Kofi Roberts

Professor Cuddy

102-15

February 19, 2017

Short Research Paper on the Collapse of Honey Bees

A common idea is that global warming is decimating the worlds bees. However, many

notable authors on the subject of bees contest that fact. While global warming is a contributor to

the decline of bees, it is neither the only assailant nor the primary assailant. In fact, honey bees

suffer from a laundry list of afflictions varying from viruses to actual predators. Now one may

wonder, How do bees affect me and my everyday life?. Honey bees are in fact the largest

pollinators of the world's produce (Maori, Insect Molecular Biology). Losing bees would deal a

devastating blow to produce as it is defined today. Currently, beekeepers use bees commercially,

migrating to different farms throughout the year, where their bees pollinate various crops.

Without these bees, the worlds primary pollinators would be lost and a majority of crops would

die. Currently, the primary assailant of honey bees is colony collapse disorder or CCD. The goal

of this paper is to both; inform the audience of the main plight honey bees are facing and present

solutions that are being used to try and save them. Because of CCD, the honey bee population is

in paramount danger and something needs to be done or life as we know it will change.

The first case of CCD was reported in 2006 on the east coast of the United States.

Beekeepers found empty hives, immature bees, a general decline in healthy adult bees, and hives

where the queen was no longer present (Jacobsen, 44). At first, beekeepers kept their failing
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hives to themselves because, in the beekeeping community, a loss of bees meant incompetence.

However as CCD became more prevalent, beekeepers began to speak out. When the bees first

started disappearing, CCD had not been invented yet. Originally beekeepers thought the culprit

was mites, varroa mites to be exact. Varroa mites were known for attacking healthy hives and

leaving their offspring where the honey bees laid their eggs. Through this process the mites

would feed off the unborn bees and negatively impact the future of the hives causing brood or

immature bees (VanEngelsdorp, PLOS). Since immature bees cannot grow into mature adult bees

and sustain the hive, mites have been high on the bee predator list for years. However, no varroa

mite eggs had been found in the afflicted hives and therefore were no longer suspect.

Additionally, varroa mites were discovered in 1987 so any sign of them would have been very

easily recognizable. So, the question still remained, If mites were not the assailant then who or

what was?.

Many other theories were presented, but none fit every criteria. It was thought that: the

commercial use of bees abroad had allowed them to contract a foreign illness, the increase of

greenhouse gases was negatively impacting them, and that the increase in technology via satellite

was impairing bees natural instincts (Gifford, 22). Eventually, it was found that the cause of the

disease was due to Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Yet, the cause of CCD has not been tied to

a single cause, in fact; all of the theories presented above have been linked as possible instigators

of CCD. With such an ambiguous yet extremely deadly disease it is hard to understand exactly

how to help honey bees but if nothing is done a third of the worlds food supply will be affected

(Grossman, Yale).
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CCD is not only a problem plaguing the United States. Other countries; namely France

and Germany have also been experiencing major cases of CCD. Two major solutions presented

are the banning of harmful pesticides in farming and community outreach to educate the masses

to the importance of bees (Gifford, 39).

Pesticide bans can help improve CCDs impact on honey bees by preventing the

contamination of hives through both; bees pollinating contaminated plants and the pesticides

actual getting into the hives (Jacobson, 56). The way pesticide treated plants hurt colonies is

through the bees pollinating the pesticide coated plants and the bees bringing the pollutants back

to the hive. Secondly, pesticides can infect bee colonies through the colony actually being in

contact with these pesticides. Both of these can be solved through limiting the amount of harmful

pesticides permitted in areas surrounding bee colonies. Pesticides that arent harmful to colonies

could be created in order to allow farmers to continue the use of pesticides without hurting bee

populations (VanEngelsdorp, PLOS).

Education about both bees and beekeeping is paramount to our current agriculture. Many

people are scared of bees, thinking they will be stung. However, honey bees only want sugar,

pollen, and nectar, and only sting humans when provoked. Beekeeping is currently banned in 89

cities in the United States and was only recently legalized in New York (Gifford, 41). Originally,

beekeeping was banned on the basis that it was dangerous because of how busy a city such as

New York could be and therefore chances of bee stings were significantly higher. Yet once it was

legalized bee tolerance only went up along with a want to preserve honey bees. Legalizing

beekeeping in all cities is paramount to more research in the protection of bees.

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In conclusion, honey bees directly and indirectly impact produce throughout the world.

Therefore, diseases affecting honey bees should not be taken lightly and funds should be

allocated in the protection of honey bees. Solutions such as the banning of harmful pesticides and

community outreach are two great steps in saving bees. With the right amount of recognition and

research, bees can be saved and the terrible trend of colony collapse disorder can be reversed.
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Bibliography:

Gifford, Chelsea. "Colony Collapse Disorder: The Vanishing Honeybee (Apis Mellifera)." CU

Scholar. University of Colorado, Boulder, 2011. Web. 1 Apr. 2017.

<http://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1915&context=honr_theses>.

Grossman, Elizabeth. Declining Bee Populations Pose a Threat to Global Agriculture. Yale

Environment 360 Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. 30 April 2013. Web.

21 Feb. 2017

<http://e360.yale.edu/features/declining_bee_populations_pose_a_threat_to_global_agric

ulture>

Hagopian, Joachim. "Death and Extinction of the Bees." Global Research. Centre for Research

on Globalization, 4 Jan. 2017. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

<http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-and-extinction-of-the-bees/5375684>.

Maori, E., N. Paldi, S. Shafir, H. Kalev, E. Tsur, E. Glick, and I. Sela. "IAPV, a Beeaffecting

Virus Associated with Colony Collapse Disorder Can Be Silenced by DsRNA

Ingestion."Insect Molecular Biology. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 19 Jan. 2009. Web. 07

Apr. 2017. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2583.2009.00847.x/full>.

Jacobsen, Rowan. Fruitless Fall the Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural

Crisis. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009. Print.

VanEngelsdorp, Dennis, Jay D. Evans, Claude Saegerman, Chris Mullin, Eric Haubruge, Bach

Kim Nguyen, Maryann Frazier, Jim Frazier, Diana Cox-Foster, Yanping Chen, Robyn

Underwood, David R. Tarpy, and Jeffery S. Pettis. "Colony Collapse Disorder: A

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Descriptive Study." PLOS ONE. Public Library of Science, 3 Aug. 2009. Web. 07 Apr.

2017. <http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006481>.