In the month of August, honey bees are still gathering what little nectar and pollen they can to store for the winter. They alight on flowering plants many consider need to be killed for the sake of tidy yards.

My bees are coming home and dying from these pesticides. It is a sad sight. I would ask all who consider buying any type of herbicide or pesticide to reconsider their effects on others in our little part of the world. It is important enough to me that I am offering free honey to any person who chooses to give up buying and applying these weed killers.

Please choose an alternative to chemical weed control. There are propane weed torches that are super effective that are 100 percent non-polluting. One could also hire a local teen and teach how to dig weeds.

One hour of work might cost you the same as a bottle of poison, but you would be beautifying your yard, helping someone else, lessening water contamination, and would not be contributing to the woes of the wonderful and hard working pollinator and maker of local honey, the Apis mellifera, or European honey bee.

Also know that if you grew tomatoes or berries or squash this year, that fruit was dependent on bee visitations. Misshapen tomatoes commonly thought to be the result of watering issues are actually the result of incomplete pollination of the tomato flowers, so you may want to encourage these dedicated little flyers to linger a bit longer in your gardens.

Thank you for considering alternatives for the care of your yard, intelligent use of your dollars, investment in your community, and thinking for a moment or two about the wider implications of herbicides in your neighborhood.

Shelby Smith,
Renton