The bees are dying. Not the Isle of Wight band, but the little buzzy insects. It’s a hard campaign for most people to sympathise with. Nobody looks back fondly on the day they first got stung by a bee. But nevertheless, bees are essential to the growing of a third of our foods. Plus, honey is delicious.
The decline in bees has received some serious attention recently with the general consensus being that ‘something must be done’. The fact about humans dying out within four years of bee extinction buzzed through my mind and, after a little Wikipedia research I came to the conclusion that this ‘fact’ wasn’t quoted by Einstein and may not be 100% correct. But the truth remains that due to less flower populated areas and more pesticides being used, the bees are having a tough time and it’s in our interest to help them.
Insect lover and artist, Karen Ingham, has designed a collection of dresses to give the bees a helping wing. With designs inspired by scanned electron microscopy images of plant pollen grains linked to endangered pollinators and coated with a nectar replica, these clothes will attract the buzzing insects and feed them some much needed energy. In simple terms, the dresses have a bright and crazy pattern that resembles the pollen in flowers that is so attractive to bees. Once attracted, the bees receive free food that enables them to buzz off and pollinate plants.
A quick bee fact: they feed on both pollen and nectar. Nectar gives them energy and pollen gives them nutrients. So whilst they may not be pollinating the dress, they will be eating up energy to fly off to pollinate our food for us. The clothes are aimed at increasing the number of bees by feeding and promoting repopulation. Not sure a bee-encouraging dress is suitable for work? Not to worry, Karen has produced both day time bee dresses and night time moth dresses. An insect for every occasion.
Whilst we may want the bees to live, we probably don’t want them to live on us. The Pollinator Frocks can be hung outside like regular washing to attract bees with minimal bee-on-human contact. They are also going to be hung at a variety of events in different environments to raise public awareness and test their efficiency.
Wearing bee food isn’t the only way to help save the bees though. There are honey websites, bee-friendly flowers, wild bee-houses and of course, having a beard of bees. Sainsburys also lives up to its nectar points promise and keep bees too.
So this summer, let’s all be a bit friendlier to the bees.
P.S Treating fabric with bee food isn’t the only way to reuse material. Send us your old unloved tshirts and we’ll help them become Saved.
(Spotted on Inhabitat)
http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/the_dress_that_pollinates
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