The Last Flight of The Honeybees
By Dallas Green, Oct 9, 2019
By Dallas Green, Oct 9, 2019
There are many endangered species in North Carolina. One of them being the honeybees. Honeybees pollinate our crops, and help them flourish. There are fields of flowers dedicated to their hard work. Without bees, we wouldn’t have very much to eat. We would have food, but not a vast amount. We wouldn’t have all the beautiful flowers we have now. Valentine's Day would be lacking roses. If the honey bees aren’t pollinating our plants, then who will? Let’s not forget the fact there will be no honey. So many products will go out of sale if there is no honey. Products like May Lindstrom Skin—The Honey Mud©, UMA Ultimate Brightening Mask©, Queen Bee Organic Lip Balm©, Earth Tu Face Honey Coconut Mask©, Honey Taffy, Bee Wax, Mead/Honey Wine, etc. The sudden decrease in the honeybee population was not formally identified until 2006. At that point, the honeybee population had been declining for over fifty years. One of the reasons why the honeybees are endangered is because humans have been treating them like machines instead of living creatures. If we want the honeybees here to stay, we must respect their natural needs and abilities. If the honeybee population has dropped fifty percent within the last fifty years, imagine what it’ll be like in the next fifty years if we don’t take action. Start by planting flowers, or you can try to leave them be. They are our friends, not our tools. We may be one of the reasons why bees are going extinct, but we’re not the only reason. In 2006, researchers found a relation between devastated colonies and the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, which is carried by Australian bees. The genetic material was found in around 96% of the bees that were sick. The Australian bees aren’t affected by the pathogen because they're used to it. IAPV is just one of many pathogens killing off the bees. Scientist believe the causes of many of the pathogens are pesticides, and large-scale agribusiness monoculture (A.M.). In conclusion, we should cut down on pesticides, large-scale A.M., and we should treat honeybees with respect.