The Pros And Cons Of Honey Bees

While sitting outside on a sunny day, I saw bees flying around me. I quickly got up and started to walk away. I was a little angry they had ruined my peacefulness. I muttered to myself “I wish bees would die.” A few months later in my biology class, we had to read an article about Honeybees and how they pollinate. I was very interested in how these insects contribute to our world. In the article, it also mentioned about the bees vanishing. I instantly desired to get this important information out to everyone I knew. When people think of Honeybees, they may imagine memories of family picnics being interfered by these creatures just like I used to. Bees are feared by many and have some negative connotations. I want to educate these people and
Their doings affect our daily lives. They directly help us through pollination of our food crops. Many of the foods we eat are thanks to Honeybees. In fact, “About one-third of the human diet is derived from insect-pollinated plants and honey bees are responsible for 80 percent of this pollination” (“Honey Bees and Pollination”). Honeybees able us to eat a variety of foods from nuts to fruits. Peaches, strawberries, onions, broccoli, and kidney beans, just to name a few are all pollinated by Honeybees. Honeybees are the unsung heroes of the agriculture industry. As a matter of fact, “More than $15 billion a year in U.S. crops are pollinated by bees, including apples, berries, cantaloupes, cucumbers, alfalfa, and almonds” (“Why We Need Bees: Nature’s Tiny Workers Put Food on Our Tables” 1). A lot of these foods give us the essential nutrients to live
This phenomenon is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Colony collapse disorder is causing many bee hives to fail. The most common cause of this is chemical exposure to the Honeybees. When farmers plant crops, they will also often wash their fields will insecticides or pesticides. The farmers don’t realize that while doing this, they are causing Honeybees to become exposed to these foreign chemicals their bodies aren’t used to. The Honeybees will not directly be affected, but it will have an internal effect on them. The bees will go to pollinate these crops and unknowingly will acquire these chemicals inside their bodies. In Fact, “…three neonicotinoid class insecticides -- clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam -- were the main culprits in weakening the bees' immune system” (“Colony Collapse Disorder Impact on the Economy”). The bees become weak and will fly away from their hive to die alone. These worker bees will not provide for their colony and the whole hive will eventually fall, contributing to the colony collapse disorder