If there is one comment I hear by garden visitors the most it's a discussion regarding how annoying bees can be. Some gardeners even choose which plants they won't grow in their gardens because they don't want their children stung. Fair enough, if your child has an allergic reaction to bee stings but otherwise we could always try and educate our children to be careful of these important garden labourers.

According to this article in a recent TIME Magazine, the bee population is reducing. In fact, over the last 50 years (in the US) the bee population has halved. It's a sobering thought when you consider that the human population increased 300% over the same period.

TIME's Jeffrey Kluger and Kristina Dell vividly display what we stand to lose should the bee population be wiped out;

Honeybees are responsible for up to 30%* of food in the U.S. diet that relies on pollination--and that includes alfalfa-fed beef
•ORANGES 17.8 billion lbs.
•GRAPES 15.7 billion lbs.
•APPLES 9.9 billion lbs.
•WATERMELONS 3.8 billion lbs.
•CUCUMBERS 2.2 billion lbs.
•ALMONDS 915 million lbs.
•SQUASH 815 million lbs.
•CHERRIES (sweet) 502 million lbs.
•HONEY 175 million lbs.
*2005 production

And if this wasn't enough to highlight their importance, horticultural scientists are understanding their relevance more and more by using them in greenhouse pollination tests. Tomato plants which were once hand-pollinated are now being cultivated successfully by bumblebee pollination to where nearly every tomato grown in Europe has been naturally pollinated.

The same article went on to illustrate some light at the end of the tunnel;

About a quarter of a million colonies are reared artificially every year (1997), and they are used in over thirty different countries on over twenty-five crops. So bumblebees are of great economic importance, and with the increase of glasshouse cultivation, and the spread of the mite, Varroa jacobsoni, causing a decline in honeybee populations, their importance can only increase.

Here are some of the crops they are now employed to pollinate;

•aubergines •peppers •cabbage and carrot for seeds •kiwi fruits •strawberries •courgettes •cranberries •blueberries •and tomatoes for fruit.

So, the next time you squash one underfoot consider the environmental impact you just made to our world. As gardeners we should be promoting plants in our gardens that invite them and allow them to do their job.

Long live the humble bee.