Should we Bee Worried?

Marie Bordelon
March 7, 2017

  • Today’s mass decline of the honeybee population could ultimately lead to the extinction of many plants, animals, and eventually humans.  In the United States alone, 42 percent of bee colonies have collapsed due to the not yet understood phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder.  A possible cause of the disappearance of bees may be a class of insecticide called Neonicotinoids, used widely in farms and urban landscape.  When bees bring back nectar from infected plants to the hive, Neonicotinoids could very well affect the whole colony.  The insecticide has the ability to cause mass confusion and disorientation in bees causing them to abandon their hives.  A lack of genetic variation in commercial bees, long cold winters, and bee mites suppressing the colonies may also be at fault for the decline in the bee population. Bees are responsible for the pollination of seventy percent of fruits, vegetables, and nuts we consume including coffee fruit; say goodbye to your morning buzz.  The produce pollinated by bees nearly translates to two hundred billion dollars in agricultural revenue worldwide.  without bees pollinating out plants the agricultural market would go down causing prices on produce and eventually meats.  The extinction of the human race will not be brought about by a meteor or a pandemic but by our most important pollinators dying out.