The Importance of Bees and Why We Need Them

BY EMILY MARTINEZ — Staff Writer

In the upcoming spring, flowers and crops will bloom with the help from bees. Over the years, bees have been having issues of population decline and diseases that harms colonies of bees.

What do they help make?

Bees are known to make honey in their colony and spread pollen to the plants, honey being the first important economic hive product. Beeswax is the second most important product in producing candles, cosmetics, drug carriers, etc. Since America is known to produce a lot of raw beeswax, it’s important to make in an economic view.

How are they being harmed?

As of now, a disease is currently going around called American foulbrood, a widespread bacterial disease. It destroys the bee colonies by infecting the larvae and pupa during brood development. They die when they’re in their uncapped cell, curled at the center. By then, the worker bees remove their corpse leaving the cell empty.

Why are they important to us?

Bees and crops have evolved around the globe. The bees were brought by European settlers. In 1622, honeybees came from England to the colony of Virginia. As of now, 90 crops in commercial production rely on pollination from bees. The food consumed in America come from one-third crops pollinated from bees. These include apples, almond, broccoli, cranberries, etc., and without them, the food would appear more bare.

How is it currently controlled?

The FDA has set out antibiotics in hopes to stop the spread of American foulbrood. Instead of killing the bees to prevent the spread of disease, beekeepers use the antibiotics to prevent any more bee losses. Unfortunately, it doesn’t completely destroy the disease since it only stops its spreading.

Bees are depended on for the U.S agriculture. Now with three antibiotics, beekeepers hope that more bees are to survive.