![]() “If you were shoveling them, it probably would be about 30 scoops full of dead bees,” Peck added. Without knowing they’ve found a poisonous field or crop, bees travel back to their hives and make honey from the tainted pollen.īut Gunn said for all their work, they couldn’t save many of their hives in Valley Center. Many of the chemical concoctions - designed to protect crops from harmful pests, fungi and weeds - are fatal to bees. “What do you think would happen? Probably some things that are unintended and surely nothing beneficial.” “Imagine if you went home, took everything in your medicine cabinet - cold syrup, maybe leftover antibiotics, everything - and crushed it up in a blender and drank it,” Nieh said. Farmers, housing developers and homeowners use many different types of pesticides with diverse effects to ensure the greatest yield and diversity from crops and plants. The increase in food production coincides with a boom in human population and housing over the last half century. Nieh said his UCSD lab is focused on demonstrating how pesticides - even at very low concentrations - can be toxic to bees. However, scientists are taking a particular interest in studying man-made factors that may have also contributed to the steep decline in the health of bee colonies and how it can be avoided. Department of Agriculture.īienias says her organization of roughly 300 local beekeepers work together to teach one another healthy beekeeping practices, and to work with local farmers to pollinate crops and perform hive removals at homes and businesses. ![]() Roughly three-quarters of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators like bees - accounting for one in every three bites of food, Bienias said, citing a report from the U.S. The bees return to their hives with the collected nectar, transferring it between one another, mouth to mouth, to dry it out and make honey.īecause of their role in pollination, beekeepers can be brought in by farmers - who grow everything from fruit to nuts to the hay used to feed livestock - to help ensure they have thriving crops, according to Denise Bienias, a local beekeeper and vice president of the San Diego Beekeeping Society. When bees leave their colony and land on a flower or plant, they collect the flower’s nectar and pollen is transferred to the hairs covering their body.Īs they fly from crop to crop, they transfer pollen from the male parts of flowers to the female parts, ensuring that the plants produce seeds. ![]()
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