Why are the bees dying?
Lauren Holguin 4B
Background
- Bees are often thought to have no purpose other than stinging people,making honey,and taking pollen from flowers.
- They are actually essential to our food source. One in every three bites of food are due to bees who pollinate many types of crops such as almonds,strawberries,and apples.
- We rely on bees to pollinate 71 out of 100 crops. Without bees there will be fewer of these produce in grocery stores.
- Unfortunately bees have been dying for the past ten years and nobody can pinpoint why. The beekeepers are losing 30% or higher of their colonies.
- Beekeepers are calling it Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) or vanishing bee syndrome.
Strawberries
One of the many crops that bees help pollinate.
Bee
Hive box
Where beekeepers keep their bees.
Who killed the honey bee?
- This documentary talked about the dying honeybees in the U.K. Although there is no one reason for CCD this documentary talks about many of the different reasons as to why the bees are dying and the effects of our food supply because of their deaths.
- One of the topics discussed is the harm that insecticides/pesticides are doing to the bees. The harmful chemicals in the insecticides/pesticides get inside the bee causing them to die.
- The second topic they cover is global warming. Due to this the bees do not migrate like other species do which leads to habitat loss.
- The last topic they cover is parasites and how this one species called Varroa mites attacks the bees. They have caused many deaths on adults bees but they are also attacking larvae and killing them as well.
Things I learned
- How essential bees are to our food source.
- There is not one exact reason as to why the bees are dying. It is mostly a combination of things that are making them die.
- It takes 1.6 million domesticated bees to pollinate the California almond trees.
- Bee keepers and scientist are selecting high quality bees and breeding them to make them disease resistant.
Solutions
- Plant wildflowers in a garden of our own.
- Remove all use of pesticides from our garden.
- Support our local beekeepers.
- Donate to bee activist groups