“It landed in my soda!”

“It tried to carry off my hotdog!”

“It chased the kids away from the picnic table!!”

It’s those darn bees, right? Probably not. Let’s take a deeper dive into the world of stinging insects, in particular, bees, wasps, and hornets. Do you know the difference? It’s important that you do because some of these helpful garden friends can send you to the hospital if you behave rudely around them.

I’ve been gardening for pollinators since I brought my first honeybee hive home about 10 years ago. I stuffed my yard with plant clippings that were deemed “good for bees!” But what I didn’t much think about at the time was what kind of bees those flowers were good for.

Our abundant Earth is singing to us much more quietly these days. Gone are the jubilant choirs of birds who harmonized—loudly—morning til night. Crickets play solo notes where once they serenaded in a symphony of thousands. Flowering trees once coated in thrumming bees are almost bare these days. Why this unsettling silence?