iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — General Mills’ heart was definitely in the right place when it took its Honey Nut Cheerios spokes-insect “BuzzBee” off its boxes, to raise awareness of declining bee populations.
However, botanists are decrying a “bring the bees back” campaign that had consumers sending away for free packs of wildflowers to plant because some of the seeds will grow into invasive plants that aren’t bee-friendly.
The company reportedly gave away some 1.5 billion seeds as part of the campaign, which actually began in Canada.
“At worst these things can potentially introduce weedy plants where they might not currently exist,” said Eric Mader, a native plant specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “At best … I don’t know if there is a best.
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Experts agree private planting of the seeds wouldn’t necessarily be harmful but doing so on public land — either deliberately or accidentally — could lead them to spread in an uncontrolled manner.
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