The sunlight intricately casts upon the hundreds of newly crafted cells that nature’s little architects so carefully built. Hundreds of worker bees (equated to female bees) whizz past one another in order to carry out their daily duties: gathering pollen, attending to their queen, repairing the hive, and caring for their brood (baby bees). Male bees, on the other hand, referred to as drones, have one job and one job only: to mate with their queen. The strongest and fastest bees are often picked to mate with the queen and once they serve their purpose, they die shortly after. This is mainly due to their abdominal cavities ripping out from an organ called the endophallus after copulation. Aside from worker bees and drones, the matriarchal society consists of many other roles which includes, but is not limited to, forager bees, undertaker bees, builders, and guard bees. The organized chaos of the hive signifies not only the complexity of such simple creatures, but also the great amount of intricacy that goes into producing their liquid delicacy: honey. Honeybees work tirelessly to protect their hives and have enough food for the upcoming cold months. Although these tiny creatures may seem insignificant to many, these keystone species support the reproduction of over 80% of the world’s flowering plants and foster the growth of thousands of fruit varieties. In addition, honeybees work tirelessly by traveling thousands of miles and pollinating millions of flowers to share their ambrosia (a divine food) with the world.
Despite the hard-working nature of these creatures, they are met with a persistent presence looming over them and seeking to destroy the health of the colony. This continual force acts like a storm of rain, sleet, or ice, seeking to eliminate and erode the petals of pollinating flowers and threatening the health and survival of bee populations. What exactly is this force you may question? It is not one specific cause but is instead multiple causes that are abounded with nuances, each contributing a detrimental effect towards the survival of these organisms.
Inferno With Wings: The Asian Hornet
High in the branches, a long, sleek creature with a black and yellow bodice hovers over a thriving hive with diabolical intentions. This creature is no other than the Asian Hornet, or commonly referred to as the Murder Hornet. Two to three Asian hornets can completely wipe out a colony of honeybees due to their unprecedented size. Being five times the length and twenty times the weight of an average honeybee, these murderous predators meticulously scour their environment for weaker colonies. Once these vicious organisms choose a hive of their liking, they begin their attack by tentatively hovering over the hive and plucking guard bees one by one. The hornets sadistically decapitate the bees utilizing their jaws and afterwards strip them completely of their crawling and flying abilities by removing their wings and legs. The bees grapple at the invaders and desperately attempt to employ a defensive strategy by forming a ball around the hornet. By doing so, it creates an overheated environment that leaves very little room for the hornet to breathe, ultimately leaving the predator to die from suffocation. However, the hornets are simply too strong and that strategy is deemed useless in this scenario. Once the hornets have slaughtered the majority of the bees, they tear at the waxy exterior of the hive and comfortably inhabit themselves in the core of the hive looking for items such as honey and brood. They carry these newfound treasures with them back to their hive and feed the honeybees to their offspring. As the sun dips low into the horizon, the unified humming of the hive falls silent as the remaining few honeybees who survived the slaughtering find their way to bigger and stronger colonies.
The Midas Touch of Death: Humans’ Role in Endangering Bees
In addition to invasive species, honeybees are constantly threatened by anthropogenic activities such as industrialization, the existence of monocultures, and the copious amounts of pesticides sprayed onto pollinating plants and flowers. With each passing day, forager bees scout out into the wide world with the intention of bringing an abundant amount of food back to their colony from pollinating flowers. They hop from flower to flower and inspect each one carefully before deciding to collect its pollen. One bee in particular landed on its favorite pollinating flower before coming to a brief stop. The buzzing bee dipped its fuzzy head into the flower’s petals before being bombarded with a scent that seemed strange and unnatural. In fact, it seemed that all the flowers of the meadow had this seemingly suspicious smell. As a result, it made its way back to the hive empty handed as did many other foraging bees. They all clamored in unison about how humans have been poisoning the plants, preventing them from collecting one of their major food sources. These poisonous toxicants are none other than pesticides and have resulted in cognitive and physical dysfunctionalities in the anatomy of bees. As farmers spray pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, and other chemicals onto their crops, this creates a rather poisonous setting for bees. Oftentimes, the chemicals from the sprayed substances “poison” the nectar and pollen contained in the flower, which can be lethal for honeybees. In fact, a 2019 study concluded that nearly forty percent of beekeeper’s honeybee colonies had been killed partly due to the usage of pesticides.
What Now?
Bees are in danger of extinction now more than ever before and we must continue putting forth our best efforts to save these remarkable creatures. One way that individuals can help revive these organisms is by planting their own gardens. Many foraging honeybees struggle to find food sources that are not contaminated with damaging chemicals; planting your very own garden with pollinating flowers is a great effort of providing the necessary food for bee populations to continue thriving. A couple examples of bee-friendly plants include lavender, thyme, cilantro, crocus, sage, sunflower, fennel, and much more. By providing the necessities of bees, we can ensure that these small but mighty creatures can continue doing good for humanity.
The world is forever interconnected and when humans seek to control factors that don’t necessarily need to be changed, it results in potentially devastating effects on organisms, as observed in bee populations. With only thirty more years to go until bees are predicted to go extinct, we must put forth every possible effort to protect these organisms. By doing so, it will ensure the prosperity of bee colonies and the lifelong buzzing melody of nature’s pollinators.
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