It was a normal, peaceful Wednesday morning in Tuscon, Arizona. Four landscapers were called to tend to a yard for a ninety-year-old man. One of them turned on his lawnmower. Almost immediately, the vibration of its engine had disturbed an enormous hive of approximately 800,000 Africanized bees nearby. The noises appeared to be a threat to the colony. As a result, thousands of them swarmed the men, injected their venom, and clogged their orifices up, such as their ears and nostrils. There were so many bees that one of the first responders had described the sky getting dark from the flock, although it was sunny out. From this attack, one man died and another received one hundred stings. This one of the many examples …show more content…
It turned out that African alleles were more dominant than the European ones, which caused the changes. Impact on the Americas African bees back in sub-Saharan Africa did not have much of an impact on the organisms there because the conditions were harsh and the bees were heavily predated. The Americas are a different story. It is more densely populated than Northern Africa, and there are no predators of the bee here. Some of its direct effects include being of a hazard to humans and being too hostile. As shown previously, these bees can get very defensive of their colony and will instigate mass stings that can last hours. The bees can be fatal to humans once stung more than a hundred times or simply if the person is allergic to them. Furthermore, their hostility can have indirect effects on the economy. Africanized bees can affect the tourism of the southwestern U.S. states. People could be drawn away from the fear or getting stung by these violent bees. Additionally, their aggressiveness also forces beekeepers to spend more money on protective equipment to keep themselves safe from stings. A Race to Stop
There have been crestfallen decreases in the population of bees because of pests and of our pesticides. While you may hate bees because of their stingers, they are an enormous part of the pollination process. To be sure, one of the crops that depend on their pollination the most are the almond crops, these crops would go extinct without bees. Without bees, a lot of our prices would sky rocket. They help grow a lot of our food but all they get in response are the disastrous effects of our pesticides. In the interim, the sharp increase of bee-fatal pesticides isn’t getting any better. At the same time, the bees are subjects to the deadly varroa mites and colony collapse disorder. Simultaneously, bees are a huge help agriculture, without them we would be in a huge predicament. There would be as many of diverse crops because when bees pollinate , they cross breed plants at the same time. Then we would have to pollinate most of the crops. In effect, I believe that we should care about bees more. Like Albert Einstein said, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”
The presence of a bee generally scares people. So they swat at it, which makes the bee angry and defensive, which causes the bee to sting. Once the bee stings someone, it dies. Most people might think their death is a good thing. Unfortunately, various species of bees have been added to the endangered species list (Kennedy). Bees pollinate about 70% of the crops used by 90% of the world (What Would Happen) and as of February 2017, 10 million bees have died since 2010 ( Bennett). Bees need to be saved to ensure the Earth’s survival, along with our own.
This recent outbreak of widespread bee deaths is not the first depletion of bee colonies in recorded history, which makes the source of CCD less, rather than more
Bees are the reason we have jelly, fruit, nuts, coffee and so many other vegetation (Lecture 09/27). Without these creatures we would lose so much more of our biodiversity, which is already suffering from other anthropogenic actions. Our society has a habit of finding the most cost efficient methods to produce goods that please the consumers without considering all the consequences of these actions. More importantly, we do not recognize the harm that we have caused until the damage is outrageous and requires a solution. But, this problem cannot follow those footsteps because it is essential for our ecosystem to thrive. These solution would not only save millions of dollars by being proactive, but would allow us to sustain food sources, biodiversity, and the survival of
Their most tangible impact is due to their aggressiveness. When threatened, Africanized Honey Bees will swarm in great numbers and chase predators (or anyone who accidentally stumbles upon their nests). If caught, the victim of the attack will suffer a deathly number of bee stings. Along with harming human life, the bees also compete with other be species, and end up displacing native species. They are also very likely to breed with native species, resulting in more and more aggressive hybrid species, which are more susceptible to winter weather, more likely to abandon their nests, and worse pollinators. These traits that are passed down from Africanized Honey Bees are detrimental to the economy surrounding wax and honey production because they decrease honey
They are named killer bees because of the aggressive attitude they have. Their venom is powerful enough to kill a living creature if there are hundreds of them. Some beekeepers prefer africanized bees over normal honey bees because they tend to produce a lot more than honey bees. Some even call them the producers of ‘liquid gold’. The africanized queen can mate with both European and Africanized drones. Doing so makes some the produced queens Africanized and the others European. Because africanized queens leave their cells one day before the European queens they will kill the other queens. This will cause a what once was a European colony to become an Africanized colony. This can cause problems as Africanized bees are more likely to migrate if their food supply is low. They are also very defensive of their hive and will guard them with extreme aggression.
