The bees have it! No, they really do. They are an integral part of the survival of the planet. Not enough people seem to be aware of this fact. I know we spend most of our summer days worried about being stung, which makes them villains, but they are villains with a purpose. Science is on their side.
Redditpr u/TheRealOcsiban wanted everyone to to put their head together and discuss how.... What can a normal person do to help save the bees?
Call the Keeper!
GiphyDo NOT call all exterminator when you see a hive on your property, and do NOT go spraying them with Raid or the like.
Most of the time when you see the swarm, they are actually just relocating for the spring and just trying to protect their queen. They will be completely harmless, and will move on when they are ready.
If you feel the need to, call a local bee keeper to make sure they get relocated safely. friendlylycanthrope
Habitat for Bees!
Entomologist here. First, remember that honey bees are not native for those of us in North America. They are actually livestock. That means keeping a bee hive is not going to save the bees.
What's more of a concern are native pollinators they are usually solitary bees or ones like bumblebees. The big thing for them is habitat. Some are ground nesting, but others like to nest in debris like leaf litter, hollow sticks, etc. If you just have a lawn that gets mulched all the time by mowing, etc. that's not really helping them out.
Whether it's honey bees or native bees, food sources are the other main factor. Many bees have troubles because they don't have a consistent food source throughout the growing season. If you have just one type of flower that blooms in July with not much else, those bees are going hungry. You want a variety of flowering plants that also bloom at different times.
There's no silver bullet really, but that's about as close as it gets with maintaining habitat and not just having bee food deserts, especially in cities. where_are_the_grapes
Damn the Grass!
Grow native grass, plant native flowers, stop spraying pesticides. Regular grass is damn stupid. TabascohFiascoh
Not the Dandelions!
Plant flowers/plants that are native to your area. That's really important! See what grows naturally around you.
Don't mow down dandelions in the spring. That's the first food source bees have access to.
Make a sugar water pitstop for them. Making faux nectar just like we do for hummingbirds.
Support farmers! Farmers means bees pollinating and many of them keep hives just for this purpose.
Start a hobby hive if you can.
If you find a hive that needs to go, don't just destroy it! Call around and you should be able to find someone more than willing to collect it for relocation.
Buy local honey and wax products. Supporting bee keepers supports happy, healthy bees! Gloeee
Flourish the Flowers....
GiphyThere are a lot of potential contributors of colony collapse disorder and a lot of debate over what's really causing the most damage to our bees. The average person has control over two things that could benefit bees: their yard habits and their honey habits.
The easiest thing to do to help bees is buy honey locally. The stuff you get in the store is terrible compared to the real product, and if you buy honey from local beekeepers, you're not only supporting that hive, you're also helping your allergies.
The other thing you can do, and the hardest thing for many people to commit to, is to ditch the 'ideal' version of a yard society has pushed upon you - a yard made of one homogeneous plant species (completely unnatural). This perfect, green lawn takes a lot of fertilizers and chemicals to maintain, the second of which is harmful to insects, e.g. bees, and minimizes a bee's natural food sources: wildflowers = flowering weeds. Let the flowers flourish. You can plant some of your own, and that will help, but native flowers are what native bees will utilize the best. Def_Not_The_Same_Guy
On the Decline....
Stop trying to save honey bees specifically. They are a symptom of a much larger problem, native bee population decline.
Honey bees are actually an invasive species, and are really only beneficial to agricultural pollination. Native bees are important for local ecosystems and local flowering plants.
Best you can do for them is plant local flowers, try not to use pesticides, and try as best you can to push for climate conscious initiatives. There are no species specific pesticides, any claiming that they just kill the bad stuff are lying, and climate change is affecting things on so many horrifying levels. HovercraftFullofBees
Check-In!
I have actually been to a "bee hotel" and I kind of want to make one myself. Essentially what you do is get multiple pieces of wood and stack them. You drill different sized holes in these logs and plant flowers that attract native bees. These bees then live inside the holes and have places to live! They're completely harmless if you don't bother them (I do take precaution to people with allergies, obviously lol). They look pretty cool if you put some work into the design, and they help a lot with keeping bees alive. DanceGrape
Picnic Love!
Not kill them when they get into your house. Not kill them when they're around your picnic area. Not kill them when you think they're out to get you. Unless there's a swarm who thinks it was you who disturbed them, don't do stuff to them. miggy07
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.