The 1950s: A Special Type Of Killer Bees

Concern in relation to global bee populations has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. The primary cause of this has been a large scale population decline of both wild and domestic varieties, this can be seen within the US (Fig.1) as honey bee population experienced a 59% reduction in colonies between 1945 and 2008 (van Englesdorp et al. 2008). These findings have been supported elsewhere with experts observing similar changes in the UK with 3 of 25 bumblebee species native to the UK having become extinct since 1950 (Goulson et al. 2008). The significance of these findings are great; partly due to the importance of bees in areas such as pollination and honey production, as well as other implications of the data such as ethical issues.

The honey bee population is going down, and while most people think it doesn't really matter or just don’t notice it, they should because it is a very big problem. I think the other people should try and change that. If bees die then it will not be good, at all. In this persuasive piece of writing, I will be trying to make people rethink about the bee population, and what it could potentially do to the human race.

Before we started researching this project we didn’t know how important bees are to our environment. In general, we can help solve this problem in our environment by limiting the use of pesticides. Creating regulations and laws limiting and controlling the use of neonicotinoid and coumaphos pesticides would greatly help the bees population. We can also reward farmers for practices that help wild bee populations thrive, such as leaving habitat for bees in their surrounding fields, alternating crops so bees have food all year long, and not using harmful

Global Research of CA has found that just within the last five years, “30% of the national bee population has disappeared and nearly a third of all bee colonies in the U.S. have perished.” (Statistic, Global Research Of California)

Africanized Honey Bees are another South American import. European and southern African honey bees were interbred

There is a major bee issue in California. Honey bees are being used to pollinate the almond trees in California, and many are dying. Without bees we wouldn’t have flowers, and most of nature would be different and/or destroyed. Which is naturally without the help of bees keeping it alive. I believe that what California Almond companies do to bees is terrible. And it needs to be changed as soon as possible.

Today, scientists are looking to combat, letting in new creatures to prevent a change in the area. To make sure organisms aren't wrongfully transferred there are more pallet inspections, checking containers, and other shipping materials. Government and ecologist officials are adding tougher fines if an unknown species are brought over to a different place. This should stop the amount of illegal predators/species brought over to foreign places. This information can be found here: http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/invasive-species/544407#. The Africanized honey bee was accidentally released when a geneticist tried to produce a honey bee to replace European ones. The Africanized honey bee is referred to as the "killer bee" and can attack people and animals. They travel in large numbers, very fast and cause harm to a lot of things. This shows just how bad invasive species can be, and the honey bee has already spread to 10 U.S. states. This information is provided here:

America’s bees are slowly beginning to suffer. The number of hives had been at 6 million during World War 2, and then decreased to 2.6 million in 2006, then fell below 2 million for the first time in memory (Jacobsen). From the very start honey bees have been an important factor in our agriculture. They serve as a nutrition source for flowers in order for the flowers to grow and make the crops that are needed. Honey bees had originally originated in Africa and when they came into higher northern latitudes they became to evolve into large colony sizes and build up excessive stores of honey to survive the cold winter (Kritsky). When Spring comes and bees begin to pollinate flowers, people tend to get in the way of the process so as a result bees will hurt the human. However, not all bees can sting. Female worker bees are the main ones that sting others (Kritsky). They serve as a line of defense so therefore will act as nature has taught them. For example, when my brother was younger, he went out into the backyard to search for some frogs since it had just rained the night before. While in the searching process he went under our deck that we had and started scrounging around for them. After awhile we suddenly hear a loud high pitched noise and it’s him running and crying from the bees that had just stung him. There were a bundle of flowers under the deck and he must have not realized that they were there considering his main focus was to capture the frogs.

Scientists and Beekeepers Can Make Killer Bees Less Aggressive People discovered honey since an ancient time and considering it as liquid gold. There are many kinds of bees that produce honey, and it differs from place to place. One remarkable species is African honeybee which well known for its ability to produce more honey than other species and survive in hot climate (Anne, 2006). Evans and Butler(2010) have acknowledged that some species of honey bees are known as Killer bees or Africanized bees, which are currently living in some parts of South America and North America, and they started to move northward in the United States.

Invasive species have a variety of impacts, many of which are unpredictable. The Africanized honey bee (also known as the “killer bee” in the media community or apis mellifera scutellata among scientists) provides an excellent case study of how even an intentionally introduced invasive species can become uncontrollable and problematic.

Where did all the honey bees go? Honey Bees pollinate crops, and fruits and vegetables. Crops feed livestock, Humans eat both fruits and vegetables and livestock. Therefore humans along with all other living things need honey bees. But where have they all gone? Nationally honeybees are disappearing all over the United States for many reasons such as pesticides, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and other issues still being investigated but here in the Chicagoland area the colonies are dying off due to the freezing weather. “Head beekeeper for the Morton Arboretum and the rooftop hives at the Chicago Marriott, he doesn’t want a repeat of last winter’s massacre, when 80 percent of his colonies perished” (Lauren Williamson). Bee keepers here in

Bees are responsible for pollinating more than 90 percent of the crops worldwide. Some of those include, apples, avocados, broccoli, blueberries, celery, cherries, cucumbers and melons. In the U.S. alone more than 25 percent of bees have disappeared since 1990. Bees can be very beneficial for other living things. There are steps that can be taken to protect the bees and prevent them from going extinct. If bees were to go extinct what would happen to the food and plant life? Bees maintain the food supply and maintain the flowers by pollinating them but they also have many factors that go against them such as, the use of chemicals and their homes being destroyed by humans.

Native honey bees have been disappearing for the past ten years. I propose a honey bee conservation to preserve native honey bees in Texas. A centralization of a colony of native honey bees could be established outside of city limits to ensure a thriving community. We want to raise awareness about the dwindling numbers of the honey bee to get the community involved in our rising issue.

During the past decade the presence of bee diseases, droughts and other variable weather conditions has reduced the supply of bees worldwide. In the United States for example, the past few years have seen bush-fires, droughts, the killer mite (Varroa destructor) and the Colony Collapse Disorder wreck havoc with U.S. honey crops by destroying nearly two-thirds of their colonies. This has lead to a market opportunity for other countries to sell their honey to the U.S., which happens to be the largest consumer (and 3rd largest importer) of honey worldwide.

Honey bees, feared by the misinformed and admired by the intelligent, are dying. The interest in bees from many environmentalists is not for a sudden cause, as this issue is not new to the world. Honey bees as a population have been in decline for years but have yet to reach the endangered species list anywhere in the United States except for Hawaii. Many people kill bees that buzz around joyfully, simply because they are afraid of being stung by them; however, a vast majority of bees do not sting and the others do not care. This unfortunate commonality is not even one of the top causes of the worldwide epidemic of honey bees. Although bees are jokingly idolized on the internet in pictures and videos as a result of a popular children’s movie, their population decline is in fact quite serious. Honey bees and other pollinators like birds and insects ensure the pollination of flowering plants and crops all around the globe. Not only do honey bees pollinate plants that produce the foods that humans eat, but they also pollinate trees that produce clean oxygen for Earth. Without honey bees, the world as we know it could soon end, due to carbon dioxide pollution and lack of farmable foods. The population of honeybees and other important pollinator-bee species is dwindling due to a dilemma known to scientists as colony collapse disorder (CCD) because of the use of bee-killing pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, the decrease of flower meadows in the world, and the general increase