The article “Hivey Leaguers” discusses problems affecting the bee population in the United States ranging from chemicals and insecticides to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Colony Collapse Disorder occurs when the worker bees disappear from the hives, leaving behind the queen and the nurses to take care of the immature bees. This newly discovered threat to bee populations caused widespread panic in the entomologist community and lead to a race to find the cause, and the relative cure. Though this new disorder was a danger, the real bane of the bees was a much more sinister, and domestic, threat.
After the 1990s, the Africanized honey bees started shifting the honey industry in ways unimaginable to farmers. Because of their aggressive behavior, the Africanized honeybees is left alone. However, farmers cannot collect the same amount of honey as they use to. This hurts their business as farmers cannot keep up with the demand for honey. States who are fully colonized with the Africanized honey bee have created educational programs and control practices in efforts to protect people and other animals living in the same area these killer bees inhabit. States like California have spent $3.9 billion dollars on reduction managements and pesticides in order to keep the Africanized honey bee population down. From an environmental standpoint, these bees are pushing the common worker bee to the brink of extinction because of their dominance and overpopulation. Even though these bees change the environment in negative ways, their continuous, quick migration has positive impacts as well. Many Africanized honey bees pollinate flora ten times faster than your regular European worker bee and if tamed it could produce more honey than worker bees. These bees may be known as killer bees, but if we learn to tame them, honey farmers might have a chance at increasing their
Invasive species have a variety of impacts, many of which are unpredictable. The Africanized honey bee (also known as the “killer bee” in the media community or apis mellifera scutellata among scientists) provides an excellent case study of how even an intentionally introduced invasive species can become uncontrollable and problematic.
Swarming of a beehive is dangerous in a way that the bees are vulnerable to weather or predators. There are plenty of reasons for bees to die naturally, but it is also affected by the amount of beekeepers. Bees have also been being killed by farmers using pesticides to protect the fruit they sell. This either kills the bee or it makes the bee’s senses give false information. If the bee’s senses are disturbed the bee will not make it home and more than likely will die. Bees need their senses because they sometimes travel two miles from its hive to collect nectar and to pollinate plants. Patti Smith said, “I've said this over and over, but I'll say it a million more times - I'm concerned more about the death of a bee than I am about terrorism. Because we're losing hives and bees by the millions because of such strong pesticides,” (Web). In 1950 there was an estimated amount of 6,000,000 honeybee hives. Sixty years later, this amount dropped nearly 2,000,000 hives (Web). Bees are very important to life on earth and if people do not help bee populations thrive, there could be negative plant, animal, and human effects
Bees are very important to humanity and the world we live in because they provide the most efficient way to pollinate plants. Without them, wildlife would be greatly impacted in negative ways. The purpose of this research paper is to bring awareness and insight into the declining population of bees, how detrimental it is,the way it affects humans and nature as a whole. If drastic measures are not taken in a timely manner it will not be beneficial for our society. In the world, there are about 25,000 different types of bee species with about 4,000 in North America which can be then subdivided into nine families of bees(One Green Planet, n.d.). Bees help contribute roughly two hundred and sixty-four billion dollars to the global economy.
The Africanized honey bee (otherwise known as the killer bee) is one of the most aggressive honey-collecting insects in America. Unlike other bees, which sting only when absolutely necessary, the killer bee will attack any potential threats with the full force of its hive.
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has completed a study on colony collapse disorder titled Colony Collapse Disorder and It gives a list of what could be the causes of this. The three factors that are identified as the most critical are, “the stress bees experience due to management practices such as transportation to multiple locations across the country for providing pollination services, Increased losses due to the invasive varroa mite (a pest of honey bees), and Inadequate forage/poor nutrition”. If a hive is experiencing any of these factors it could completely destroy the entire colony.
What is usually the initial reaction of an individual that has been stung by a bee? Kill it. However, this go to reaction of many people is just one of the few ways adding to the obliteration of bees. Bees have been around for millions of years, and now within the past fifty years, bee colonies are dropping to staggering low numbers. This is a problem. All around the world, people need to realize that these bees are greatly under-appreciated workers and action needs to be taken to protect them. Our world is going to suffer both ecologically and economically if we continue to loose bees at such drastic rates, this is why such measures need to be taken in order for these bees to brought to their former glory.
Everyone panics whenever we hear bees swarming and buzzing around. Their ZZZZZ sound can make even the strongest and toughest man jittery. Unlike ants which you could just easily squish or mosquitoes that you could just swat away from your perimeter, bees are tougher and faster. You wouldn’t actually want to squish one because it might sting your feet. You also don’t want to swat them away because we think that if we aggravate them, they’ll just call their other bee friends.