Why You Should Care that All The Honeybees are Dying

Why Are Honeybee Colonies in Decline?

Knowing about CCD is one thing, but there are other factors leading to dwindling colonies.

One reason for the decline could be the tobacco ringspot virus, which usually infects plants but has recently been found in bees. The virus, also known as TRSV, was also found in varroa mites, a type of parasite that spreads viruses among bees while feeding on their blood.

“The increasing prevalence of TRSV, in conjunction with other bee viruses, is associated with a gradual decline of host population and supports the view that viral infections have a significant negative impact on colony survival,” the Chinese researchers said.

About 5 percent of known plant viruses can be transmitted via pollen. These “toxic viral cocktails” seem to correlate with honeybee CCD, the researchers said. Many scientists in the field believe that a combination of factors is contributing to lower bee populations.

See the 10 Top Medical and Technological Innovations of 2013 »

Exposure to Pesticides Makes Worker Bees Smaller

Concern about bees is apparent across the globe. Researchers in Australia have attached tiny sensors to honeybees as part of a two-month study to explain bee colony declines.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently granted about $460,000 to Louisiana State University, Penn State University, and the University of Vermont to come up with practices to reduce the use of potentially harmful pesticides. The EPA has said that protecting bees is a top priority.

Why Should You Care?

Carl Chesick, director of the Center for Honeybee Research in North Carolina, said that bees are one of only a few creatures that live their lives to benefit the greater good.

“If human beings change the conditions of our planet so that bees can’t exist, we are foolish to think we can escape the consequences of our own choices,” Chesick said.

A bee is at least 100,000 times smaller than a human being and is exponentially more sensitive to substances in the environment, he explained. As such, they can’t adapt as quickly to new technology—including pesticides—as we might think.

Gene Robinson, Ph.D., an entomologist and director of the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said that people can do more to help bees on a local level.

“Citizens can help by minimizing uses of highly toxic pesticides in their gardens and backyards and, where possible, creating habitats for wild bees to nest,” Robinson said.

Read more on: care