Groo 1

Marisa Groo

Mr. Jorgensen

English 1010

18th April, 2017

Why You Gotta Bee like That

According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its

wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway

because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. (Bee Movie, 2007)

Fun fact! Honeybees wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive

buzz.

There are roughly 20,000 species of bees and possibly another 20,000 yet to be

discovered (Claire Fordham, 2016). Of that, the bumble bee, the honeybee, and seven species of

the Hawaiian yellow faced bee are on the endangered species list. When someone talks about

"endangerment" of bees, they can be speaking globally or in a very focused manner. Catalysts to

this dilemma are pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, and natural disasters. Bees are an

essential part of our ecosystem and we should be taking more steps to ensure their survival.

Mankind has the potential to save, or doom, them.

Fun fact! Bees see all colors except the color red.

Since the 1990s, the population of bees has declined 88% and their habitat has had an

87% loss. Where once they were seen in nearly all of Europe, southern Canada, and 43 states in

the US, theyve all but vanished (Merrit Kennedy, 2017). We rely on pollinators for around 75%
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of our crops. We need healthy bees to survive on the planet. Bees give us our food, our clothes

(cotton), 450 million pounds of honey and nine million pounds of beeswax in America annually.

Also powerful apis therapy and pain medicines for rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and

multiple sclerosis. When the bees die, we die. (Dr. Reese Halter, 2016)

Fun fact! Bees make honey to feel their young and so they have something to eat during

the winter.

Globally, there is no denying that displacement of bee nesting habitat, as well as areas of

flowering nectar and pollen sources, with roads, housing developments, agriculture, airports, etc.

have led to the decline in population sizes of many species of bees in the US and around the

world. Unless those habitats and floral resources can be regenerated, the population numbers are

likely to remain suppressed from their original numbers.

Fun fact! The queen bee may lay 600-800 or even 1,500 eggs each day during her 3 or 4

year lifetime. This daily egg production may equal her own weight. She is constantly fed and

groomed by attendant worker bees.

The world has moved in the direction of industrial farming, meaning lots of harmful

pesticides and an abundance of wheat and corn. While we humans think wheat and corn are the

bees knees, they provide very little nectar for scavenging bees, so they are starving to death. If

we shift from industrial farming to more ecological farming, stopping the extinction of many

essential pollinators could be within sight.

Fun fact! Killer bees have been known to chase people for over a quarter of a mile once

they get excited and aggressive.

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Pesticides are one of the leading causes of death for bees. The newly introduced

chemicals in pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, are dangerous because they kill soil and water

organisms. Still, over two billion pounds are used globally each year. When bees come into

contact with neonicotinoids they lose their minds and shake to death; similarly to people

suffering from Parkinsons and Alzheimers diseases. These chemicals are known to poison

water for up to a decade, so all the creatures that eat anything in dirt are denied food. Even

seemingly safe levels of pesticides containing neonicotinoids prove to be toxic for bees. The hive

relies on the queen for their chances of success during the first month after she rouses from the

winter, so when pesticides are applied early in the year, it runs the risk of affecting an entire

society of bees for the year. Despite the harm caused to insects, these pesticides have been

developed to be safe for human beings and other mammals. Scientists have also said that even if

we were to take neonicotinoids away, it wouldnt solve the problem of decline.

Fun fact! Certain species of bees die after stinging because their stingers, which are

attached to their abdomen, have little barbs or hooks on them. When this type of bee tries to fly

away after stinging something, part of the abdomen is ripped away.

They run a 1-5 kilometer radius from their hive to search for nectar to feed on, in turn

being coated in pollen to pass on to other plants. Flowering plants and pollinators co-evolved.

