We keep receiving news about the decline in bee populations Environmental groups, knowing the importance of bees, do not stop in their eagerness to explain to governments how to protect them. Government institutions only ban some products that are toxic to them, while climate change continues to accelerate and there is less and less habitat for bees.
In this article on our site we will talk about the importance of bees for ecosystems and humans. We will also detail the reasons that are putting bees at risk, the benefits of their presence in the environment and much more.
What do bees do?
Bees are hymenopteran insects of the Apoidea superfamily, like other important pollinating animals, the bumblebees. The best-knownspecies of bee and important to humans is Apis mellifera., one of the types of honey bees. It is a domestic species used for the production of honey. In addition, the artificial hives are placed near the crop fields to favor pollination, being, perhaps, the greatest importance of beekeeping.
The use of pesticides, some of them already banned by the European Union, kill both these bees and wild ones. This has led to the creation of bees resistant to certain insecticides, causing them to be more resistant than wild bees and bumblebees, depleting their populations
On many occasions, beekeepers move hives to other crops far away from their original area. They are hired by farmers so that these bees pollinate their plants. This leads to the dispersion of diseases and parasites that mainly affect wild bee populations.
Importance of bees in the ecosystem
All bee species are important for the balance of the different ecosystems. We should not only worry about the domestic ones. In fact, thanks to bees, many species of plants are pollinated in forests, meadows and many ecosystems, causing the production of fruits that will serve as food for many Other animals.
Not all bees are social animals, in fact, many of the species are solitary animals. Some of them are even nocturnal, taking care of the pollination of plants that bloom at night. Finally, bees are the food of many birds and other animals. Some species, such as the bee-eater (Merops apiaster), feed almost exclusively on bees, although as an insectivorous animal, it can eat many other insects.
Benefits of bees
First of all, without the world of bees, many species of plants would not be able to reproduce, since no one would carry the pollen from one flower to another. Many of the fruits and seeds would cease to exist, including the plants that humans feed on. And not only us, the vegetables used to feed livestock would not exist either. This is the importance of bees in agriculture.
So what if there were no bees? Without their presence in our fields, we would have nothing to eat. A world without bees is a world without food Bees also produce honey, propolis, royal jelly and many other products. Foods highly appreciated throughout the world, with many benefits and uses, from food to pharmacology.
The disappearance of the bees
There is increasing evidence of the importance of bees and their role in feeding humans. This does not seem to be enough reason to look for a solution to how to save the bees In fact, the human being is the main cause of the decline of this species.
Bees are not disappearing for a single reason, it is a set of factors that are causing this situation. The first factor is the loss of habitat, the degradation of ecosystems or their total destruction or the substitution of forests and fields for crops. Another factor is the habitat fragmentation, this causes the genetic isolation of the different bee populations and consanguinity.
The invasive species also favor the disappearance of bees, due to the appearance of new parasites and diseases. The climate change, is also having a strong impact on bees, as well as on many other animal and plant species.
All these factors do not act independently, they are interrelated and one leads to another. All driven by a single animal species: the human being.
More on bees
The life cycle of bees is incredible, which is why more and more people are wondering how to make a hive of bees and contribute as much as possible to the increase in the population of the different species that exist, especially those that are critically endangered, such as Megachile cypricola or Bombus rubriventris.
If you are also interested in learning more about these fascinating animals, then we invite you to discover how bees reproduce, where we will explain the role of the colony in the birth of new individuals, or well how a bee becomes a queen, a true spectacle of nature.
