Research Paper

Bees

Everybody is familiar with bees in our world. They pollinate flowers to keep them alive, and help make products, such as honey. Bees are useful for many things, such as pollinating, honey making, and more. However, there is a problem with bees. Bees are endangered, and they are dying quickly. They die from many things, including starvation, mite infestations, and cold weather. If bees die, then many crops plants will die due to no pollination, which can cause even more animals to die due to having no plants to eat. This is obviously a huge problem, as more dead animals means that the whole food chain might eventually get messed up. Also, honey will not be made, which means that there will not be as much food, and honey cannot be utilized. Bees are very important to us, so we need to try everything in our power to save them.

Description

Bees usually go by the name bees, but their scientific name is known as anthophila. They have a body in the shape of an oval. They can fly up to speeds of 15-20 miles per hour, and can flap their wings up to 11,000 times a minute, despite having very small wings. They have a stinger which can be used for self-defense, but the bees tend to die when they lose their stinger. This is because part of their digestive, muscular, and nervous system are detached when their stinger is lost. Different types of bees have different life spans. Most bees live for around 2-3 weeks, but some bees can live for longer than a year. Most bees have the size of 2 millimeters or less. They have a black and yellow colored body. There are nearly 4,000 types of bee species in the wild (Cushman). Most bee colonies can hold up to 60,000 bees per hive. One worker bee can make an average of .083 teaspoons of honey. All hives have mostly female bees, as males only eat and mate (Hadley). Bees pollinate flowers to make honey, which humans use for products. Flower pollination helps the plants survive and not die. Bees are very sacrificial, and they are willing to do anything, including sacrifice themselves, to protect their queen and hive. Bees have a very complex social structure, which is used for communicating with each other.

Habitat

Bees live on every continent, except Antarctica. Bees live inside of beehives that they create. Bees usually live in gardens, tropical climates, heavily forested areas, and woodlands, where flowers are abundant. However, they can also live in domesticated environments. They keep their hive temperature at a constant state, ranging from 90 to 95 Fahrenheit. The habitats of bees are currently in danger.There are many reasons for this. A few of the reasons for the destruction of habitats are drought, nutrition deficit, air pollution, global warming, and plenty more. Another reason is winter. Bees cannot withstand the cold temperatures, and therefore, they die off. Bees usually lose from 5-10% of their hive population every year. Destruction of habitat is another problem. People and industries are constantly cutting down trees and destroying the habitats of bees. This leads to bees not being able to find a place to live, therefore, they end up dying off. Pesticides are another issue. Pesticides are used on farms to keep insects from eating them. One of those insects are bees, which get killed from the pesticides being used. One more reason for the high death rate of bees is a microsporidian fungus. This fungus affects bees, which is deadly. This causes a widespread death rate in the hives of bees (Stowe). Bees adapt to their environment. They use hair on their legs in order to store pollen. They have an electrostatic charge that helps bees attach pollen to their body. With these adaptations, bees can survive easier in the wild.

Diet

Bees usually eat nectar as their main source of food. They obtain their food by taking pollen to their hive. Then, they turn that pollen into nectar. They don’t hunt, but they search for flowers, which contain pollen, by roaming around the land. Once a bee finds a flower, they use communication skills to alert the other bees. They usually find food in packs, rather than alone. This helps them to better protect themselves from predators, such as bug-eating organisms. It also helps them to gain pollen faster, which provides them with more food. Bees communicate with each other to let each other know where they should go. They could tell each other where the best place to find pollen, or food, and remember where to go for later. Bees don’t have any large predators, such as tigers and/or lions. However, they have smaller predators that feed on bees and their hives. This includes animals such as skunks, hive beetles, and bears. Other potentially non-living predators, such as disease and parasites, also feed on and kill bees. There are very many diseases that could harm and kill bees, such as The Varroa Mite, and the Bee Tracheal Mite. These both feed on the blood larvae, as well as normal worker bees, as well. Another disease that kills bees is known as the Acute Bee Paralysis Virus. This significantly reduces a bee’s ability to collect pollen, and also make nectar from pollen for food. Although they may not be predators, they still harm and kill bees (Mayer).