Pollination is the key event for a plant and for the pollinators in the year. Thats where

pollinators get their food, and thats what determines whether the plant will set fruit. Some

species of pollinators have co-evolved with one species of plant, and the two species time their

cycles to coincide, for example, insects maturing from larva to adult precisely when nectar flows

begin, (Esaias, 2015). Crops arent able to be the only thing that feeds the bees, they dont

provide enough nectar. On a more local level, specific perturbations to the original environment
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can have specific impacts on particular species. Some bee species use only a single species of

flower as their complete food source. If anything we do (herbicides?) eliminates that food

source, the bee will go too, even if the habitat is not disturbed in any other way. If bee habitat is

located close to agricultural areas, golf courses, landfills, even urban parks, etc., it is likely that

pesticide contamination of food and water sources for bees will occur. When man-made areas are

developed and the amount of greenery is less, the water, air, and general environment are

affected. That, along with climate change and natural disasters, is contributing to the loss of a

habitat bees need to survive.

Fun fact! Bees store their venom in a sac attached to their stinger and only female bees

sting because the stinger, called an ovipositor, is part of the female bees reproductive design. A

queen bee uses her ovipositor to lay eggs as well as sting. Sterile females, also called worker

bees, dont lay eggs. They just use their ovipositors to sting.

Beekeepers are losing relevance due to a strange epidemic called colony collapse

disorder, where hives would be abandoned without reason or warning. It is speculated that

neonicotinoids, stress, or environmental change has been driving them away, but the true reason

has not been determined. It could be a result of all three. There are people working on

alternatives for beekeeping. Two men from Australia named Cedar and Stuart Anderson have

created a device called the Flow Hive. They have raised $13,272,655 since 2015 to fund this

incredible project. Its made to tap honey directly from beehives, thus leaving the colony of bees

making the honey blissfully unaware. 35,000 beekeepers have already adopted this way of

harvesting honey. Even people who never kept bees are buying this product, leaving the stressful

beekeeping industry to fend for themselves. This may also lower the possibility of a bee

discovering what we do and feel the need to sue us for their honey rights.
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Fun fact! Beekeepers use smoke to calm bees when they are collecting honey or

relocating a hive.

Now, you may be thinking, what does this have to do with me? Shouldnt it be up to

more important people to fix this? Well, believe it or not, you can make a difference. Since

plants that typically feed bees are diminishing, use that empty garden to plant wildflowers. No

garden? No problem! Gardening boxes are available at your local Walmart.

Fun fact! Honeybees are responsible for pollinating approximately 80% of all fruit,

vegetable and seed crops in the U.S.

Cheerios is already doing their part. Theyre holding a movement theyre calling

#Bringbackthebees. Theyre giving away wildflower seeds for free. Theyre planning on having

3,300 acres of nectar and pollen rich wildflowers that are full of all the nutrients pollinators need

to stay healthy. Their website has tips and tricks on how to do your part in these trying times.

Fun fact! Honeybees have five eyes: three small ones in top of their head and two big

one. They even have hair on their eyes.

So, all of these considerations are linked in a complex web that probably cannot be

rectified simply by working on one or another of the components. In most cases the environment

will never go back to the way we knew it decades or centuries ago. However, we must

remember that the earth has gone through some very serious climatic changes from the times of

dinosaurs, through the ice age, until now. It appears our current species survived those

impediments. Now we will see how they can do dealing with man.
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Bibliography

Pets on mom.me. What are the causes of endangered honeybees? 2016.

http://animals.mom.me/causes-endangered-honey-bees-7539.html

Chris Tackett. Whats killing the bees? TIME magazine examines the crisis. 14th August,

2013. http://www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/whats-killing-bees-time-magazine-

examines-crisis.html

Greenpeace. http://sos-bees.org/

Claire Fordham. Bee Expert Dr. Reese Halter Explains Why They Are So Important To

Humans And What We Can Do To Save This Endangered Species. 19th July, 2016.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-fordham/bee-expert-dr-reese-

halte_b_11056942.html

National Pest Management Association. 2014. http://pestworldforkids.org/pest-guide/bees/

Steve Gormon. U.S. Lists a Bumblebee Species as Endangered for First Time. 11th January,

2017. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-lists-a-bumble-bee-species-as-

endangered-for-first-time/

Merrit Kennedy. U.S. Puts Bumblebee On The Endangered Species List For The First Time.

11th January, 2017. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/11/509337678/u-s-

puts-first-bumblebee-on-the-endangered-species-list