“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live." -Albert Einstein. Bees play a major role on Earth, they are vital to the human food supply, they are important to the clothing industry, they are contributors to nature, they have historical significance, and they benefit businesses. The bee population has been decreasing for plenty years, and I believe that we need to save them. Bees need to be saved because of the immense impact they make to the earth, without them we won’t survive. Bees are known to be in the top 5 most important animals in the world. Conversely, some say that bees are useless pests that sting and destroy property, but they may not realize that 1 of every 3 bites they take of …show more content…
Pollen baskets are flattened sections of bristles with incurving hairs that secure collected pollen. There are about 20,000 different species of bees in the world found on every continent, with the exception of Antarctica. Some common bee species of bee are the western honey bee, European dark bee, bumble bee, and the carpenter bee. Bees live in colonies that contain the queen bee, the worker bee and the drone. All drones are male, and the drone’s only job is to mate with the queen, and the queen’s only job is to lay eggs. The worker bees and the queen bee are both females, but only the queen bee can reproduce. Worker bees clean the hive, collect pollen and nectar to feed the colony, and they take care of the offspring. For example honey bee colonies have hundreds of drones and 20,000 to 80,000 worker bees. Scientists believe that bees first appeared before humans evolved, around 130 million years ago. The unfortunate decline in the bee population started before 1997, but in 2005 the bee population decrease began raising alarms. In 2007 the population of bees continued to decline by 30-70% of loss in some regions. Pesticides were a primary suspect of what started to become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Colony …show more content…
The causes of this phenomenon colony collapse disorder is said to be unclear, though possible causes or contributory factors have been proposed, such as pesticides, disease, pathogens and changes in habitat. Over recent years new insecticides have been introduced and they are deadly to bees. Neonicotinoids, a chemical family close to nicotine was approved in the 1990s as an alternative to DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a synthetic organic compound used as an insecticide). They attack insects my harming their nervous systems, today they are the most widely used insecticides in the world. In 2013 neonicotinoids were used in the US on about 95% of the corn and canola crops. When bees come into contact with this toxin by collecting pollen, they often will be bringing material back to the
Honey bees, or Apis mellifera, are social insects, despite what preconceptions there are about them. They are commonly divided into three divisions of class. The first is the worker bees. They are born from fertilized eggs and are the females that are not sexually developed. They are the ones that people usually associate with honey bees. Their main job is to search for food, and build and protect the hive from predators. They have one stinger that, when used, the worker will die. Next is the queen. Her job is to lay the eggs that will hatch into the new generation of bees. Queens also controls the hive and the activities within the hive by producing chemical pheromones the steers the behavior of the bees. She possesses a stinger and can sting and kill multiple times and not be killed herself. (Hoover, S, et al. 2003) In most hives, only one queen is present and if that queen dies, the workers will create a new queen by feeding one of the workers with a special diet called “royal jelly.” This allows the sterile worker to develop into a fertile queen. The last class division i...
Honey bees not only make honey, but they also help pollinate crops worth more than $15 billion a year in the U.S. (NRDC). These small animals are extremely important for providing ecosystem services essential for sustaining biodiversity (Sandrock et al., 2014). However, since the mid-1980s, the honey bee populations have been suddenly declining. This decline is referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) (Wu et al., 2011). There are numerous factors that result in CCD. One of the major suspected reasons is due to the exposure to residue of Neonicotinoids, found in nectar and pollen of the flowers. Neonicotinoids are insecticides that lead
The studies will continue to prove that the use of pesticides are dangerous for people, places and pollinators all over the world. The Colony Collapse disorder should be a high priority for everyone. Hold the big corporations accountable such as Bayer for the damage their products create all for profit. They will find ways to keep pushing the use of pesticides that continue wrecking a bee’s immune system. “Neonicotinoids affect insect’s central nervous system in ways that are cumulative and irreversible” (Mercola par.4) Bayer’s good intentions to enhance the amount of crops needed to be produced, but the end result has detrimental consequences on the honey bee’s
It is not unusual for bees to die or colonies to be lost, but the nature and extent reported in the year 2006 was alarming. Statistics gathered in the United States alone show that 50-90% of the bees have been lost so far, due to this scientific phenomenon (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 284). Honeybees play a very major role in the pollination of plants and therefore these huge losses have become a serious concern. There are many reasons that have been floated and acclaimed to be behind CCD and they include pesticides, parasites, electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, climatic changes, and urban sprawl, among many others.... ...
Think for a moment of a world without bees; a world without our buzzing friend. They might look like they barely do much to help our ecosystem. However, bees are a vital part of our agriculture and this makes it vital that we keep them around. The bee population decline in recent years is troubling for both us and our little friends. As their friends, we must do all we can in order to ensure their survival which in turn will ensure our own.
