Hearing about pesticides killing honeybees breaks my heart. Pesticides often cause more harm than good, and there have to be other ways people can help prevent the spread of Zika.
First, prevent standing water as much as you can, so the mosquitoes can't breed near where you live in the first place. Second, predatory insects like spiders and praying mantids eat them, as well as birds, frogs, etc.. So, don't kill spiders, and if you see any in your house, release them into the wild. You can buy praying mantid egg sacs at some garden centers. There are ways to attract bug-eating birds. You can use citronella and other more natural bug repellants if you're going to be outside for a while.
Why should you care? If you eat anything grown in your own garden, you should obviously care because if you use pesticides you are literally ingesting poison. Small amounts could add up.
Bees don't just pollinate your garden, they help pollinate all of the produce we eat. Bees are already fighting a big battle as it is, with colony collapse disorder on the rise, and they have enough predators to contend with. Don't add to the problems they already have. Also, pesticides can go directly from the pollen into your honey, and then you ingest more poison.
Some people don't like to have bees around because they think they'll get stung. Bees are around potentially everywhere all the time during the warm months of the year. Unless you are provoking them, they are very unlikely to sting. I've been stung once in a my life, and it wasn't the day I went beekeeping. I understand people with allergies not wanting to be stung, but they can take precautions as necessary, since they have to anyway.
One childcare center, where I worked here briefly, talked a lot of talk about having "natural environments" for the kids, which were actually full of astroturf. When we suggested having the kids learn about nature by having real fruit trees and plants around, the admin said they didn't want to attract bees in case a kid was allergic. Let's just stop teaching kids about everything that might be even dangerous to 1/100 of them then (even though it would benefit them all immensely throughout their lives) I guess. Needless to say, I disagreed with lots of their ideas about what was actually good and not good for kids, and I was happy to find somewhere else to work.
I've been teaching and working with kids for over 15 years now. You know how many life-threatening allergic reactions I've had to deal with? None. Know how many kids I've had to deal with that have problems that have arisen from them being overprotected? More than I can count. But I am digressing...
Back to the bees. Give them some love!
...Stepping off my soapbox now.
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