Bee protection starts with used glass

Recycling used glass is a good thing - but there is an important exception with honey jars that many people don't realise: throwing empty honey jars with honey residue into the white glass container can unintentionally endanger bee colonies.

Honey is a natural product that can contain pathogens for bees. One particularly dangerous pathogen is American foulbrood, a highly contagious and fatal disease for bee larvae caused by the spore-forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae. This pathogen is harmless to humans.

Foraging bees pick up honey from the jars in the container and carry potentially infectious material back to their hive. There they infect the entire bee colony.

To protect the bee colonies, it makes sense to rinse the honey jars thoroughly with hot water before disposing of them in the glass container. This removes all residues and the jar in the container is no longer attractive to bees. Alternatively, you can also return the jars to the beekeeper. This not only avoids waste, but also supports a sustainable cycle.

Bees are important for our ecosystem and our food security and it is therefore important to protect them from American foulbrood.

Further information is available here from the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health or from the Environment and Parks Department on +49 (0) 80 31 / 365-16 92.