Disappearing Bees

The Bees Disappearing 

The humble bumble bee that you see in the spring time bopping from one flower to another in its daily routine is slowly diminishing. I remember catching them in a jar when I was young an examining them through the glass, pleasant looking insects with tiny little wings. The law of physics forbids this insect from taking flight but the humble bumble bee doesn’t take orders from anybody, and continues to fly around regardless. Even I have noticed, without paying much attention to it that their population has declined dramatically over the years. Where have they all gone one wonders.

There are many theories for their disappearance of all kinds of speices of bee but none could be explained, some reckon that mobile phones are to blame and the radiation from them are throwing them off which could be a liable reason because, in the early eighties when I was growing up the skies were abundant with the little fellows, not many people had mobile phones back then. These days everyone has a mobile phone and telecom masts are scattered around countries worldwide not leaving any safe haven for their populations to flourish. The scientists predict that phones could be throwing off their navigation systems leaving them disorientated.

Image via flickr

Another reason is mites, maybe they have been affected by little mites, causing them to stress out and get frustrated and confused, and ultimately resulting in the discovery of stress levels in the dying bees. This is a plausible explanation but not proven. As results prove over and over that stress levels are present in dying bees but we just cant put our finger on why.

Pesticides that are sprayed on crops are to blame in another study. Scientists are convinced in parts of the world that some pesticides that are being used are killing off the bees. In some parts of the world this is true but there are dead bodies to prove that fact. What about the rest of the world though where there are no bodies, it would seem that they are just not reproducing.

Image via flickr

Some people point the finger at global warming which in itself hasn’t been proven, okay the planet is heating up but its cooling down in other places of the globe. The carbon factor in our atmosphere is our fault but the global warming factor I’m not so sure. I read somewhere that the planet goes through a cycle just like back in the ice age, where it killed off the dinosaurs. Maybe the bees are more prone to the cold than other species and die off first but wouldn’t other similar species get affected too like the wasp. Again this is a good reason but with little knowledge that we have about them its hard to determine.