By Lynnola Christman
The first day of spring was on March 20th, 2019, which means soon there will be better weather, animals coming out of hibernation, and bees starting to pollinate. As most people know already, bees are on the endangered species list. Right? Well, sort of. According to Snopes, there are seven species of bees in Hawaii that are on the endangered species list. The yellow-faced bee and Rusty Patched bumble bee. But bees as a whole class? Not yet. Bees started to “mysteriously” disappear since the late 1990s, according to sos-bees. It hasn’t gotten any better and continues to decline. Without bees, one third of our food would be wiped out because that one third of crops depends on bee pollination. Honeybees pollinate $15 billion worth of food in the United States alone according to blog.conservation.org. The bees can be saved if there were better ways to protect our gardens. Pesticides may keep the insects away but they are also killing them. How can gardens grow and flourish when bees aren’t there to help them? Use bee-safe pesticides, especially if you are a gardener. Don’t use Orthene, Seven, Diazinon, but instead use Sulfur, Serenade, or Herbicides according to perfectbee.com. Pesticides aren’t the only things that can harm bees. Climate change and diseases also play a factor. They can cause habitat loss and climate change can also affect bees’ health. They won’t reproduce as much and will be less resistant to predators and parasites. The higher the temperature, the more bees can be infected with parasites that cause disease. Next time you think about protecting your garden, think about the bees. Don’t use something that’s used to temporarily “protect” the gardens when it can forever impact the world.
1 Comment
Brady Fergusson
5/8/2019 08:20:41 am
A lot of us are not aware of how important bees are to agriculture and how much we need them. Thank you for sharing this information.
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