Float like a butterfly, sting like a… what? oh, no they’re gone.

Do you like honey? Do you know where it comes from… how it’s made? Of course you do! Although it is possible we could lose this sweetness entirely.. and more.

For a long while i honestly thought it was due to cell phone waves. There was an experiment done by the University of Chandigarh in North India. For about three months they “fitted cell phones to a hive and powered them up for two fifteen-minute periods each day.” The result of this action was that “bees stopped producing honey, egg production by the queen bee halved, and the size of the hive dramatically reduced.” I do not agree with this experiment. You cannot just hoot the phones up to a bee hive and expect them to live. These waves are present around the air, not right up and close in the hive. The Huffington Post explains their views on bees and cell phones.

For quite some time our bee species has been dying off. It was recorded that “up 30 percent per year, with a total loss of domesticated honeybee hives in the United States worth an estimated $2 billion.” Mother Jones food and agriculture correspondent Tom Philpott reported the findings of many scientists. These findings are a “compelling pile of evidence”. The evidence suggests that there is “relatively new class” of insecticides called neonicotinoids. It will affect the nervous system of the insects. Unfortunately, the residue of this insecticide will collect in the pollen and nectar of certain “treated plants”. This causes a central problem for the bees. Basically the neonicotinoids will paralyze and kill the insect.

Another effect on the pollinators are the climate changes. The temperatures have been increasing by at least 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This causes most species to head north. Although, the bees tend to stay in their habitats. That being said, the “bees’ range is only compressing in from the south.”

bee-map630

Last year there was an article published on the BBC website. In summary it states that bees are very important to our lives. Bees are towards the top of the species list. These little guys “pollinate 70 of the around 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world and are responsible for $30 billion a year crops.” So this type of insecticides does not only effect the bee population, but a lot of other animals in the food chain. Birds are a clear example of this. The Washington Post found that there haas been a drastic decrease in the Netherland’s bird population. This is specifically in areas where the neonicotinoids is used.

We may lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants and so on up the food chain. Which means a world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of 7 billion.”

 BBC Article – Author Unknown

bee

So what can we do to help? 

8 thoughts on “Float like a butterfly, sting like a… what? oh, no they’re gone.

  1. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

  2. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

  3. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

  4. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

  5. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

  6. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

  7. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

  8. Abigail Marie Young

    First of all, love the title. So creative. And at the same time, so true. I’m glad you wrote about such a big issue because without pollination, we would not have plants. No plants equals no food, so maybe touching on that more would have been beneficial to your point. It was very interesting that you talked about cell phone waves, because honestly that never even would have crossed my mind, pesticides do seem like a much more likely option. The fact that bees are migrating more northward shocked me, but it made sense because I feel like more bees are around me today than from when I was a little kid. Here is an article you may like explaining the importance of pollination.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19960200695.html

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