Who really puts the food on our tables? Is it the farmers, the grocery stores, or our parents? While all of these people may be key contributors, it is the honey bees who slave for our sake. However, the bee population is declining at an alarmingly rapid rate, and the environment may not reap the fruits of their labor any longer if the trend continues.

Sudden colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is the phenomenon in which worker bees leave the hive and never return, causing the ‘collapse’ of the beehive. The United States Department of Agriculture, or the USDA, describes it as a “serious problem threatening the health of honeybees and the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States”. However, CCD is not only prevalent in the U.S, but all over the world– the rapid demise of the bee population affects everyone, including EG students and staff.

There are many factors that contribute to CCD. AP Biology and AP Environmental Science teacher Krista Glosson notes the use of neonicotinoids, a common pesticide used on plants, as a key perpetrator. This damaging pesticide disorients and confuses the bees, rendering them unable to return to their hive. The bees never return, and thus the hives are abandoned.

In order to help the bee population flourish, many people have started home gardens; however, some tend to buy their plants from big commercial stores like Walmart and Home Depot, and those plants almost always contain neonicotinoids. Rather than helping the problem, they are unintentionally contributing to it.

“A lot of people are falling into the trap of planting these nice-looking plants that maybe have minimal benefits for these pollinators, and kind of getting away from these pollen-filled flowers,” AP Environmental Science and Biology teacher Stavropoulos said.

However, home gardens can hugely help if done correctly, so Glosson recommends planting bee-attracting flowers such as bee balm, phlox and Russian sage from seeds. She also recommends planting native prairie flowers rather than exotic flowers, as they are consistent with our biome. Honeybees could more easily locate and pollinate flowers in which they are familiar.

Other than pesticides, habitat loss (an obvious man-made atrocity) and bee-attacking mites, Stavropoulos points out another main cause of CCD. A virus called Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) is associated with 96 percent of the fallen hives. The correlation of IAPV and CCD was discovered in 2004, notably the same year the U.S largely imported honey bees from Australia. According to Stavopoulos, almost all of these Australian bees have IAPV and, while immune to its effects, are capable of spreading the virus to native bee populations.

This information is important to know year-round, but why? According to the USDA, one-third (33 percent) of colonies might not survive the winter, a trend that has persisted since 2006. According to Green Grens sponsor Steve Gordon, the Green Grens have had several discussions on the impacts and consequences of CCD: as a main pollinator, many food crops in the U.S will die out along with the bees, creating devastating losses for the economy and food production. Widespread famine may ensue, and the U.S’s starving population will significantly increase, resulting in malnourishment and death. Other consequences of CCD include reduced genetic diversity of remaining crops due to the absence of pollination, greater dependence on food imports from other countries and greater risk of inviting pests and other viruses into the country.

“We have to realize that many of these insects make up the lowest trophic levels of the base of a lot of our food chains,” Stavropoulos said. “If you were to cut that, there would inevitably be this domino effect that is going to take place.”

One of Stavropoulos’s favorite professors once told him to “Think globally, but act locally.” Part of the student body has already taken steps to help maintain the bee population. While Green Grens was not able to create a bee-friendly flower garden on campus (bee stings being a common allergen), they have instead planted flowers around campus that, according to Gordon, “allow for local bee populations to have a steady food supply and some expanded habitat.” Green Grens encourages staff and students to do the same around their homes. The EGHS Garden, located in the courtyard, will have fruits and vegetables growing in the spring that will attract some bee pollinators to the EGHS grounds.
What else could we do to help? Well for starters, we could refrain from killing bees when they land on our clothes. A bee sting hurts, but starvation hurts worse. Also, as a species of communication, we could spread the word like wildfire and ask for others to help reach out to the bees.

“We’re a very intelligent species, but one of the problems is just a general lack of awareness. Awareness is power, but a lack of is really scary,” Stavropoulos said. “So, what it’s going to take is people like you researching this issue and spreading awareness, making people more aware so they could take some of these individual steps to really help resolve the issue.”

With habitat destruction on the rise, commercial gardeners employing pesticides and tiny yet destructive viruses sweeping the nation, it is imperative that we take action immediately. If we save the bees, we save ourselves. As the so-called ‘father of biodiversity’ E. O. Wilson once said, “If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”