Honeybees
One of the most familiar insects in the world is the Honeybee. This member of the insect order Hymenoptera plays a key role in the human and natural world. Honeybees make and do things that are helpful to humans. They provide us with honey, royal jelly, beeswax,and propolis. They are the prime pollinators of the planet.
Honey bees are social insects. They are very cooperative insects and have good colony structure. A typical hive is divided primarily into worker bees and drones, ruled by the queen. More has been written about honeybees than any other species of insect. The human fascination with this insect began thousands of years ago when people discovered what wonderfully tasty stuff honey is!
Honeybees are important pollinators
As the field bees forage for nectar, pollen sticks to the fuzzy hairs which cover their bodies. Some of this pollen rubs off on the next flower they visit, fertilizing the flower and resulting in better fruit production. Some plants will not produce fruit at all without the help of honeybees. A third of our food relies on bees for pollination. In the United States alone, it is estimated that honeybees accomplish 1/4 of the pollination needed for all fruit produced for human consumption - an estimated $10 billion worth of work each year!
Now for the bad news…
The world’s honeybees appear to be dying off in horrifying numbers.
Both the US and UK report losing a third of their bees last year. Other European countries have seen major die-offs too: Italy, for example, said it lost nearly half its bees last year. The deaths are now spreading to Asia, with reports in India and suspected cases in China.
Why?
It seems there is no one cause. Infections, lack of food, pesticides and breeding - none catastrophic on their own - are having a synergistic effect, pushing bee survival to a lethal tipping point. But while individual “sub-lethal stresses” such as infections are implicated, we know little about how they add together.
The situation should become clearer in the next few years as the US government, the EU and others are pouring money into bee research.
That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees.
Marcus Aurelius
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