Dear Editor:

The only pleasure I derive from mowing my lawn is when I reach for that cold beer when I finish. Calling it a lawn is being generous. My lawn, such as it is, is actually a collection odd plants including bright yellow dandelions, pale pink clover and regal purple Self-Heal. There is also some grass there, too.

I am not writing to complain about mowing the lawn. My complaint is with the lack of bees pollinating the aforementioned non-grass components of my so-called lawn.

I used to keep bees. When we moved here I brought a couple hives with me, but they died out after a year. I tried again the next year but they too died out. Normally, a lawn such as mine would be buzzing with bees and other pollinators going from flower to flower. Strangely this is not the case. Bees and other pollinators are becoming rare. Why?

Whatever it is must be within bee flying range, about couple miles. My lawn is in a rural residential area with lots of woods. The is no obvious vector deleterious to bees. It's just us residents.

Perhaps we have been too quick to reach for the insecticides to deal with insect pests. Our supermarket shelves are filled with many potent poisons. Perhaps we are over reliant upon pest control professionals that deploy more highly toxic poisons in higher concentrations than the supermarket varieties. Perhaps we buy plants from nurseries that sell plants dowsed with toxic cocktails to preserve their saleability. I do not know.

I do know that if we do not have bees I am going to have to tediously pollinate my tomatoes by hand with a little artist's brush to set the fruit. But I would ask my neighbors, and everyone, to consider before you reach for that can of pesticide, if there is another way to deal with that particular pest. Or if when you feel that only a pest control professional can eradicate; that you insist that the method be "bee friendly."

Fred Nehring
Boothbay