WHAT WE GET WRONG ABOUT SAVING THE BEES

You've raised an important point about the honeybee doomsday scenarios often highlighted in the media. While it's true that honeybees play a crucial role in pollination and food production, the focus on them can overshadow the plight of many other lesser-known pollinator species. These lesser-known species also contribute significantly to ecosystems and agriculture, and their decline could have far-reaching consequences.

The decline of honeybee colonies in the U.S. is indeed a matter of concern, as it can affect crop pollination and agricultural productivity. However, it's essential to recognize that the issue is complex and multifaceted. Factors contributing to honeybee declines include habitat loss, pesticide exposure, diseases, climate change, and more.

When discussing pollinator conservation, it's important to broaden the conversation beyond honeybees to encompass a wide variety of pollinator species, such as native bees, butterflies, moths, bats, and other insects. These species often have specific ecological roles and are crucial for the overall health of ecosystems.

Efforts to protect and conserve pollinators should take into account the diversity of species and their unique needs. This includes preserving natural habitats, reducing pesticide usage, promoting native plant species, and raising awareness about the importance of pollinators beyond just honeybees. By adopting a more holistic approach, we can better address the challenges facing pollinators and work towards maintaining a healthy and resilient ecosystem.

when someone says b there's a good

chance your mind jumps to the honeybee I

kind of consider them a Gateway B

because it's the bee that's in all the

illustrations in our children's books

and they're really cute Sarah cornballth

is a field researcher at the American

Museum of Natural History where we shot

this interview

she studies bees if you look at them

under the microscope their eyes are

fuzzy as well as all of their bodies

they typically have stripes that are

there's either like a darker color which

is sort of a dark brown or black and

they're also sort of like either an

orange or a lighter brown color Crystal

Hickman is a community scientist and

photographer who specializes in bees

honeybees are kind of where I started so

that was my Gateway B these insects are

so important to agriculture that they've

been declared the state insect in 17 U.S

states

yet they're not native to the United

States settlers actually brought

honeybees here in the 1600s which is why

their full name is European honeybees

Farmers kept honeybees for wax to make

things like candles and of course honey

well it might be hard to think of an

insect as domesticated that's exactly

what they are they're essentially farm

animals closer to a chicken or dairy cow

than any wild animal over the years as

farming change so did the role of the

honeybee many farms today look like this

acres and Acres of the same type of

plant that needs to be pollinated at the

same time thousands of honeybees can

make that happen they can overwinter in

mass and then be ready to collect pollen

and nectar the next spring as soon as

plants start to bloom they are hungry

and they are ready and so honeybees

became a vital gear in a billion dollar

industry

today about a third of all the food

Americans eat come from plants

pollinated by European honeybees

we're talking 15 billion dollars worth

of crops things like almonds apples

broccoli cranberries you get the point I

hate filming in public I look like such

a creep

with so much of our food supply on the

line obviously everyone was more than a

little concerned when around 2006

beekeepers started reporting massive

Colony loss and there are a few reasons

for this one is the pesticides that we

put on plants which can poison the bees

another is disease parasites or mites

even the stress of being transported

around the country can be a contributing

factor over the years demand for

pollination services from honeybees has

continued to rise and the fees for those

Services has more than doubled since

2004. so it's no surprise that everyone

quickly rallied behind a cause at saving

the European honeybee but saying save

the bees and using a honeybee as a

representative is like saying you want

to save the birds but using a chicken as

representative these are domesticated

animals we're caring for them their

populations are not globally threatened

from a Global Perspective despite losses

in some countries colonies are up 80

percent since the 1960s essentially

honeybees support a billion dollar

industry that in turn supports them they

have more than enough attention and

money thousands of other bee species do

not

most of what you know about bees is

probably based on what you know about

European honeybees because of our long

and close relationship with them

now forget all about that so there's

over 20 000 species of bees in the world

and the United States that number is a

little over four thousand and so many

look nothing like the bees we picture

like Orchid bees with their super long

tongues and iridescent colors or this

parasitic cuckoo bee with bluish

markings from Africa and these stylish

looking leaf cutter bees found in the

western U.S

some of these bees are as small as a

grain of rice others can be bigger than

a quarter but what's probably most

surprising is ninety percent of native

bees in the United States don't live in

colonies or hives they're more likely to

be solitary burrowing in Wood soil or

plant stems and of the ones that are

social unlike honeybees native bees in

the U.S don't overwinter as a colony the

next year's Queens are the ones that

will overwinter and all of the current

Year's bees the workers and the queens

and the drones the males will all die

once the weather gets cold and none of

the ones in the U.S produce actual honey

but they're still really important

native bees are estimated to pollinate

80 percent of flowering plants around

the world many of them like bumblebees

use a method called Buzz pollination

which is when bees vibrate their bodies

in order to shape pollen free European

honeybees can't do this but a lot of

native species can and it's vital for

plants like tomatoes eggplants and

peppers if we look at just the United

States native bees pollinate an

estimated three billion dollars worth of

food and we're quietly losing them

with so many species it's hard to say

exactly how many Native bees are

disappearing but individual species are

definitely declining one assessment

found that 50 of leaf cutter bees and 27

of Mason bees are considered at risk

other estimates say that one in four

American bumblebee species in the U.S

are threatened and may be at risk of

Extinction

just like honeybees pesticides are often

to blame but the way we Farm hurts them

too one of the main reasons for their

decline is land loss grasslands where

many Native beasts Thrive are being

rapidly destroyed across the country

often to make way for farmland

Iowa and Illinois for example lost over

99 of their natural Prairie Grass

landscape over the last two centuries

mostly to agriculture this means there's

less diversity and fewer native plants

for Native bees to feed on and then when

honey bee hives are brought in to

pollinate that farm they crowd out those

limited resources they have like about a

two mile range so they'll actually

spread out to if there are native areas

around they'll spread out to those areas

as well and will actually out compete

the native bees for resources there's

also the effects of climate change fires

and drought which can wipe out native

plants and change Bloom times as the

number of native bees continues to

decline we're still not entirely sure

what a world with fewer pollinators

might look like it definitely would not

be great if you think about The

Disappearance of native bees it

coincides with the disappearance of

native species of plants native soil

microbiota everything that eats bees or

everything that eats pollinated fruits

or sea seeds or nuts we're talking about

the loss of everything that depends on

pollination in the food web but native

bees just don't have the same attention

or funding as their domestic

counterparts

the answer is not do away with the

non-native honeybee that would be

catastrophic native bees on their own

can't replace what honeybees do on the

farms that we've created but the better

option for everyone may be to opt for

more B diversity by limiting pesticide

use and attracting these native insects

to our homes and Farms so we see that

when you have not just honeybees but

also native species present you do have

more complete pollination in the fields

you know a zucchini or a cucumber is

curving because not all of the seeds

have been fertilized so the more

complete your pollination is really the

more symmetrical and wonderful and big

your fruits can be that means embracing

what we

is messy

it's messy so I think people need to

kind of look at their yard as part of an

ecosystem of course all of this can help

a honeybee too but saving the bees

doesn't just mean saving our domestic

celebrities but saving a diverse

spectrum of wild pollinators that don't

need us to raise them as much as they

just need us to leave things be

one of the biggest threats to bees and

other pollinators is a class of

pesticides known as neonicotinoids the

good news is they're already banned in

Europe and bills are slowly working

their way through the U.S New York just

passed the birds and bees protection act

which bans the use of these pesticides

except when using them on invasive

species and nationally there's a bill

called the saving America's pollinators

act it's been introduced but as of the

making of this video it's still stalled

in Congress.