It’s no secret that Bees are the most important insect to nature as we know it, but did you know that Bees have been dying in massive amounts over the last few decades and it’s getting worse! Bees are perhaps the most Important aspect of our natural environment and without them the world would proceed to lose about 80% of planet’s resources. Our plant supplies would slowly diminish and eventually fruits and vegetables would follow without the Bees needed to pollinate them! Most insects and animals help pollination, but for the most part it is the Bee that keeps the environment pollinated and healthy.
The process of pollination is carried out when the male pollen grains are transferred to the stigmas of female flowers. This typically happens when the pollen produced is collected by Bees, who go to the flowers for food, or it falls off the body of a Bee or any other animal, spreading among the flowers and fertilizing them so that fruits and vegetables proceed to grow. Bees having the highest rate because of their bodies being most successful in carrying the pollen around. Flying from flower to flower, Bees are able to easily pollinate with the pollen coming from their bodies and their search for food. However, the process of pollination is in danger due the growing loss of Bees by the million. Many don’t know of the problem just yet, but it exist and it’s only getting worse.
While extreme weather and pollution in some cases may be the problem, the biggest killers are suspected to be pesticides called neonicotinoids and phenylpyrazoles. These chemicals attack the nervious system of the bee and prevent them from effective pollination. In travelling back to the hive, they affect the other bees and virtually destroy the colony. Farmers using this pesticide may have been responsible for the death of 37 million Bees that died in Canada last year. Even products you may use on your own land may be responsible for the death of bees! Ant killers often contain these pesticides.
At this point, the Bee population has declined about 30% in the United States, with some Bee keeps recording up to 90% loss of their colonies. Other countries are seeing the same affects, especially Europe, who also recently recorded their largest Bee loss. President Obama has proposed a incentive to farmers who decide against using such pesticides, but only time will tell if that works and there are still some farmers using them.
Without Bees, pollination would decease drastically and eventually our environment would die out. And so it’s left to the Farmers and the departments who regulates them to decide whether saving money on lost produce every year is worth our environment’s most precious helper.
“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” -Albert Einstein
Sources
http://lifecyclesproject.ca/resources/bee_average/pollination.php
http://savehoneybees.info/help-us