• evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    This is all just made from someone’s uneducated opinions, so I wouldn’t call it a cool guide. Honeybees are great where they are native, which is Eurasia. In the americas, they are invasive, and hurting native bee populations. Commercial beekeepers have co-opted the “save the bees” slogan to sell their products, but they are a major cause of bee decline by outcompeting native bees, and by shipping hives across the country to various pollination contract sites, which spreads disease and pests.

    Hornets and yellow jackets (which are both subsets of wasps) and other wasps are all great in context. You probably don’t want a yellow jacket hive next to your front door, but they are fantastic general purpose predators that can help keep your garden pest free. Likewise, there are many highly specialized wasps that will hunt specific pests like hornworms. Many wasps are also great pollinators like all the varieties of fig wasps.