In the hot summer months, the image of weakened bees searching in vain for food on the ground can cause nature lovers to feel sorry for themselves. They try to help the insects and often forget that well-intentioned measures entail dangers.
A weakening bee can be helped on its feet with sugar water
Don't feed honey
Replenishing weakened bees with honey does more harm than good. About 75 percent of the honey offered in Germany comes from distant areas. According to studies, the American foulbrood pathogen was found in about a quarter of all imported products. The spores are harmless to humans.
pathogens
The bacterium Paenibacillus larvae is responsible for this notifiable animal disease. It is durable, resilient and retains its risk of infection for an almost unlimited period of time. If a weak bee picks up the spores with the honey and then flies back into the hive, it can trigger a pandemic here.
course of the disease
The adult insects do not infect themselves. The pathogen spores contaminate the brood via the larval food. The larvae die and decompose into a black, stringy mass that eventually dries up. Up to 2.5 billion new spores can develop in this mass. If a collapsing bee colony is robbed by other bees, the pathogens spread further.
alternative options
Individual found animals can gather new energy by administering a sugar water solution. However, constantly offering bowls of sweetened water on the balcony proves to be disadvantageous. There are dangers that the honey quality in the beehives will deteriorate.
How to help bees sustainably:
- Create herb-rich meadow
- plant native hedges and shrubs
- Design wild perennial borders with species-rich planting
- Pile up piles of dead wood
Place flowering plants in your garden that have different flowering times. In this way, the insects find enough nectar and pollen at any time of the year. Small paradises can also be built in tubs and pots on the balcony.
tips
In the hot summer, offer the animals pure water in a shallow dish.
When sugar solutions help
A weak bee can be saved if it just lacks energy. Sick animals and animals that have been removed from the hive have no chance of survival. Equally superfluous is the remedial measure for specimens that are at the end of their 35-day lifespan.