One out of every three mouthfuls of food in the American diet is, in some way, a product of honeybee pollination—from fruit to nuts to coffee beans. And because bees are dying at a rapid rate (42 percent of bee colonies collapsed in the United States alone in 2015), our food supply is at serious risk.
Serious declines have been reported in both managed honeybee colonies and wild populations. An NRDC senior scientist says, "There are multiple factors at play. Each on its own is bad enough, but combined they are quickly proving too much to handle." There are four main things the scientist was referring to.
Pesticides are designed, of course, to kill insects. But some systemic varieties, specifically neonicotinoid, are worse for bees than others. Neonicotinoid pesticides commonly found in agricultural areas kill bees and hurt their ability to reproduce, two separate large-scale studies confirmed this.
Another factor reducing the bee population is loss of habitat. As rural areas become urban, the patches of green space that remain are often stripped of all weeds and their flowers, which bees rely on for food.
Climate change is often a controversial topic. Whether you believe in climate change or not, unusually warm winters have caused plants to shift their schedules. When bees come out of hibernation, the flowers they need to feed on have already bloomed and died.
Diseases carried by mites weaken bees. This makes bees more susceptible to pesticide poisoning. On the flip side, if bees are already weakened by pesticides, they’re more vulnerable to disease. It is not just one thing contributing to the declining bee population.
“The thing we can most control is pesticides,” says Orange Park Pest Control. Anyone with outdoor space—from a container garden to a large lawn—can create a pesticide-free, safe space for pollinators that will encourage native bees and other beneficial insects.
Orange Park Pest Control suggests purchasing plants that aren’t pretreated with pesticides by asking questions when shopping for seeds and flowers. Letting lawns grow a bit longer and leaving the blooming clover can help feed the bees. In the future, county and town ordinances can be passed to reduce pesticide spraying and corporations can be urged to stop making and selling neonicotinoids.
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For more information about Orange Park Pest Control, contact the company here:
Orange Park Pest Control
(650) 620-8928
South San Francisco, CA 94080
