Honey Bees Research Paper

Honey bees (as shown in Figure 1) make up 80% of the world’s pollinating insects. One third of crops around the world depend on pollination and need honey bees in order to grow and survive. For example, apples, carrots, and onions have a 100% dependence on insect pollinators and 90% of that pollination comes from the honey bee while almonds depend on honey bees 100%. It is estimated that honey bees pollinate fifteen billion dollars worth of crops in the United States alone. About one third of every mouthful of food and drink that people consume was made possible by the work of pollinators such as honeybees.
There are almost 20,000 species of bees but only honey bees can produce enough honey and beeswax for the human population. As a result …show more content…
The profit of industry is severely suffering from these factors and the problem appears to be exacerbating.
The bumble bee population is also declining in many countries. This is mostly due to habitat destruction and pesticide use. Continued and long-lasting decline in honey bees and bumble bees will cause a severe decrease in the pollination of many plants which will lead to a dramatic decrease in plant diversity in regions where pollination by bees is crucial. Thus, not only is the economy suffering from the predicament of bee population decline, but there is also the loss of an important factor in the continued efforts of food and resource management and may also lose plants that are necessary for human survival.
What, exactly, is causing bees to die? In the last few years scientists have accumulated evidence pointing to a type of insecticides called neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids are commonly used in commercial agriculture and have been proven to have lethal effects on bees. Neonicotinoids are a relatively new class of insecticides that share a common mode of action that affect the central nervous system of insects, resulting in paralysis and death. Neonicotinoids include acetamiprid, nithiazine, clothianidin, thiacloprid, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and dinotefuran. Experiments and studies that were conducted in the 1990s showed that neonicotinic …show more content…
Fipronil is an insecticide that is a part of the phenylpyrazole chemical family. Fipronil is used to kill cockroaches, ants, termites, mole crickets, beetles, fleas, ticks, rootworms, thrips, and other insects, including bees. Fipronil was first registered for use in the United States in 1996. Fipronil eliminates insects when they come into contact with it or if they consume the chemical. It works by disrupting the normal functions of the insect's central nervous system. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has labelled this widely used insecticide as a high risk to honey bee populations. The EU has been putting regulations and restrictions on the use of fipronil but the EFSA report showed that the current EU regulation of pesticides was overall not sufficient. Marco Contiero, the Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director, believes that the use of fipronil and other pesticides toxic to bees in the EU shows that there needs to be more EU safety testing and

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