The Importance of Bees: Basic things to know

Photo credit to http://thinkaboutnow.com/2016/09/like-its-been-nuked-millions-of-bees-dead-after-sc-sprays-for-zika-mosquitoes/

 A few weeks ago I wrote about how I had been disheartened by those attempting to lay blame on others who don't understand the situation with the decline in bees, and how it is impacting our food sources.  In summary, the claim stated that "when all of the bees are gone, you will no longer have avocados, and strawberries and this is YOUR problem".  It was a sort of post that was trying to use shock value to entice one into the action of preventing bees from dying.  I mentioned how I once was intimidated by people who I regarded as scientists or those in the "know" about a variety of topics. Instead of feeling the ability to ask questions, I felt inadequate in my basic understanding, and so without the courage to ask I often found myself learning alone through books and other resources I could access.  Imagine, if scientists with the knowledge could only remember that they too were once unaware, and had to begin with simple questions to understand any given topic.  As I progress down my path of learning more about science and evolving as a scientist I want to make sure I keep the doors open to share what I learn, to save others from the fear of asking questions even if they seem basic.  Scientists are the minority, and the majority need the minorities help to understand some of the complex environmental and scientific topics of today.
    It is no secret that bees are in trouble.  The media does an exceptional job of making sure the negative side of situations is represented.  But if one does not understand a thing or two about bees, and what the issues are, little can be appreciated regarding their demise, nor can one take a personal responsibility to aid the situation that they are being blamed for as mentioned above.
    So, lets start by understanding there are two fundamentals we need to know a little bit about.  #1 the life of a bee and #2 how plants make what we would call "food".  For the sake of simple understanding I will not delve deeply into matters (scientists, I am not speaking to you here so have mercy), but I will give the average reader enough of a picture to allow them to understand what they need to know in order to understand why bees are diminishing, and what they can do about it.

How Plants Make Food
There is no romance story here, but often what we would call "food" (like fruits and vegetables) is a byproduct of the reproduction of a plant, often an embryo -- that's right foodies, your food is a plant baby waiting to be conceived.  So how do plants have sex?  How do these plant embryos (fruits and veggies) come about? Since the average male plant can't walk over to a female plant and woo her into late night activities that lead to plant babies, they need someone or something present to help them distribute their sperm onto the female parts of the plant, so that she can then produce the fruits and veggies that we eat. This is what we would call a pollinator (the job title indicates "one who collects & delivers plant sperm". (***please note not all plants reproduce in this way, but most that are our food sources do.  Some plants actually have sex with themselves! Whoa.)  Now....this is why bees are important and so it's important for me to discuss the life of bees and their role in the process of growing food.

The life of bees
Understand that their are bees and wasps.  Wasps are aggressive, they have the ability to sting multiple times and live.  Wasps do not make honey and eat mostly other insects and larva, BUT have been known to also seek pollen and nectar.  Wasps do NOT produce honey.  Bees are less aggressive because if they sting once, they will die and their job is to collect massive amounts of pollen to bring back to their colony so honey can be made to serve as a food source for larva and those living within the colony.

Because of the bees honey production, and the need to collect pollen,  bees are very special, and assist many different plants in the ability to have sex as mentioned above.  So this is my ultimate message....No bees, no plant sex, and if there is no plant sex, then there will be no plant babies (fruits and veggies -- or seeds to keep the plants reproducing generation after generation), all ending in less human plant, fruit and vegetable sources.

So why are all the bees dying? There are many factors that are acknowledged in the scientific community but I will focus on the one that most of us can help with.  Chemicals.  Many of us want to eliminate pests in our lives and we do so by the use of chemicals that are designed to "target" one pest or another.  BUT almost always, there are many other living things that are harmed in that process.  Chemicals act on cells, and living things have cells.  It is very hard to isolate a chemical that knows only the cell type of the living thing we are trying to get rid of (this also includes bacteria and fungi).  So when we use a chemical, just about anything living that it comes in contact with will suffer a cellular alteration (adjusting the way a normal living thing functions -- eats, breaths, has offspring etc).  

So imagine this.....we have a pesky beetle that eats all of the buds on the plants in our garden. (The buds will eventually be the flowers, also know as the sex organs for plant reproduction).  As the plants just begin to grow and develop the buds, we want to get rid of the beetle so the plant can live,, grow flowers and have bees land on them spreading their sperm to the other female flower etc) so we spray a chemical that is meant to target the beetle.  The chemical lands on the bud, the bud later opens into a flower, the bee lands on the flower and the pollen AND the chemical sticks to the bees legs and both the pollen and chemical are brought back to the hive where all other bee babies (larva) and worker bees, drones and queen eat and become sick and die.  

This is not the only chemical death, some chemicals that are sprayed can cause death on contact (as we find in stores)! Many have heard about the aerial spraying for the Zika virus in Florida which killed off more bees than I can assign a number to (see photo above).  Other causes of bee death are seemingly more subtle such as poor nutrition and disease.  So you might be thinking, well, I don't use chemicals, but the reality is that chemicals are everywhere in our lives and we don't always understand where those chemicals end up.  This topic is very technical but i'll simply point out the chemicals under our sinks generally end up going down the drain, or out with our trash and where do those things end up?  Back in the environment.  And what is in our environment ends up in soil and water which gets cycled back into the earth and where PLANTS soak up particles of what ends up in the soil and from rain or other bodies of water.

A scientist or ecologist (one who looks at the interactions between everything I mentioned above), will try to develop ways to keep the needs of people, animals and the planet working in harmony, but nature always wins and reacts according to the stresses placed upon it.  Its sad to see where we are trying to alleviate one problem, we actually create another.  This is not a matter of just the scientists who are creating compounds like chemicals, it is also the responsibility of the user (like us) to ask where we can begin to minimize our use of ANYTHING chemical.  

Some actions you can take:

1. Always evaluate the need for pesticides or fertilizers.  Can you eliminate or replace them with natural substitutes?

2. Can we replace a chemical in our daily lives with something less harmful?  Perhaps a cleaner could be substituted with apple cider vinegar, baking soda OR eliminated completely.

2.  Can I share basic knowledge with someone else who might not understand all of these things?  After all, once upon a time I didn't know or understand, maybe there are others who don't as well. 

Knowledge is the most powerful tool we have to create a better future, so share this post, share what you know....that is where change can begin!

Written by Kristy Medo - Naturalist & Massage Therapist