Many living creatures, including the human race benefit a lot from Honeybees. We reap their honey and set them to work cross-pollinating our crops. Their beeswax makes good candles and furniture polish. It is also a constituent in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Propolis, the resins bees gather build their hive, is utilized in medicines for almost anything, from gum disease to different types of burns.

Lately however, honeybee populations around the world have slumped sharply. Overdevelopment and segregation of open space, diseases and mites, misuse of herbicides and pesticides are the chief suspects. From some approximations, the honeybee population has waned by as much as 50%. The total loss of honeybees will be particularly catastrophic for farmers.

The nation will be out approximately $14 billion worth of crops per annum, and all our diet will change significantly since about a 3rd of the food we take in each day is produced from honeybee pollination. But the condition is not by a long sight hopeless. Researchers are learning how to control mites, forestall diseases and more skillful catering to the nutritional necessities of honeybee colonies. Major research centers in public universities, state laboratories and the USDA honeybee laboratories are tagging the reasons of the abnormal wintertime losses of colonies.

Homeowners are able help, too. There are 3 things you can do at home to assist in the survival of honeybees. First, each honeybee colony demands the equivalent of an acre of bloom. A lot of individual homeowners can not give that but if several people in the locality plant an assortment of flowers, it can create a difference. Besides offering abundant flowering plants, homeowners can assist bees by making certain there's clean water in hand. This is especially significant in waterless regions. If you can set up a water feature inside your yard, or just keep a birdbath full, you will notice that all types of bees will make use of it.

Pesticide Dangers

Being wise with use of pesticides is some other way for homeowners to back up honeybee populations, ideally by keeping off the chemicals altogether. There are a lot of different ways to supervise insect populations. Pesticides present a certain peril when plants are blooming and bees are foraging.

The sort of pesticide you use could just make a lot of difference. Earlier pesticides acted upon contact, but their effectiveness was short-lived. Modern pesticides, known as nicotinoids, are systemic. They get into plants through the roots and work on the nervous systems of the insects that absorb them. These aren't as negative as older pesticides for individuals, fish and birds—but they are bad for bees since they remain active for longer periods.

These elements get their way into nectar and pollen. If the density is high enough, it inebriates the bees and they can not locate their way home again. Imidacloprid, a widely utilized nicotinoid, is a huge concern but it's registered as OK for each crop in California. Aside from being used on fruits and vegetables, imidacloprid can be found in flea controls for pets and termite treatments.


The Honey-Bee: Nature, Homes, Products by William Harris

Defenders of wildlife, Volume 50, 1975

Environmental Science by G. Tyler Miller and Scott Spoolman