Save the Bees!

When I think of bees, I generally think of dull gold and black striped insects that can cause pain if disturbed. I also think of them of as friends of flowers, due to their role in nature as one of many pollinators. Bees play an important role when it comes to farming. Without bees, we wouldn't have the means necessary to grow crops properly or get food. According to an article posted by the Washington Post in 2006, Honeybees are used to pollinate over 90 different kinds of crop and in California, for example Almond Farmers, often times need as many as 1.4 million honeybee colonies in order to pollinate the 550,000 Acres of trees and it is projected that the demand for bees will increase for the need to pollinate over 800,000 acres! Yet it's not the high demand for bees on our farms that is causing a problem, it's the fact that a decline in the number of bees in the past years that has farmers and researchers alarmed. This decrease could greatly damage great numbers of important crops and cause other problems for other animals in the environment. The Washington Post noted that the problem was so bad in fact, that many farmers in the United States had to import honeybees from Europe last year in order to meet the demands necessary for their crops. There are a number of factors that have been contributing to the honeybee decline. Pesticides are believed to be the biggest contributor to the shrinking population problem, since most farmers use pesticides to keep their crops safe from pests and costly damage, and yet not realizing they're harming more than just pests. Other factors include parasites and diseases, such as the Varroa mite, which suck the "blood" out of the adult drones and leave open wounds, leaving the bees vulnerable to infection. Even the importation of honeybees has contributed to the decline because of the diseases and other bee harming parasites that have been imported have also had a significant impact on the country's population. Bees are not only important for crops but they are also important for pollinating essential plants in the wild that other animals may depend on. We depend on bees for so many things and to lose them would sure throw everything out of balance. What can you do to help? You can plant pollinator gardens, which are gardens that have native plants from the surrounding area and have nesting boxes for solitary bees. Other things one can do to help the bees are by supporting your local beehive and relocate hives you find near your home, don't exterminate! For more information as to what you can do to help the bees, please checkout http://savethebees.com/.