Bzz. Bzz. You hear that familiar buzzing and immediately look for its source. Bzz. There. A lone bee flying around your head. Scared it’s going to sting, you swat until you make contact and watch as it crashes to the ground. You continue to stare at it until it starts walking slowly and before you can think better of it, you step on it and go on your way.
Another bee dead, how many more are left? Unsurprisingly, not many. Should we put more effort into saving the remaining bees? Or find other means for pollinating? Well, scientists have already found ways to pollinate plants without the help from our flying friends. They're looking into pollinating by hand and using small, robotic bees that can function much like a honeybee with much more energy,
…show more content…
People believe it’s due to pesticides and the cutting down of a large amount of trees but there isn’t a scientifically-proven explanation. Well, the farmers of the orchard were puzzled and worried as to what would happen to their crops if the bees weren’t there to pollinate so, they decided to replace the bees with humans. They hired more workers, then made brushes out of chopsticks and chicken feathers and, went from “blossom to blossom, to spread pollen”(Krulwich). They found that apple production wasn’t harmed from the loss of bees and that the harvest was “30 to 40% greater when humans did the pollinating because they were better at getting to every blossom, performed cross-pollination more efficiently, and could work in windy, rainy weather."”(Krulwich). Although it costed more to have more workers, it helped the local economy. The workers that get paid use that money to purchase necessities or pay rent which is potentially used to employ other people. While it may seem easier to just let all the bees die and replace them with human pollinators, bees are the only ones that can make honey and can see things that humans can’t, but what about the robotic bees scientists are trying to
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.
Vanishing of the Bees is a documentary film that tells the story of agriculture and what it means when the bees disappear. Bees are necessary for pollination for a third of the food we eat, without them we wouldn’t even be able to have honey. “Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds” (What is Pollination?, n.d.). The bees are hardworking and work together to get their job done in the hive. The main job for the bees is to collect the pollen from the flowers for pollination. The bees even have their own jobs such as the worker bees, the guard bees, and the nurse bees. The main bee of the hive is the queen bee who has the baby bees and makes sure everything is getting done.
In CCD, honey bee colonies lose their workers under unclear circumstances (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 283). 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).
Crazy as this might sound, how about if apples no longer existed? This seems far-fetched because apples are always available in ways such as shopping at a grocery store or hand picking from a tree in a yard. But with honey bees missing so are apples. The analogy of the unavailable apple simply means… “an un-pollinated flower won’t develop into an apple at all.” (Mader 1) The pollinators are the reason you are able to enjoy many fruits, nuts, vegetables, beans to name a few. “This apple is at the heart of why you should care about pollinator conservation.” (1). Insecticides kill pollinators directly along with the flowering plants that supply bees with pollen and nectar.
The frightening truth is our little pollen buddies are losing their numbers by the millions. Bees are essential to the ecosystem, mainly due to the pollination that they provide to many crops ( “ First” ). Bees pollinate during most of their life which is why they are so vital for most crops to produce seeds. They have hairs on their legs which, gather the pollen on the crops and allow for viable seeds. While some plants can pollinate through other natural ways, a study in the United States concluded that “39% of crops were highly dependent on bees for pollination” ( “First” ). Considering the amount of food that we as
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.
All around the world honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate, according to the documentary Vanishing of the Honeybees. This film features two commercial bee keepers and their fight to preserve their bee numbers. David Hackenburg was the first commercial bee keeper to go public the bee population was decreasing. Approximately two billions bees have vanished and nobody knows the reason why. Honeybees are used all across America to help pollinate monoculture crops like broccoli, watermelon, cherries, and other produce. Without the honeybees the price for fresh and local produce would be too much money. According, to this film commercial bee keeper’s help fifteen billion dollars of food get pollinated by commercial
Our bees are dying at the highest rates ever recorded: 42 percent of the United States bee colonies collapsed in 2015 (NRDC, 2015). 50 to 80 percent of the world's food supply is directly affected by honeybee pollination (Pennsylvania Apiculture Inc., 2011). Reduced crop pollination will make food more expensive and can even make some crops harder to grow successfully (Worland, 2015).
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.
With devastation around the globe, it is no wonder that bees have only recently become an importance. Consequently, the bees’ current situation is now considered a global issue, risking the health of our ecosystem and health of the human race. There is a need for people to recognize just how significant the decline and possible extinction of bees will affect us, and the impact it will have on not only the ecosystem, but also the high demand of key crops, fruits, and vegetables. In the articles “Bees in Decline” by Reyes Tirado, Gergely Simon, and Paul Johnston, and “Bee-Ware Investigating Bee Colony Decline and its Ecological Effects on Human Health” by Daryl A. Mangosing, both authors have imperative evidence to support their main ideas.
Pollinators are very important to the environment because many plant species rely on reproduction to be carried out by pollination1. Bees are dependent on plants for pollen and nectar and in return, are the most common pollinator of plant species and around 90 percent of plants require pollination by an animal7. Bees are used in farming, both for pollinating crops and for producing honey, and the estimated value of bees to the United Kingdom is £400 million per year9. Plants are the primary producers in many food webs and, as so many are dependent on pollination in order to reproduce, a decline in pollinators would have a detrimental effect on whole ecosystems. Therefore, the declining numbers of pollinators, particularly bees, are a cause of concern because of the environmental knock-on effects.
The pesticides used on flowers and other factors that have contributed to the decrease in the population of bees need to be stopped before this problem goes too far out of reach. This decrease can only be described as Colony Collapse Disorder and it will have severe consequences if it is not controlled. However, we are not the only ones that depend on them but in fact most animals depend on them too. Bees cross-pollinate flowers and plants that are eaten by farm and wild animals.
2. There are about 20,000 Different species of bees over the world. These bees would include Honey Bees, Killer bees, Bumble Bees, and Carpenter Bees. There would be more said in this project but they would be the most important or well-known.
The way the extinction of bees will affect the finances of the world would be swift. First, the many bees will die leaving only a small percentage left. Less and less plants will be able to pollinate as more and more bees die. Which will leave less and less food for the humans to consume to sustain their life. Since there is so many humans living; they will slowly starve and will reach an even or stable number of population depending on the number of bees, plants, and livestock alive.
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.