It is spring, it hasn't felt like it, but it is still spring and summer will be here before you know it. And we all know from our school science and Biology classes that honeybees pollinate flowers and make honey. Have you noticed so far this spring that there are not as many bees out?
The researchers think this is happening . It is so bad it has been given a name called Colony Collapse Disorder. There are guesses such as bacteria, genetics, many different viruses, poor nutrition, habitat loss and the infamous belief it's pesticides.
Colony Collapse Disorder started in 2006 when honey bees just started to disappear. The honey bees are very important to our farm crops because they pollinate the foods we eat and 90 different flowers. Other insects pollinate some flowers and farmer's crops but it's most important that honey bees pollinate the crops they pollinate because they polinate 80% of the food we eat.
The Agriculturre Department and the Environmental Protection Agency gave a federal report this week that gave the reasons they think the biggest reason is parasitic mite varroa destructor and called the parasite , "the single most detrimental pest of honeybees"
The United States isn't the only country that has Colony Collapse Disorder. It is also prevalent in Europe . Europe has other ideas about Colony Collapse Disorder. The people of Europe want to ban a type of pesticide called neonicotinoids because European Environamental groups say that type of pesticide is the reason for Colony Collapse Disorder. The US is completely different in belief and said if they consider pesticide it is at the end of each list. Even though there is in the United States an environmental group calling itself Pesticide Action North America says the US should also consider banning the same pesticides Europe wants to ban.
When the environmental group said that about pesticides, a top bee researcher from the University of Illinois , May Berenbaum gave an interview that said if Europe and the US banned that type of pesticide said that there are more things than just the pesticide that could be a cause of death of honey bees, In fact, there have been a 100 or so different chemicals found in beehives of the dead bees.
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Diana Cox, a Penn State University expert on bees says there are many reasons for Colony Collapse Disorder and said, "And you can't parse anyone out to be the smoking gun.
Jeff Pettis who is a USDA researcher said that there is less areas bees can forage because of the waymodern farmers operate.
