Honeybee Extinction: What's Really Going On

Bees land on flowers, gather pollen, and fly away. This travel lets them share pollen from other plants, leading to snacks like pumpkins, apples, and cucumbers. Many plants, including canola, grow better when bees pollinate them.

Bees boost farmers' income and give us food. One in three food bites comes from plants pollinated by bees.

Honeybees also make tasty honey.

The story of planet pollinators does not center on the European Honeybee. That insect is non-native; it is strictly managed, essentially a domesticated animal. Bumblebees, for instance, act as a major pollinator for the planet's plants and trees.Thousands of wild bee species exist. You likely do not see them because they live alone. These bees work hard to keep our ecosystem running. Media ignores them; most people do not know they suffer. We then depend only on our managed honeybee hives—bees that cannot pollinate some foods or non-food plants.The "bee-pocalypse" is happening, but it is not just to honeybees.

A Center for Biological Diversity study on over 1,400 bee species found more than half are declining. A quarter of those 1,400 face extinction.

Diversity matters for nature's wild processes. A more diverse ecosystem has a better chance against catastrophic events.Fewer bee species mean less chance they survive as a group.Fewer bee species mean less chance they survive as a group.

In 2006 and 2007, something began affecting managed honeybee colonies. Colonies died in large numbers; no one understood the reason.

More than a decade later, scientists still lack the exact cause for this disaster. However, links exist between bee stress and factors like climate change, the varroa mite, and viruses.There are several terrible viruses that harm bees. One specific virus affects them.This affects the hive as a whole.

More than ten years later, scientists still cannot pinpoint the exact cause of this disaster. They found links to bee stressors: climate change, varroa mites, and viruses.

Several terrible viruses affect bees. This one virus isan RNA virusThe Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus systematically infects hives. It attacks every type of bee at any life stage. Once infected, the virus disrupts protein production and causes violentan immune suppressantthis makes bees susceptible to other viruses. Bees infected with the virus show shivering wings.The Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus causes shivering wings.paralysis, and many bees die just outside their hive.

Bees can become immune to viruses, just like humans. Protecting valuable honeybee colonies with vaccinations is a goal. Scientists have made progress understanding how bees pass these protections to offspring. New research helps scientists develop vaccines against these bee-killers.Scientists are helping develop vaccines against these bee-killers.

Human interference harms animal populations and their homes. The effect of pesticides on wild and managed bees remains unclear, though most people think the answer is known. Scientific evidence suggests otherwise. For instance, some claim neonics (a low-toxicity seed coating) cause CCD. Yet, neonics are used widely in Australia, and there is no CCD there. Europe bans them, claiming to 'save the bees', but honeybee colonies still collapse.

Studies claim pesticides kill all bees. However, closer inspection shows many studies used unrealistic pesticide amounts in lab settings. Dunking a bee in poison kills it. Bees do not get dunked in poison in the real world.

If you want real information instead of a bee-pocalypse story, check outscientficbeekeeping.com. That site has a lot of information with a clear science breakdown so far.

The Varroa mite is a nasty pest that has plagued honeybee hives since the 1980s. These parasites suck the blood of insects, especially drone brood. Because it is parasitic, the bee often lives to adulthood without forming fully or with major defects. Some bees with mites while growing have been born wingless or legless, and they have much shorter lives.

Domesticated European honeybees face colony collapse, but they are not the main pollinator. Other insects, like native bees, butterflies, and beetles, alsosuffer massive lossesdue to habitat loss from development and farming. The United Nations recently published a report analyzing declines and predicting what happens if pollinators go extinct. Pollinators play aHugeThese organisms maintain the world's food supply, including most flowering plants and trees. Their extinction causes a massive food shortage. The United States alone faces a major impact.This loss amounts to $14 billion dollars.This affects agricultural revenue.