America we have a problem! Will the massive honey bee die off cause crop failure, famine and starvation?

Question

God help us!

This will affect everyone. The food supply will likely soon be gone as we know it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder
Colony Collapse Disorder - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Answer 1

Goodness, that must be a new species. Maybe it did already die off and I missed it- never heard of the massive honey bee before...

Answer 2

I doubt it, the population that survives the disease should spring back within a few years, especially with colony resources being already stacked up(ie honey already produced for a large population). So it should be fine.

As for your answer of pollination, bees are not the only pollinators. There's other insects that do it which aren't having a problem. So there will be some lower yields but it won't be a total failure, and no famine or starvation, just not great yields.

The thing to worry about I think is overspraying of pesticides. Pesticides kill off bugs, good and bad, and some bugs are pollinators, and they get killed off. Especially with spraying to try to fight mosquitoes because of West Nile(which by the way only shows symptoms in 2% of people, and kills even less). Now especially with a shortage of bees, there should be a limit on pesticides to prevent further killing of bees and other insects or else the yields will be even less.

This whole disease may actually be good for the bees in the long run, as people see the use for them, and maybe we'll spray less pesticides especially around pollination season, in order to help save them.

Answer 3

The honey bee extinctions are an excessively truly and critical drawback. There appear to be 2 elements which might be at play. One is poisons and different insecticides. As bees acquire pollen from crops they're settling on up poisons and bringing them house wherein it contaminates their meals provide. The moment and extra pervasive drawback is that the so referred to as killer bees, which don't produce honey, are infiltrating honey bee colonies, and spoiling the gene pool. Some authorities are pointing to different issues in bee ecosystems, however evidence of those different claims is sparse at quality.

Answer 4

that is likely, if they really die out.

they pollinate a lot of flowers. usually they have to visit millions of flowers to make one small jar of honey. in the process they pollinate many including those of our crops. so in their absence if pollination doesn't take place that would reduce the production of the plants and will ultimately lead to crop failure. followed by starvation, famine..................

but a massive extinction of all species is unlikely, since they are reared for honey. and these do fly around different places to collect honey. and bees are also very adaptable.

Answer 5

Albert Einstein speculated that "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left."

As a beekeeper, I can tell you that this mystery of the colony collapse is very worrying.