Buzz Off

It really is incredible to think that right now as you read this millions of bees are flying from their hives, but many of them will never return and no one knows just where they have gone. It sounds very strange when you think about it, and many people just ignore this but the numbers are staggering. Well over a million different bee colonies every year are dying because the workers fly away and never return.

For over 15 years many of the world's top scientific minds have been scratching their heads in order to solve this mystery. There however have been three interesting studies that are all looking in one direction at a cause for this CCD or Colony Collapse Disorder.

In truth the culprit is one that many have pointed the finger at in the past. Neonicotinoids which is a class of pesticides. Most of the USA that uses these pesticides are supplied by a German company called Bayer. To give you an idea of how much these are used around 142 million acres of various farm lands are coated with neonicotinoids. It is also widely used in many home's as a gardening product.

Research last month has shown that while the bees are making their way round various flowers that because the plants absorb the neonicotinoids which then is passed onto the bees through pollen. It acts as a nerve poison and this is the key as to why millions and millions of bees never make it home. The poison disorients the bees and evidence suggests that they severely damage the bees homing ability. Which is why so many of these black and yellow guys simply get lost trying to find the way home. A further study at the prestigious Harvard School of Public Health was able to fully recreate Colony Collapse Disorder just by using a small does of neonicotinoids in a few different honey bee hives.

This however is only one of the factors that are leading to the vast disappearances of honey bees. The fact that many bees habitats suffer destruction and fragmentation of various land development projects really takes away a large portion of the little guys natural food supply. This along has lead to the extinction to many different species of wild bees.

While many people are ignorant to the plight that honey bees all around the world are facing, the effects of this could be absolutely devastating. You could go as far to say that the loss of bees could be as impactful as climate change to the way we live on earth.

It is not too late to put the breaks on and try and fix some of the damage that has already been done. Some countries such as Germany and France have put a stop to any one using any kind of pesticide that has been proven to have a negative effect on bees. It really is not too late we need to start thinking of bees as working with as opposed to simply being little creatures that work for us.