By Ruby Ramaker
Honeybees are critical to our environment and us. Their population is fading. Honey bees pollinate flowers, fruit, seeds and vegetables. If they go extinct, then these plants will go extinct, and so on. Our world needs them to function. For example, we plant a seed that grows and turns into an apple tree. The apple tree starts to flower and the honeybees come and pollinate the flowers so they can turn into apples. We may pick them and eat them, deer might pick them off the tree and eat them too. Many different living things eat and survive from this tree mainly caused by the honeybee. The honeybees help feed all of those living things.
After the honeybees pollinate each of those flowers on the apple tree, they use that pollen to pollinate more flowers and other plants. The honeybees also use their pollen to feed their larva so they can turn into bees, too. If we remove the bees we cannot and any other living cannot eat any plant that needs to be pollinated by bees. Honeybees are very critical and we need to save them.
Some reasons the honeybee population is fading are the pesticides and fertilizer we give our plants. Most pesticides and fertilizers harm honeybees, birds and other insects. Pesticides kill honeybees instantly once a bee touches any plant that has pesticides on it. You might think stopping using pesticides will prevent this problem, but it doesn’t. One, it will cost a lot of people’s jobs, money, and your plants, too. Second, pesticides stay in our environment for years. Honeybees might take some pollen that has pesticides on it from a year or two ago and might carry it into the hive, which will stay in the wacks for years to come, killing more bees in the hive. Fertilizer does not kill the honeybees but distorts floral cues that attract bees to flowers. This would cause fewer plants to get pollinated and the honeybees are to spread and get less pollen.
You might also think that bees are scary and they will sting you. I know from experience that honeybees only sting you if they think you are a threat. There is a role in the colony called the guard bee. They will guard the entrance of their hive against any threats. If a honeybee comes up to your face, they are checking if you are a threat. In this situation, the best way is to turn away from the hive or the bees and walk away. They might follow you for a bit but they will leave you alone. If you flail your arms and run they will consider you a threat and sting you. They do not sting for fun, they sting only if there is a threat. The reason why they don’t sting you only if they think you are a threat is because when they sting they die. If they sting and die their body will send a hormone to the other bees so they can come and protect their hive too. The hormone is released by a gland by the stinger, the gland is called the Koschevnikov gland. This hormone is called the Alarm Pheromone; they say it smells like bananas to the bees.
There are lots of other causes of honeybees deaths, like mites, but pesticides and fertilizer bring the most harm to the honeybees. When the hive is weak it is easier for the other living things to take over. The bees are extremely important to our environment and to us. Please remember and recognize these honeybees. Please keep aware of what you are putting into our environment.
Ruby Ramaker is a student at Chatfield High School, and one of 15 area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 26th year.
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