Candace Savage

Want to learn more about the humble bumblebee? So did we. So we got the buzz from Bees author Candace Savage, who let us in on a few secrets. Read on.

What’s the most fascinating thing you learned about bees while researching this book?

I hardly know where to begin, there were so many surprises. Who would have guessed, for example, that there are thousands and thousands of kinds of bees in the world? They’re all out there—tiny and iridescent, fuzzy and fat, elegant and sleek—just waiting for us to pay attention.

The second thing that impressed me, apart from their diversity, was their sophistication. Although we think of bees as mere insects, some species can measure distances, map directions, and perform and decode abstract “dances”. If that isn’t enough, bees are also stunningly important.

How did you become interested in bees?

It began way back when I was a tiny girl, only two or three years old. I remember a bright, sunny day and looking down to see a bejeweled yellow-and-black insect walking across my skin. A second later, it stung me and that moment—beauty, pain and all—was burned into my memory forever. Everybody said I had been stung by a bee (though it was more likely a wasp), and I have had a special regard for bees ever since.

Many years later, I took a distant interest in the controversy about honeybee language. Did they, or did they not, communicate by performing and interpreting symbolic dances? It hardly seemed possible, but who knew? I decided to find out, and this little book is the result.

Honeybee language, and symbolic dances? Are you kidding me?

As incredible as it seems, honeybees really do have a capacity for abstract communication. For one thing, they inform one another about the location of rich beds of flowers by performing dances that show precisely the direction and distance of the bonanza. For another, they use this same “language” to indicate the location of potential nests, which the colony needs to establish a new home. And that’s only the beginning of their abilities—there’s so much more.

How can we know that bees communicate with one another?

It’s such a great story. The honeybees’ dance “language” was documented by a biologist named Karl von Frisch and his student, Martin Lindauer, during the dying days of the Third Reich. There they were, stuck in Munich during the Allied bombardment, amid all the chaos and hatred and destruction, taking a stand for humanity and truth by studying honeybee behaviour!

They were both brilliant and diligent researchers, and together they made life more beautiful by revealing one of nature’s hidden wonders. I was thrilled to uncover their story and am happy to be able to tell it in this book.

Earlier, you said that bees are “stunningly important.” What did you mean by that?

Because bees are fixated on flowers, they are the most important pollinating force on Earth. They act as sexual go-betweens, transferring male pollen to female ovules, so that flowering plants can bear fruit and set seeds. If it weren’t for bees, this planet would be a very hungry place, for all of Earth’s creatures including human beings. We’ve all heard about widespread die-offs of honeybees in the U. S. and elsewhere. The news is truly very worrying.

What is happening to the bees?

Some scientists believe that the die-off of honeybees in the U. S. was caused by a viral disease. But other experts believe that the virus merely delivered the final blow in a long-term assault on the insects’ health. Domesticated honeybees are afflicted by an ever-increasing burden of parasites and by the drugs that are used to combat them. At the same time, they are weakened by pesticides in the environment and by poor nutrition. The more of the Earth that we devote to monocultures, the more impoverished the bees become. Honeybees and wild bees are both feeling the crunch.

What can we do to help?

Fortunately, there are many ways to give bees a boost:
Limit our use of pesticides.
Buy organically grown food.
Plant gardens that provide a season-long succession of blooms.
Leave grassy, weedy margins around our lawns and fields where bees can nest.
Restore and cultivate native plants.
Observe bees wherever we find them, and treat them as friends. Treat them as if our very lives depended on them.

Where can I learn more?

First, of course, I recommend that you read my new book, Bees: Nature’s Little Wonders. Beyond that, here are a few websites you should check out:

Pollination Canada Observer’s Kit
www.seeds.ca

Urban Bee Gardens: A Practical Guide to Introducing the World’s Most Prolific Pollinators Into Your Garden.
http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/index.html