
Dropcopter uses drone to pollinate trees - gscott
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/january/07/drones-deliver-pollen-better-fruit
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oblib
Been no bees where I live for 3 years now. Same with Monarchs.

This happened as new homes were built in the area and old ones sold to new
owners. Almost all of them use pesticides, whereas the old timers dealt with
the bugs by living with them, both good and bad.

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deogeo
With the exception of fighting malaria, I've never before heard of using
pesticide for non-agricultural purposes :(

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ryanmercer
>With the exception of fighting malaria,

This combined with the topic stirs a related thought, with some scientists
wanting to fight malaria by gene-editing mosquitos it's worth noting that
there are some plants that are pollinated primarily, if not solely, by some
species of mosquitos. Stuff like cocoa (too small for other pollinators to
service), goldenrod, some orchids.

>using pesticide for non-agricultural purposes

Pesticides are sold all the time for non-agricultural purposes. Some examples
off the top of my head since I actually just did an EPA refresher today at
work that included pesticides:

\- Oil of Citronella is classified as a pesticide by the EPA (other
governments and international agreements) for mosquitos.

\- Esfenvalerate and Cyphenothrin for bed bucks, again by the EPA and
international agreements.

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ryanmercer
*bed bugs

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xchip
I really miss the bees, last year I went to a redwood park and saw no insects
there, it was disheartening.

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Jerry2
Yeah, but where do they get the pollen from? Article omits that part
completely.

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SrslyJosh
> Pollinating them at exactly the right time, and then netting the trees to
> prevent further pollination of other, later-opening blooms by local bees,
> the king blooms receive most of the tree’s energy.

Jesus fucking christ.

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ohiovr
Doesn’t replace the bees function in the greater biosphere.

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boringg
Start up cuts out the middle man bees and replaces with its own less efficient
more expensive technology while ruining the ecosystem. Cool story.

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rdlecler1
You clearly didn’t read the article. There’s an argument here that this is
more efficient.

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kevin_thibedeau
While taking away a food source for local fauna.

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romwell
#notblackmirror

