Each year, we read about honey bees in peril. The number of troubled colonies fluctuates, giving us hope in the good years. But in others, we carry on despite the devastation, hoping to get by, struggling to make ends meet.
We also hear of native bee calamities, often accompanied by claims that honey bees make everything worse. We’re told the honey bees spread disease and hoard nectar, which could be true, depending on the number and strength of nearby colonies.
In either case, we revisit the same problems, choosing one as muddle-of-the-year. We point to novel pathogens. Mites. Pesticides. Lack of forage. Climate change. We rehash the same theories over and over. Yet, despite heaps of research and healthy budgets, we find no durable solutions.
A problem bigger than bees
Honey bee losses are real. If we stopped propagating colonies at an extraordinary rate, crop production would suffer. And let’s face it, many of the surviving colonies are marginal, not as healthy as they should be. And as for native bees, their overall populations are plunging and their distributions shrinking. Some are approaching extinction.
Sometimes I wonder if we haven’t yet pinpointed the real problem with bee health. Perhaps a sinister but silent partner in crime worsens their problems. Could it be that both honey bees and native bees have a common enemy, something we know little about?
And let’s not forget the so-called insect apocalypse. Apparently, it’s not just bees, but insects of every description that are disappearing, collapsing, vanishing from the landscape. Could they all be suffering from a ubiquitous stressor? Why are butterflies, dragonflies, moths, leafhoppers, and stoneflies the world over dying too? Let’s think about that.
Plastic shreds everywhere
You can file this article under “wild speculation” and you won’t offend me. I’m simply thinking on paper here, asking questions, and wondering why bee losses don’t add up.
Three years ago, I wrote an article about microplastics and honey bees.1 Back then, I was concerned that plastic particles in the air were damaging the wings of bees. Bee wings are delicate and move at such incomprehensible speeds that crashing into jagged airborne trash could rip them apart, rendering them tattered and useless. I also worried about pathogens hitching rides on airborne particles, and wondered if bees were drinking plastic with their water. It all seems naïve at this point …
