"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live."

Question

Many people would be surprised to know that 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched, and that "bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain." The studies also revealed that the numbers of wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent. Which came first, the decline in wildflowers or the decline in pollinators, has yet to be determined. If bees continue to die off so would the crops they support and with that would ensue major economic disruption and possibly famine.

What is your opinion?

Answer 1

that is very interesting Bees are not the only polinators but if these things are happening to bees we can bet on it that other insects are also in trouble ,on top of this many people are spraying for mosquitos ,with drastic effects .

so much follows the insects in the food chains ,that we can expect a lot of very bad changes in the environment .

And now many animals in the jungles are getting sick because of temperature changes ,also fataly affecting foodchains

keep it going ,we cannot educate the masses enough on the importance of the equilibriums that exist in Nature and how much out own survival depends on this ,It is horifying to realise how little the people know or care

we will be the big looser in the end because we are on top

Although realistically i feel that it already is too late

we are witness to a mass exstinction ,for the first time since the dinosaurs .already millions of species of flora and fauna are exstinct ,to halt or reverse this has become impossible

only time will tell what is in store for us ,and that time is running now .

Answer 2

I wondered about this when I heard that the beekeepers across the nation have lost as much as 90% of their bees to a disease. That really makes me worry, what kind of disease is strong enough to kill bees and not be harmful to humans in the long run. So without these bees, all our fruit trees will not produce fruit,  and what can we do about it? Is there anything that can be done? Maybe that would be a good job for the DNR to tackle, capture some of the remaining bees and breed them so they can re-stock the supply in the wild. They do that for other species, why not bees. That is a very scary outlook if something isn't done to produce pollinators, funny how we run from them when we see them but in reality we need them more than they need us. Let's do something to save the bees!!!!

Answer 3

Bees fulfil an niche in the environment as pollinators.  That doesn't mean that other pollinators do not exist; it just means that bees are currently the dominant species.  As it works in the ecological scheme of things, if a niche opens up, then another species will move in and take it over and thrive.  There are other pollinating insects that are just waiting (as it were) to fulfill the niche left by the rapidly declining bee population.

Answer 4

The disappearance of bee's is a very frightening scenario, indeed.

I have heard that bees are directly or indirectly responsible for 2/3 of all the food we eat. They almost-exclusively pollinate the alfalfa on which our dairy and beef cows feed. They pollinate our corn, soybeans and countless other crops that we depend upon for our survival.

I have noticed, here in the midwest US, a decrease in the amount of bees that hang around during summer picnics etc... Wasps, hornets and bumblebees have taken their place. I don't know if the duties performed by bees can be done by these critters or not. Or, God forbid, the wasps and hornets are the next to go.  

I DO know, however small they may be, bees are one of the most important species on the face of the earth. And we should be doing everything we can to protect them.

BTW - I am deathly allergic to bee stings and need to carry a "bee sting kit" with me everywhere I go. I would rather carry it around than never see another bee.