Reproduction

Bees obviously need to reproduce to keep their kind alive. There are actually multiple ways bees can reproduce. One obvious way is through mating. This is done during Summer time. During the process of mating, new queens and males are created. The first thing a Queen Bee has to do is make a nest. Once a nest is made, the next process involves breeding. Drones are male bees, and the drone’s only purpose is to mate with a Queen Bee to help with reproduction. Once the eggs are fertilized, they begin to hatch. There can be as many as 40,000 - 60,000 female worker bees, and a few male bees. Queen Bees can make around 1,500 eggs per day. Once they run out of eggs for the season, they mate with another drone, or male bee. Once this mating occurs, the Queen Bee begins to hibernate for winter. The process usually ends here, and repeats itself over, and over again. Once the bees need a new Queen Bee, they can produce a new one. This is done by a somewhat-complicated process. First, the bees require young larvae that came from a fertilized egg. The larvae are fed with special food. By being fed this food, they can grow into sexually reproductive females. The food they are fed with is known as Royal Jelly. Finally, they hatch into Queen Bees. There is now a new Queen Bee for the hive. This process is simply repeated once the hive needs another Queen Bee (Anderson).

Issues

Bees are very important to our earth, and some species are considered endangered. Sixteen species are threatened, eighteen bees are endangered, and nine are critically endangered. Over the years, the population of bees has been going down, and down across the world. There are very many reasons for the death of bees. One reason is pesticides. Pesticides are commonly used on crops to prevent any bugs or insects from eating them before they have the chance to grow. This can affect bees, as sometimes, the bees will fly near them, and the effects of the pesticides will be placed on the bee. This, in some cases, can cause them to die, even in non-deadly doses. Another thing that threatens bees is climate change. Most species tend to rely on the availability of flowers, and the change of climates and temperatures can affect that. Sometimes, bees leave the hive, only to find that either all the flowers have bloomed, or no flowers are open (Are Bees Endangered?). One more thing that threatens bees are parasites and disease. Bee parasites are a bug or insect that live inside of a hive. They feed on, or suck blood out of, bees living the hive. This will usually kill the bee, and the parasite will continue feeding on the bees in the hive. Diseases are another major factor, as there are many deadly diseases that can kill or harm a bee. Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus is a disease that causes inabilities in a bee. These symptoms are known as inability to fly, and a bloated abdomen. There is no known treatment, so bees are defenseless against disease (Rusty).

Preservation Plan

There are many reasons why this species should be preserved. Bees are very important to us, and the food web. Bees pollinate plants and flowers, which certain animals need to eat. If bees were to go extinct, then nothing would be able to pollinate flowers and plants, which will lead to a downfall of food for herbivores. With a lack of food, this will cause herbivores to die off more, which could also affect carnivores and omnivores, as they eat herbivores. Eventually, too much damage will be done, and the whole food chain might be put at risk. Bees also create honey, which people and other animals eat and sell for money. Honey is also used in various foods, and without honey, humans will not be able to use it.

Some things are being done to try to save the bees. Governments have been banning, or trying to ban, pesticides that are harmful to bees. Some people have been growing and making habitats for bees, in order to help fight back habitat destruction. People could help by doing the same, such as not using pesticides, or by making bee habitats. Not all efforts are useful, but it helps to know that people are at least trying. If bees went extinct, everything would go terribly, as a massive support of the food chain will be removed, causing it to fall. With the potential extinction of the whole food chain, or even humanity, it’s better to try to save the bees, rather than let them die off.

Works Cited

Anderson, Charlotte. “How Do Bees Reproduce?” Carolina Honeybees, 2 Feb. 2021,

https://carolinahoneybees.com/how-do-bees-reproduce/.

“Are Bees Endangered?” Earth.com, 18 Mar. 2019,

https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/are-bees-endangered/.

Cushman, Elizabeth. “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Bees.” Student Conservation Association,

https://www.thesca.org/connect/blog/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-bees.

Hadley, Debbie. "15 Fascinating Honey Bee Facts." ThoughtCo, 26 July 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-honey-bees-4165293.

Mayer, Melissa. "What Are Some Predators of the Honeybee?" Sciencing.com, 22 Nov. 2019, https://sciencing.com/predators-honeybee-8151103.html.

Rusty. “Chronic bee paralysis virus” 28 September, 2011

https://www.honeybeesuite.com/chronic-bee-paralysis-virus/

Stowe, Irving. “Save the Bees.” Greenpeace,

https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/sustainable-agriculture/save-the-bees.