Give the bees, butterflies a break

Please don't mow the clover or the wood sorrel, and the blooming dewberries will do you no harm.

All are desperately needed by what's left of the pollinators, who are just now appearing. With our yards full of sterile plants from big-box stores that are unrecognizable to native insects, along with trucks spraying mosquito poison in our neighborhoods, we are just about out of butterflies and bees, both domestic and wild.

According to CNN.com's "Beetles, butterflies and bees, oh my!" (Feb. 26) article, the United Nations says it looks like the planet is going to be free of pollinators soon.

Actually, the clover smells wonderful. The wood sorrel is beautiful, and you can chew the stems for a lemony taste. The dewberries can be cut after they make their fruit, which is just as delicious to us as to the birds.

And if you leave the wildflowers alone, your blueberries and lemons, like mine, will also get pollinated. Right now, I have a blueberry bush in full bloom and lots of lemon blossoms, but only one lone sulphur butterfly has arrived, and it has to work the entire neighborhood.

Come on, what are you going to get in heaven for this obsession with the internal combustion lawn mower?

JULIA O'NEAL

Ocean Springs

This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Give the bees, butterflies a break ."