Honey Bees Extinction

http://graphs.net/honey-bees-declining-facts.html/honeybees-infographic

We cannot imagine life without the multitude of flowers, flowering trees, varied fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries or honey for that matter. Although, there are numerous pollinating insects but honeybees alone are responsible for approximately a third of the food we consume. Their pollinating power affects many levels of our ecosystem. However, honeybee populations have been in decline in the US. For many reasons, bee colony losses have been rapid, resulting in large number of colony losses. In Canada, the main reason behind colony death is the failure of varroa mite treatments through mite resistant to chemicals. On the other hand, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) continues to be a contributing cause in the decline of the honeybee population.

• 17%-20% of the average colony losses per year since the 1990s • 15% of losses during normal winter • 25% of losses due to without CCD symptom 4• 4% of losses attributed to CCD symptom • $15-20 billion revenue is invested annual on bees • 23% of US crops depend bee pollination -

Let’s Learn About the Honey Bee

http://whyy.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/74c22603-2715-46e2-b1da-564838fc3753/bee-haven-02-

research/

http://whyy.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/de9e66be-11e7-4e39-bbae-9e4b5e33b173/bee-utiful-bee/

Let’s Learn About the Problem with Honey Bees

http://whyy.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/2517bdfd-a370-46ed-b1a9-59e0e1b38483/2517bdfd-a370-46ed-b1a9-59e0e1b38483/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/17/opinion/spivak-loss-of-bees/

http://www.live.bbc.co.uk/nature/collections/p007rdq3

Neonicotinoids are a new class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine. The name literally means “new nicotine-like insecticides”. Like nicotine, the neonicotinoids act on certain kinds of receptors in the nerve synapse. They are much more toxic to invertebrates, like insects, than they are to mammals, birds and other higher organisms.

Neonicotinoid Pesticides

The main symptom of CCD is very low or no adult honey bees present in the hive but with a live queen and no dead honey bee bodies present. Often there is still honey in the hive, and immature bees (brood) are present. Varroa mites, a virus-transmitting parasite of honey bees, have frequently been found in hives hit by CCD.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)

Varroa mites are external honeybee parasites that attack both the adults and the brood, with a distinct preference for the developing brood. They suck the blood from both the adults and the developing brood, weakening and shortening the life span of the ones on which they feed.

Varroa Mites

• Malnutrition caused from the practice of taking the honey from the hive and feeding the bees high fructose corn syrup instead.

• Malnutrition caused from loss of habitat (urbanization, well-kept lawns, etc.)

Malnutrition

Bee Tracking

BBC News, August 2013

• A single bee can visit 1, 000+ flowers a day• A bee’s wings beat 200 times a second• Every year, bees produce 6,000 tons of honey in the UK• Honey bees fly up to 4 miles to collect nectar and pollen• Exposure to Neonicotinoid pesticides have shown to affect a bee’s

ability to navigate