest plantin southeastern states.
It doesnt happen with every plant and in every location, and scientists (like me!)
And even though the seeds are problematic, theyre not exactly shipping packets of ecological doom.
Update:There turned out to be more to the story of what exactly is in this seed packet.
If youd like to plant a wildflower garden, maybe start with those instead.
If your state is green, that means the plant is native there.
punch the legal status tab to see if the plant is on any federal or state noxious weed lists.
But theres more to creating a bee-friendly habitat than just planting flowers.
So back away from that image of a sad beekeeper with boxes and boxes of honeybee hives.
Colony collapse disorder wasunfortunate but not devastating.
Those bees are employees in big agrobusiness, and they have jobs and caretakers all around the world.
Entomologist Gwen Pearson points out that honeybees are not remotely threatened with extinction butthousands of lesser-known bee species are.
The mother gives each baby bee a loaf of bee bread made of pollen and nectar.
Since they dont have a colony to protect, these bees dont even sting.
But farming of all kinds can threaten bees.
the more helpful thing the company is doing is to plant bee habitats around farmland.
Theyve been doing this for a while, actually.
A similar wildflower planting effort is behind a campaign by Burts Bees.
