Imagine $14,600,000,000.00 worth of food.

14.6 billion dollars worth of food seems like a lot, right? Well, it is a lot.

According to researchers at Cornell University, that figure represents the amount of food in the United States that depends on the Western Honey Bee for its existence. I guess that would make the Honey Bee a pretty important little animal.

The population of U.S. Western Honey Bees living in the wild has dropped around 90% in the past 50 years. They are in trouble, and because this Honey Bee is such an important pollinator for crops off all kinds across the country, it looks like trouble for us, too.

To a certain extent, beekeepers can counteract this phenomenon, called "pollinator decline." Unfortunately, the amount of colonies under human management has dropped as well (by about two-thirds). In 2005, American beekeepers had to import Bees for overseas for the first time since 1922.

While these are big percentages and significant changes, most of the American public is unaware of them. This is because the beekeepers who still operate are migratory, meaning that they take their hives on the road to whatever farms and orchards are in need of pollination. For now, this keeps American agriculture on track, but if beekeeper migration were somehow suddenly stopped or reduced, we would feel these deficiencies in a brutal way.

This is what makes Colony Collapse Disorder so frightening.

Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, is an mysterious disease that results in the complete and sudden elimination of an entire colony of bees (usually 50,000 to 70,000 individual insects). It is linked to the massive decline in the North American honey bee population, and its effects have been even more pronounced in 2006-2007. You may have read about it in the news or heard about it on NPR. So far, it has been limited in scope to Western Honey Bees living in the US and Canada.

The causes of CCD are so far unknown, and under heated debate by the scientific community. The leading theories involve such diverse agents as harmful pesticides, nutritional or environmental stress, and an HIV-like immunosuppressive virus.

CCD isn't the only threat to Honey Bees, either. Common bee parasites such as mites and the small hive beetle, and diseases like American Foul Brood are prevalent in America as well. With all of these forces acting together, there can be no question: Honey Bees are in danger, and so is the balance of the ecosystem that relies on them so heavily.

The situation is not hopeless, however. Africanized Honey Bees, commonly known as "Killer Bees," are flourishing in the southwestern U.S., and seem resistant to many ailments that are killing off their Western cousins. While they are more aggressive than other types of Honey Bee, they are also good honey producers.

For the layperson, there is only so much that can be done, but there is one important thing that anyone can do: communicate. By increasing public awareness about these issues, and by counteracting paranoia, fear, and the common perception of bees as pests we can all help to ensure their survival; and perhaps ours, too.

permanent link: http://www.kudzugazette.com/mar1207/bee.php