To most, the honeybee can be an annoying insect that has a powerful sting. Yet, the honeybee is so much more than just another insect. The honeybee is arguably the most vital component in the development of our food crops. With roughly 90 percent of our food crops dependent on the pollination of our honeybees, our food system, agricultural development, and diet rest on the work and well being of these buzzing insects. Unfortunately, since 2006 there has been a major decline in the population of honeybees, and has gotten progressively worse because of colony collapse disorder. The first reported increase of CCD was documented in November 2006 in Florida. By February 2007, several states began reporting major losses associated with CCD, ranging from 30% to 90%. A little over a half decade later in 2012 the attention paid towards CCD has grown substantially with more research being done as CCD continues to get worse. The main culprit for CCD, as research has suggested, is the use of pesticides on our food crops. With major corporations such as Bayer making millions and millions of dollars in profit each year in the distribution of pesticides, it is no wonder that nothing is being done to stop this practice despite evidence linking the use of pesticides and the drastic deterioration of the health of honeybees. With the continuation of the use of deadly pesticides and the vital role bees play in the pollination and development of our food crops, both the environment and our economy will be effected directly and face the potential for catastrophic results.
Initially, I didn’t care much about bees until after I received this assignment. Although I may be allergic to bees, they do help my everyday life. I don’t want food prices to go up because we can’t save some bees. We spend trillions on protection, when we have no war. How about take a few million to save the bees, and possibly save man.
Honey Bee Population Decline Daisy Childs 11-20-14 Professor Garcia ENG 1027. INTRODUCTION: Apis mellifera, commonly known as the honey bee, are solely responsible for pollinating one-third of the world’s crops, and they are in danger of dying off, according to the article “Natures Dying Migrant Worker,” written by Josephine Marcotty for the Star Tribune. This honey bee population decline poses a huge threat to our environment, farmers, and economy. It is assumed by BBC News writer Zoe Gough in her article,"Wild Honey Bees: Does Their Disappearance Matter?" that all of the wild honey bees in England and Wales are gone.
What do you think when you think of bees? I think of honey, pollination, and soon, new life. According to Walt D. Osborne, “Bees are vital for the pollination of more than 90 fruit and vegetable crops worldwide, including almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, and strawberries,” (Osborne 9-11) but each year a large percent of hives have vanished due to many different factors such as stress. Most people would declare that the average honey bee is insufficiently important to the world because bees are pests to home owners everywhere, but bees are extremely important to earths’ survival than any other pollinator in the world; they help pollinate most of the world’s agriculture; yet in the recent years bee populations have plummeted rapidly. I am writing this paper to create awareness that the agricultural society ought to stop or lessen the spraying of pesticides/ insecticides on crops, unnatural diets and overcrowding in the hives.
The lives of humans and honeybees have been intertwined for millennia. For at least 8,000 years, humans have sought honey for applications in disciplines ranging from medicine to the culinary arts. But while humans love honey, honeybees provide a much more valuable service: pollination. As the world’s most prolific pollinator, honeybees are essential to the reproduction of many plant species, which in turn benefits other animals and plants. In fact, humans heavily rely on honeybees to pollinate our own food source, a service that is worth billions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, the honeybee population is in a severe and prolonged decline, often in the form of colony collapse disorder, in which entire colonies are seemingly abandoned by adult bees overnight. Honeybees are an indispensable component of modern agriculture, and a failure to discern and address the many causes of honeybee population decline – both manmade and natural – could have disastrous consequences for the environment and human society.
The Apis Mellifera, or honey bee, have survived on this planet for fifty million years. This species of bee is responsible for pollinating flowers, grass, trees and crops around the world. Much of the food we eat is dependent on honey bees for pollination. Our ecosystem depends on the survival of the honey bee. Colonies of honeybees have been disappearing at an alarming rate around the world due to parasites, viral and bacterial diseases, and the introduction of pesticides and herbicides. Over the past six years, on average, 30 percent of all the honey bee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter of 2012(NPR/TED). If this trend continues to spiral downward, honey bees will disappear from the world. We must understand the importance of the Honey bee and change our environmental practices in order to sustain this vital insect.
Winfree, R. . The conservation and restoration of wild bees. Annuals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 1195, 3 May 2010, Pages 169 – 197.
The population of honeybees has been declining due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It is a serious problem that threatens the stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the US. Scientist have not identified the real cause of CCD. Another reason for bee population declining is because of diseases, parasites, and stressors. One stressor is because of pollen/nectar that has no nutrients in it.
Bees are flying insects that are closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are know for there major role in pollination and producing honey and beeswax. Bees are apart of the superfamily apoidea or clade. There are almost 20,000 different species of bees in seven families. Bees are found in every continent except for Antarctica.
Over the past decade bee populations have been dropping drastically. A 40% loss of honeybees happened in the U.S. and U.K. lose 45% of its commercial honeybee since 2010. This is a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear in a short time. These data are definitely not meaningless since bees are a crucial part of the reproductive cycle of many foods. The impact bees have on the agriculture and the environment is far more crucial than we may think. Crops rely on bees to assist their reproduction and bring them life. Bees are renowned in facilitating pollination for most plant life, including over 100 different vegetable and fruit crops. Without bees, there would be a huge decrease in pollination, which later result in reduce in plant growth and food supplies. On the other hand, without the pollination progressed with the assistance from bees, the types of flowers According to Dr. Albert Einstein, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination…no more men”. That’s why bees’ extinction affects people more than we ever think, and could even forebode the doom day of human race.