Once a year, a day in August is reserved for bees. This isn’t surprising considering the fact that there is a day for well, everything. Saying that, we shouldn’t dismiss ‘Save the Bee’ day without giving it another thought. The true is that these tiny creatures are in danger. This should matter to us because of the immense impact they have in our life. Don’t believe me? Keep reading to find out more about the value of bees, the danger they are in and how you can contribute to saving them!
Why are bees so great?
Bees. They are small, noisy creatures that travel in colonies. If headlines are to be believed, the Australian varieties are more dangerous than snakes! So, why do we want to save them? To put it simply, bees play an immense role in ensuring our plants grow. Kind of like oxygen, but nosier.
The United Nations reports that approximately 70% of the world’s crops, valued at close to $US200 billion, are dependent on bee
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A parasitic mite by the name Varroa Mite has played an immense role in the death of our tiny friends. In the 1980’s, it was detected in America and led to the plenty of bee deaths. Australia has yet to feel its effects, though the parasite has been detected in North Queensland; pushing the government to begin an eradication program before this dangerous mite gets loose!
What’s being done to save the bees?
All over the world there are efforts to save the bees.
- The US is working to phase out all GMOs and pesticides, associated with killing bees.
- Greenpeace and Avaaz have collected signatures to raise awareness for the bees plight.
- The NewYork City Beekeeping Organization and TakePart are working to promote the need for beekeeping.
- ABF and Beeraw are focused on sustainable methods for beekeeping.
How we can save the bees
We listed a few of the global efforts taking place to save bees, but there is plenty that you can do to
If you didn’t know, honeybees are dying rapidly, and it is more serious than you might think. The decline of the honeybee is fairly complicated, as we cannot simply target one cause for the honeybee’s decreasing numbers. The combination of factors includes parasitic mites, Colony Collapse Disorder, harmful pesticides, poor nutrition, and habitat loss, all of which have contributed to the loss of droves of honeybees. This issue much more important than what the attention it is getting implies, as honeybees are an essential part to the agricultural society, and the human race in general. Not only are bees responsible for making honey, but also for pollinating a large portion of crops grown around the world. If we did allow honeybees to disappear,
Now it is really turning into a desperate problem as beekeepers report bee losses of 50 - 60%. Some of the factors causing that loss are habitat loss and Varroa mites. Varroa mites are mites that inhabit a bee’s nest then lay eggs in those nest. When a bee wanders by the grown up mites to make honey in a honeycomb, the mites trap the bee in the honeycomb then eventually kill it. Bee also have other natural enemies like bears and other insects. On top of that, we have a lot of stuff against bees, mainly pesticides. Most of the pesticides we use on the crops are usually considered harmless but since the bee pollinates an astonishing number of flowers per day, the pesticides gets mixed together which can have a number of tragic
In “Why Bees Are Disappearing,” Marla Spivak, an American entomologist, sheds light on the importance of bees in the pollination process as well as the decline in bee population. Spivak claims that “bees are the most important pollinators” because over one third of crop production across the world depends on bee pollination. However, bee populations have decreased since the end of World War II due to “multiple, interacting causes of death.” These causes are monocultures, pesticides, diseases, and flowerless landscapes, and they all pose a threat to plant diversity and food production. In order to prevent significant consequences and reverse impacts already made, Spivak encourages the audience to plant bee-friendly flowers without pesticide contamination so that bees, and therefore people, have access to better nutrition.
Pollination, produce, honey, bee´s wax, life wouldn't be the same without some of the few products bees create and work their whole lives doing. Bees are dying off, over the past few years the bee population has decreased which means some of our very beloved products have either increased in price or may be hard to find. We as humans that have so much control over this planet should help the bees so they can help us. Honeybees are an essential part of humanity.
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 presence of a bee generally scares people. So they swat at it, which makes the bee angry and defensive, which causes the bee to sting. Once the bee stings someone, it dies. Most people might think their death is a good thing. Unfortunately, various species of bees have been added to the endangered species list (Kennedy). Bees pollinate about 70% of the crops used by 90% of the world (What Would Happen) and as of February 2017, 10 million bees have died since 2010 ( Bennett). Bees need to be saved to ensure the Earth’s survival, along with our own.
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
Pollinating flowers and contributing to the beautification of the planet’s landscapes may be the bees’ perhaps simplest and least economically important actions, but it’s certainly its most aesthetically pleasing one.
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
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
In the U.S. , bees pollinate over $15 billion worth of crops. This includes favorites like apples, berries,
Most people don’t realize how important bees are to the world so I’m going to tell you guys a bit about bees.
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