Honey Nut Cheerios Takes The Bee Off The Box And Gives Away Wildflower Seeds To Help Bees

Bees are one of the more misunderstood creatures in nature. Their stingers have been bad PR reps, to be fair. And they can be kind of a nuisance when you're trying to have a nice meal outside in the summer. We've all done the awkward, wavy dance when a bee takes an interest in us. But really, the only thing worse than having bees around would be not having them around.

While strolling the grocery store aisles, you may have noticed that Honey Nut Cheerios has a new blank spot on its boxes where Buzz the Bee used to be. 

Buzz has disappeared, replaced by white, blank emptiness. Why? To bring awareness to the disappearance of real bees, of course. They're a critical part of the ecosystem and the food chain, and their addition to the endangered species list is incredibly worrisome.

It's only appropriate for General Mills to pay attention to the bee situation. Without bees to pollinate the crops their cereals are made from, General Mills would have to find other products to sell.

As their website notes, about 30% of the ingredients in their products rely on pollination. And because bee colonies have been in decline for a while with some alarming and mysterious mass die-offs, General Mills has decided to do something about it.

Awareness is only part of the campaign. The other part involves action. So General Mills has partnered up with Vesey's Seeds to give away packets of wildflower seeds.

Anybody can order a free packet of 500 seeds to plant in their own yards to help attract more bees. The goal is to send out 100 million wildflower seeds.

So, even though you might think of bees as a nuisance that show up stinger-end first at barbecues and picnics, you might want to invite them around more often.

And hey, if they're busy pollinating wildflowers, they won't be crawling all over your fruit salad.

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