Argumentative Essay On Honey Bees

To channel shakespeare, the question is “To bee or not to bee?” Well if you ask me, we need to bee. The bees are magnificent creatures. An average honey bee can pollinate anything from flowers and trees to nectarines, peaches, and pears to raspberries, cloves, and squash, if the bees die, we will no longer have those crops. In the 1960s and 1970s, Americans began to use pesticides in large quantities to combat issues with weeds and bugs. Farmers used these chemicals to ensure that they had large yields with their crops. However, their initiatives were short sighted. Singer and song writer Joan Baez writes about this issue in her song, "Big Yellow Taxi" when she asks the farmers to "put down their DDT" because she would rather have "the birds and bees." She's fine with having "spots on her apples." Now fifty years later America is facing a crisis. Although the use of pesticides on these plants are meant to prevent insects, fungi, and pests it is killing the bees making them endangered.

First things first, bees were added to the endangered list for the first time in October 2016. When looking for answers scientists found that most insecticides are toxic to bees. Bees have been seen in parking lots and sidewalks dead in mass.

“Many European countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia, have already banned neonicotinoids in response to the threat, and beekeepers in these countries report that hives are beginning to recover.” (PAN). Many humans are using IPM (integrated pest management) instead of pesticides. For example, plugging enteryways for pests, not over watering plants or trees and allowing natural enemies to do their jobs. Out of 1400 bees, more than half of them are declining and about a quarter are at risk of extinction. Plant more flowers, trees, etc. Limit pesticide use. Relocating bee hives to a place where pesticides are not used and there are plenty of plants will