Not all of us know the importance of bees in our lives and the nature's cycle. Bees not only produce a delicious healthy honey, but also are the main pollinators of the planet. Bees feed on nectar and pollen. Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. Most pollen is used as food for bees’ larvae.There are several types of commonly known bees on the planet:
Honeybee (general pollinators);
Western honey bee;
European dark bee;
Killer bee (also known as Africanized honey bees);
Bumblebee;
Carpenter bee (known for making their nests in hard surfaces like wooden materials);
Mining bee (they are solitary bees and build their nests underground).
In reality there are about 20 thousands different species of Wild bees.
Bee pollination is important both ecologically and commercially, but the decline of the numbers of wild bees has increased the value of pollination by commercially managed hives of honey bees. While honey bee numbers are increasing, the numbers of wild bees are decreasing. The reason why the wild bees are more important than the honey making bees is because wild bees are the main and most important pollinators.
The wild bees are mostly solitary and are specific at pollinating certain plants, which makes them better than common honey bees. What requires about 10’s of thousands of regular honey bees to pollinate, it only takes about 100’s of wild ones to accomplish. Basically, nature has designed the bees in such a way that they are great at pollinating their specific plants, something that would require less manpower (bee-power in this particular sense). For the past decade, almost a quarter of wild bees’ species has vanished. This in return, has already affected nature and its cycles.
What is the main problem behind the decline of Wild bees?
The answer to this question isn’t simple and many factors contribute to the problem. Some of them are overuse of land for industrial agriculture, exceeding the use of pesticides and chemicals on the crops, continuous loss of natural habitat, and increased mass farming of honeybees. Honeybees are not the actual problem or a main danger for the wild ones. The main problem here is the way farmers use honeybees to pollinate. They simply are not designed for the task and their continuous overuse as the main pollinators puts the wild bees at risk. Not to mention that the use of pesticides affects the bees in general, bringing their numbers down on both wild and domestic ends. Also, the need for food resources isn’t taken into consideration. The large amounts of honeybees use all the flowers around as food source, not leaving enough for the wild bees.
What is the solution? What can humanity do to preserve the wild pollinators?
The answer as well as the problem is multidimensional. Indubitably, it has everything to do with non-organic agriculture. People around the world should reduce chemical treatments and focus on organic / natural growing solutions. If humanity continues to overuse chemical substances on crops, it soon can severely influence the world ecosystem and affect food supply. In many ways, the answer is connected to the way industrial agriculture aggressively uses land to yield crops. Ideally, reduction of commercial land use in favor of small sustainable farming can help decrease the loss of wild bees. And last, planting some suitable plants in our own backyards and leaving it for the wild bees to pollinate will help sustain them.
For the last fifty years humanity has lost its connection to nature, forgetting that everything in it needs balance. We simply cannot ignore any longer the signals that our own planet sends us. I hope that all of us find the right approach for our needs, leaving nature unharmed. I also hope that people can live happily and joyfully in balance and harmony with their own selves.
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