Bumble Needs YOU!!!

Honeybees are endangered? Fantastic, you think. You’ll never have to worry about getting stung at a family barbecue again! What you might not realize is that bees play a vital role in producing that perfectly shaped, delicious apple you’re eating while basking in the summer sun. Originally selected solely for their honey, today honeybees in the U.S. are as much valued for their crucial role in pollinating 90 different kinds of crops. Indeed, one-third of the total U.S. diet is derived from insect-pollinated plants, so their survival, which is threatened by parasites, pesticides, habitat loss, and grazing practices, is incredibly important to maintain high levels of food production.

Parasites are the primary reason honeybees are endangered. The “one-two punch” of the tracheal and varroa mites poses an ominous and ongoing threat. Introduced in North America in 1982 and 1987, respectively, these two mites spread quickly via pollination and commercial bee industry migration. The tracheal mites live inside the trachea of honeybees and suck bees’ blood from the inside, whereas varroa are relatively large external parasites that reproduce inside of hive cells where young bees are being raised. If a hive is severely infected, when you peel back the wax, you might see 8 or 9 varroa mites coming out of every cell. The infestation of the brood is a significant problem, for the mites bring various harmful diseases to a colony. For example, one disease causing wing damage might result in newly raised bees that emerge malformed and unable to fly.

From 1987 to 1995, the mite population increased and feral honeybee colonies were reduced to almost nothing. Domesticated bees, on the other hand, were not greatly affected until the summers of 1995 and 1996, in which some beekeepers lost up to 85% of their colonies (though many of these were replaced the next year by packages of bees from the south).

To prevent bees from the disastrous effects of parasites, farmers and beekeepers have used miticides that have proved effective. From 2000 to the present, a growing problem is that mites are building up resistance to the early, more benign miticides. In turn, as WILD TV entomologist Mace Vaughan says, “Scientists and farmers alike hope bees will respond to parasites by becoming more resistant to their harmful effects.” To this end, Cornell University has established the Honeybee Genetics and Integrated Pest Management Center, a breeding program that emphasizes the development of mite-resistant stocks of honeybees. Newer pesticides help protect bees but are more toxic to humans, and therefore require more careful use by beekeepers to prevent contamination of honey and wax. So while it has become harder for beekeepers to do their work, managed colonies are surviving.

Another factor contributing to the decline of feral colonies is the loss of native plant habitats to shopping malls, business corridors, parking lots and housing developments. Ideally, honeybees need a big cavity (usually in the middle of a big tree) that contains about 40 liters or 10 gallons in volume, to make their home in the wild. These kinds of cavities are usually found in the middle of big trees, but with deforestation, there are not nearly as many suitable trees left standing as there used to be.

Finally, agriculture and grazing practices have had a negative effect on wild bee populations, and not just of honeybees but of native, solitary, semi-social bees, and bumble bees. Native vegetation and prairies filled with flowering plants have been replaced with pasture grasses for cattle ranching and vast plantings of single-species crops. One study of grazing practices found evidence of sheep removing pollinator food resources, destroying underground nests, and direct trampling of bees.

Introduced by Europeans to the U.S. hundreds of years ago, honeybees have since been performing the seemingly simple and random act of carrying pollen from the anthers (boy parts) of one plant to the stigma (girl parts) of another. Perhaps only now, when feral honeybees are endangered, might we recognize how important they really are.

The Plight of the Bumble Bee group exists to promote and to show all that is good about the humble honey/bumble bee. They play a huge part in our lives with food production and keeping our visual life stimulated with pretty flowers to see feel and pick! – they deserve special recognition for all their hard work. Bee lovers everywhere should join.

Thank you so much for inviting me—I didn’t know about this group! I hope I take pix of the right ones…..

I worry about these little guys!!!!

Thanks again—!!!!!