Honey Bees: A Case Study

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

The colony collapse disorder has been threatening the United States for many years. Reports show excessive numbers of honeybees dying off. According to the Bee Informed Partnership and USDA’s annual survey, during the winter of 2013-2014, the mortality of managed honeybee colonies was 23.2. The previous winter’s report showed a loss of 30.5 percent of the colonies and thus, the winter 2013-2014 results might show some improvement. However, beekeepers persist that the still declining honeybee colonies are becoming too low for colony collapse disorder to be considered a solved issue. Approximately two-thirds of the beekeepers reported losses greater than the acceptable 18.9 percent mortality rate, thus deeming the losses greater than what is economically sustainable. The issue

Bee decline is an increasing issue in the United states of America. An article written by the University of Vermont reveals a map of over 139 troubled zones for the population of bees and why they might be endangered. The University of Vermont is a well-respected establishment when it comes to research and Agriculture.

Bees are the reason we have jelly, fruit, nuts, coffee and so many other vegetation (Lecture 09/27). Without these creatures we would lose so much more of our biodiversity, which is already suffering from other anthropogenic actions. Our society has a habit of finding the most cost efficient methods to produce goods that please the consumers without considering all the consequences of these actions. More importantly, we do not recognize the harm that we have caused until the damage is outrageous and requires a solution. But, this problem cannot follow those footsteps because it is essential for our ecosystem to thrive. These solution would not only save millions of dollars by being proactive, but would allow us to sustain food sources, biodiversity, and the survival of

Of particular interest is the fact that, despite the risk to native fauna and flora, honey produced by the European honey bee is a major industry

The article “Hivey Leaguers” discusses problems affecting the bee population in the United States ranging from chemicals and insecticides to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Colony Collapse Disorder occurs when the worker bees disappear from the hives, leaving behind the queen and the nurses to take care of the immature bees. This newly discovered threat to bee populations caused widespread panic in the entomologist community and lead to a race to find the cause, and the relative cure. Though this new disorder was a danger, the real bane of the bees was a much more sinister, and domestic, threat.

For the study, local beekeepers worked with researchers at Louisiana University and the United States Department of Agriculture. Parts of the study were conducted in the field and in the laboratory. Researchers used the insecticides commonly used against mosquitoes to find out what level of the insecticides would become toxic. Field tests were done through a truck spraying fields with mosquito repellent. Cages of bees and mosquitoes were placed in the fields at different distances to see the effect.

Thesis: Without a change in policy and practice, honeybees may disappear, causing humans a dilemma that is much bigger than many understand.

Some of these organizations include the Center for Food Safety and The Center for Biological Diversity. President Obama issued a memorandum called Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators. (The White House). It included the Pollinator Health Task Force led jointly by the Administrator of the EPA and the Security of Agriculture. The task force issued their strategy to talk about future and current planned federal actions. In it, they talk about increasing the population of the monarchs by the year 2020 to around 225 million by partnerships both public and private and international and domestic actions in the overwintering areas in Mexico covering around 15 acres. They also want to restore a habitat of nearly 7 million acres of land over the nest 5 years for pollinators such as birds, moths, beetles, and butterflies. Its focus is a stretch of the I35 corridor that covers nearly 1500 miles from Texas all the way to Minnesota, for breeding places in the spring and summer for the key monarch migration

Bee populations are declining at an alarming rate all around the world, and daily life without bees would be detrimental. Without the bees around to help pollinate our food, 30 percent of which is grown using bees, there is an incredibly high chance that we would starve. “Mankind will not survive the honeybees’ disappearance for more than five years.” (Albert Einstein) By using harmful pesticides in our agriculture, and the excessive use of high fructose corn syrup, we are killing the bees at an alarming rate. One of every three bites of food rely on pollination for a profitable harvest. We must acknowledge everything that the bees provide for humans, then ban pesticides that hard bees, move away from industrial agriculture and put our focus

Bees are important pollinators of many plants in the ecosystem (2). Recently, the decline in the number of bees in North America and Europe has shifted the research focus of many ecologists towards pesticide use (2). The impacts of pesticides on bees and other pollinators can have a major influence on honey production and biodiversity.

There has been a sharp decrease in bees over the years and they were recently put on the endangered species list. The Bumblebees’ population has decreased by 90% and without the bee; the entire ecosystem could become unbalanced. Bees pollinate plants and animals that we eat like chicken, beef, pork, ham, lamb, turkey the animals that eat the grass or flowers depend on bees. If the vegetation is, low those animals will die off and so will we. Therefore, the Fish and Wildlife Preserve has declared that pesticides, deforestation, and wildfires are destroying the bees’ habitats. President Obama has even helped in protecting the bees. Obamas administration has a plan to protect their habits by growing trees and flowers

The United Nations reports that approximately 70% of the world’s crops, valued at close to $US200 billion, are dependent on bee

Considering a potential loss of one-third of our food supply if Colony Collapse Disorder continues unchecked, a total ban of neonicotinoids is not a drastic reaction. After all, “great threats must be met with appropriate responses.” (Knobbe 244). With a problem this severe that can lead to such devastating consequences, the government needs to act towards the greater good, not profits. Although other factors such as mites, pathogens, loss of habitat, and monoculture contribute to Colony Collapse Disorder, banning neonicotinoid pesticides will save bees from sub-lethal doses which leave them disoriented and susceptible. If hives are stronger, then they “will be able to defeat almost any other factor of CCD.” (Knobbe 244). Neonicotinoids are also the most controllable factor, being a “human-made and human-applied product.” (Ott). Evidence from the European Union’s legislation proves that such a ban is possible, if the proper priorities are kept. If the EPA can resist corporate lobbyists and focus on the possibility of a future without bees, their nationwide regulatory influence can protect the whole country, and the ban cannot be “subject to the whims of judges.” (Ott). All current measures have obviously been insufficient. The free market and property laws simply do not have the motivation or power to decrease the influence of Colony Collapse Disorder. An entire ban is the only effective solution. Other bee-friendly pesticides are already available, and a ban on neonicotinoids will “force them into the black market”, incentivizing even more alternatives (Ott). Considering the looming destruction of countless aspects of the American food supply, the federal government cannot afford any uncertainty. For the US to keep its place as the world’s agricultural giant, we require honey bee’s pollination services. The EPA can no longer refuse to consider a future without honey bees, and

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