What might be the significant result if the world's honey bees really do become extinct?

Question

No more flowers? no more honey? no more pollenation of fruit and veggie plants? How far-reaching could the effects be?

Answer 1

It really is mind-boggling if you think about it too hard, I mean bees are the main source of pollination for plants. The only plants that will be able to reproduce will have to be done by hand. Maybe that can be another job for the immigrants who are now harvesting our nations crops.....they go out in the fields with q-tips, pollinating the corn.....sheesh   And can you imagine no honey? It's scary and another chapter in our civilizations stupidity and greed. Use those pesticides to get a temporary large harvest and more money, but in the process destroying civilization.

Answer 2

Alot of plants/crops that depend on them to pollinate them will die off........  I'm waiting for the seas to be depleted of fish and other life from over-fishing, probably in the not too far future.

Answer 3

Many plants are self pollinated, this would include a lot of the major food crops such as rice, wheat, oats barley and all of the small grains. Corn, another major food crop is cross pollinated by the wind, as are many other crops and trees. Without honeybees there would be no large scale starvation, but the honeybee is the major pollinator for many of our vegetables and fruit crops. So the food supply as well as a lot of beauty in the world would suffer. There are other insects that also can pollinate these crops, beetles, bumble bees, and several different kinds of bees. these would have to be increased to take up pollination that was done by the honey bees. It would take several years to get the production of these crops back to were they were. In the mean time lets not give up on the honeybee. They have been declining, but recent data shows they are making a comeback.

Answer 4

Mass starvation on a worldwide basis and what little food would be very expensive.

Answer 5

colosil, the end of life as we know it!

Answer 6

Bees do quite a lot of the actual physical pollenation with respect to our food crops but statistically they are farther down on the list for overall insect pollen carriers with beetles and flies (general species) doing most of the work. Without the bees, though, our foods would be more expensive for many kinds of fruits and veggies and availability would be quite diminished. In short, our diet would be restricted and a bit bland unless you are very well heeled. I'm guessing in a pinch that we could find another pollenator from another species, as well as hand pollenation which might suffice for some things. An electric toothbrush type of vibrating device has been used in some greenhouse crops as well as importing the bumblebee, which has a different kind of hive and life cycle. As far as Colony Collapse Disorder and the loss of hives, at this point it seems that research has pointed to our own activities as the causes of problems. Like most everything in life, there is always more than one cause to a problem. Bee keepers using assorted chemicals to keep hives from having disease problems, the management techniques with respect to breeding and growing a larger and harder working bee, as well as the constant stresses on the hive from shipping them as rental units all around their areas seem to be where the problems are coming from. Add to that the current issues with regard to how we treat our Earth Mother and agricultural practices that are not in keeping with best management stategies (pesticides and all those chemicals designed to short-cut nature and Her processes) and you can see why bees just pack up and leave. The hives are overrun with mites and fungus and bacteria and any healthy bees just leave. We have ample time to learn from this mistake even though research (to the best of my knowlege) hasn't pinned this honeybee problem down to specifics. CCD is managable given that we realize that as far as the bee is concerned, even they have limits. Seems we have found them.

Answer 7

Both Rudolf Steiner and Albert Einstein have said that if the honeybees go, we will not last long.   There will be no food for us.  Not only will vegetables, fruits, and grains (except the omnipresent corn, which self pollinates) be gone, but the plants that feed other animals, including the chickens, sheep, cows, and pigs that we eat, will become scarce.  We need to, as a species, try to stop this polluting of our own environment with chemicals from exhaust, pesticides, sunscreen,manufacturing, etc. and try to heal our planet if we want to survive.