Support pollinator conservation

What's the issue?

Pesticides & Neonicotinoids

• Pesticides are a significant problem for honey bees and other insect pollinators. While often not the target of pesticide use, it threatens honey bees’ food supply and can even kill them on contact.

• Neonicotinoids are part of a special grouping of pesticides referred to as systemic pesticides, so called because they are absorbed through the root system and affect the entire plant structure, including the leaves, pollen and nectar.

• When bees and other pollinators eat and collect the nectar, the pesticide affects their nervous system, hindering their ability to navigate and fly and can often even result in death.

• When honey bees do manage to return home with pollen or nectar from a plant treated with neonicotinoids, they can put the entire hive at risk.

Crop monocultures

• Crop monocultures are the created by the process of converting large areas of land growing a single crop (e.g. wheat, corn, almonds, etc.). When the plant doesn’t require animal pollination (e.g. wheat and corn), these monocultures result in large food deserts for bees and other pollinators.

Varroa mites

• Varroa mites (Varroa destructor) are a parasitic mite originally from Asia and is a devastating problem for bee populations. Today, it is recognized as the most damaging pest of the western honey bee in the world.

• Varroa mites are relatively large (can be seen without magnification) and parasitizes both adult bees as well as their brood.

  • • The varroa mite life cycle starts when a female mite enters an uncapped brood cell before it is ready to be capped to go through metamorphosis.

    • When the cell is capped, the female mite chews a wound into the abdomen of the pupa and lays several eggs near the site of the wound.

    • The mite eggs will hatch, feed on the developing bee, mate and repeat the cycle while they original mite continues to keep the wound open.

    • If the bee survives to adulthood, it will chew through the cell capping allowing the mites to spread to other cells and spread the mites to other bees it comes in contact.

    • Since the reproductive cycle of the Varroa mites can grow to be exponentially quicker than the bees, treatment and intervention by beekeepers is required to save a colony.

• Today varroa mites can be found everywhere in the world that honey bees are except for Australia and a handful of isolated islands in the pacific.

• Apiarists (beekeepers) have been able to selectively breed for a specific trait called Varroa Sensitive Hygiene, or VSH. The VSH trait provokes worker bee offspring to search out and remove larva and pupa that have been infested with varroa mites. By removing the offspring at these stages, they disrupt the reproductive cycle of the mites and offset the exponential growth rate for the mite population. Thanks to the haplodiploidy nature of the western honey bee, 100% of the queen’s genes are passed on to drones, including the VSH gene. When the drones then mate with a virgin queen, they can pass on the gene to other honey bee populations.

Impacts on Human Communities

• Bees play the largest role in animal pollination. Approximately 75% of flowering plants require the help of an animal pollinator to reproduce. Insect pollination, including bees, accounts for about 35% of the food we consume – that’s about 1 in 3 bites of food.

• Today, there a number of crops that are heavily dependent on honey bees to produce a sellable crop including almonds, apples, strawberries, melons and many others.

What can you do to help?

• Avoid the use of sprays and pesticides in your own yard and encourage others to do the same. While these may eliminate mosquitos and other pests, they can have deadly consequences for bees. Instead, try natural repellents like citronella oil to keep unwanted pests away. If you must use sprays to treat your yard, use them earlier in day or late in the evening. Since bees only forage during daylight this will help to avoid harming honey bees.

• Plant a wide variety of native flowering plant species in any outdoor space you have available. Bees come in all shapes and sizes, so they need flowers that do as well in order to thrive.

• Do your research before you buy and make informed purchases. Some stores may sell plants that are already treated with systemic pesticides, such as neonicotinoids. These pesticides get absorbed through the entire plant system, poisoning the nectar that pollinators rely on, and can last for months or even years.

• Get involved with community conservation programs by helping to build a pollinator-safe community garden, joining a local beekeeper club to learn about honey bees and how to protect and care for them, and sharing what you know about bees and other pollinators with your friends and neighbors.

• If you see a swarm of bees, do not disturb or try to remove them. Instead, search online for an apiarist in your area who can remove the swarm and help them develop a hive somewhere safe. For Georgia residents, check the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association or Georgia Beekeepers Association websites.

Recommended resources for additional information

• Georgia Tech Urban Honeybee Project

• University of Georgia: Protecting Pollinators

• Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Updated May 2020