r nearly a decade, something strange has been happening to honeybees. Around the world, the insects have been abandoning their hives and dying in large numbers. The alarming trend became even worse last year. A survey of 5,000 beekeepers revealed that together, they’d lost about 42 percent of their colonies over a 12-month period.
Scientists call this problem colony collapse disorder. They have yet to figure out its cause. The decline of bees isn’t bad just for the insects, it’s also bad for people. Many of the things we eat, from almonds to zucchinis, depend on these insects in order to grow.
IMPORTANT INSECTS
Farmers rely on honeybees to help pollinate crops. The bees transfer pollen—a powdery, yellow substance made by flowers—from one plant to another. Plants need pollen in order to produce the fruit and seeds that we eat.
During the growing season, beekeepers rent their hives to farmers. But there were fewer bees to do the job of pollinating last summer. For the first time ever, honeybee deaths in the summer surpassed (went beyond) those in the winter.
“We expect the colonies to die during the winter, because that’s a stressful season,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp told The New York Times. VanEngelsdorp, who studies insects at the University of Maryland, directed the recent beekeeper survey. He added, “What’s totally shocking to me is that the losses in summer, which should be paradise for bees, exceeded the winter losses.”
CAUSE OF DEATH
Nobody knows for sure why honeybee deaths are increasing, but one factor may be a deadly parasite (an organism that lives off another organism). It is called the varroa (vahr-OH-uh) mite, and it attacks bees, sucking the insects’ blood.
Some experts also believe a group of pesticides, named neonicotinoids (nee-oh-NIK-uh-teen-oydz), could be linked to bee die-offs as well. These chemicals are used to kill off insects that eat crops, but they may be harming bees too. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently studying the risk these pesticides pose to bees and other pollinators. The agency says it won’t approve new uses for the chemicals until it has more information on their safety.
Poor nutrition is also probably a factor. Bees are losing a major source of their food—wildflowers. This is because farmers are planting crops on millions of acres of once-untouched land where wildflowers used to grow.
To try to address this issue, the White House has created the Pollinator Health Task Force. This group will take steps to try to protect and grow wildflowers on 7 million acres of U.S. land. Experts hope that this and other efforts will keep bees buzzing in the U.S. for many years to come.