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     It all starts when a single apis mellifera chooses the perfect, brightly colored flower.  Once it lands, it instantly starts working hard to collect tiny grains of yellow dust on its furry legs.  It then flies on to the next flower, where it lends its hard earned pollen to the stigma; thus, the plant is now fertilized.  Of course, the apis can’t call it a day quite yet.  It will continually repeat this process for the majority of its 7 to 8 week lifespan. Humanity owes it to this tiny creature for allowing agriculture as we know it to exist.  In fact, without the apis (and a few other bee varieties) to fertilize nature’s food sources, humans may have never evolved at all.

     Of course, there has to be something in it for the bees. Conveniently, pollen serves double duty as the sperm in a flowering plant’s reproductive cycle and as the primary sustenance for pollinators.  For millions of years, pollen has been constantly evolving into the best possible fuel for bees to accomplish the tedious task they are responsible for, and today it is a bee’s only natural food source apart from sporadic doses of nectar.  Pollen is also necessary to nourish young bees and build the population of the colony.

     It is clear that the relationship between bees and flowers (known as a symbiotic one in the science world) is the best kind there is: one where both parties mutually benefit.  And as long as this relationship continues, humans will rely on it.  Unfortunately for us, signs point to a serious threat in this seemingly flawless cycle. This threat has many different names and theories behind it, but the implications are the same: bees are disappearing, and frankly, we don’t know what to do about it.

      One theory suggests that the bees are flying off to find nectar for their colony, and are simply getting lost on their way back. This seems unlikely, since bees have a mechanism in their brains which will steer them home as long as they are in 1 to 2 miles of their hive. Bees have been pollinating and finding their way back for millions of years, why would their hardwired instincts suddenly begin to fail them?  It seems to me that theories based on gradual developments in technology, industry, and agriculture are more plausible.  After all, North American apiculturists (beekeepers, in plain English) just began to notice a significant drop in the number of bees in 2006, when the term “colony collapse disorder” was created to warn Americans that they may have a serious problem on their hands if bees continue to vanish in such large quantities.

In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, scientists have noted the increased use of antibiotics by beekeepers, certain pesticides, and even electromagnetic radiation from cell phones, to name a few.  There are also theories about the bees losing their battle to mites, fungus, and other pathogens. Of course, the disorder could be attributed to a muddled combination of several of these factors. One theory in particular suggests that mites transmitting deformed wing virus to the bees combined with bacterial infections are lowering the bee’s immunity and contributing to colony collapse disorder (CCD).

     Another theory is concerned with the bee’s diet, which has certainly evolved over the years.  In the winter months, when there is less pollen and nectar to go around for the bees, apiculturists figured out they could use high fructose corn syrup and/or pollen substitute to feed the bees cheaply and efficiently.  This was noted as a possible cause for CCD, but was disregarded when scientists concluded that bees were disappearing all year round, not exclusively in the winter.  On a broader scale, researchers suggest that giving the bees any single food source for an extended period of time (a monoculture diet) is detrimental to their health. In winter, this may be high fructose corn syrup, while in the summer the bees may only have access to a single crop to pollinate.  Either way, their food is limited and highly controlled, a stark contrast from how the bees would exist in nature without human interaction.

     Theories regarding this scientific mystery continue to arise, but none have offered a successful solution to the problem.  Many Americans may overlook this seemingly inconsequential issue, but the reality is that bee industry gives us almost a third of our food.  The problem we face if the number of bees continues to decline is nothing short of an epidemic. There simply won’t be enough agriculture to feed over three hundred million American mouths, let alone the rest of the world. 

     In 2000, the U.S. crop value dependent on honey bee population alone was estimated to be more than $15 billion.  These crops include almonds (a huge industry in California), berries, apples, cucumbers, melons, and peaches (a heavily relied on crop for southern states.) Although there are other species and scientific methods that can be used to pollinate these crops, none are nearly as efficient or capable of what bees can do in mass numbers.

     Often times, we don’t realize that the loss of something as small as a bee could have such a large effect on our society. Colony collapse disorder should be a wake-up call for humanity, because it exemplifies what can happen if we continue to exploit our natural resources.  It seems that we have become almost fully detached from nature, to the point where we may end up starving ourselves.  Nature has become a business, and maybe the bees are on strike.