One of the reasons for the widespread pestilence of bees on the territory of the Russian Federation this year could be an active campaign to combat the insidious weed - Sosnovsky hogweed.
Arnold Butov, the head of the Russian National Union of Beekeepers, shared this assumption of his colleagues.
He said that the uncontrolled and excessive use of various poisonous herbicides against weeds could serve as a source of poisoning of bee stock in various regions.
According to Butov, hogweed is known not only as a pest of agricultural territories and roadside territory, but also as a honey plant, which is incredibly loved by bees. In addition, the roots of hogweed are processed into high-quality humus and as fertilizer for agricultural lands, as well as a useful livestock feed additive.
"There is benefit from it!" - protects the cow parsnip Sosnovsky president of the bee union. And he adds that this plant is propagated by seeds, not roots.Therefore, if there is a desire to effectively deal with the rapid spread of hogweed, you should at least not thoughtlessly poison it with herbicides dangerous to the ecosystem, but simply try to protect the places where it grows. The benefit will be obvious - including for bees that will not eat poison from the inflorescences of hogweed.