Bees have a very important role in our ecosystem. They have played a major part in helping man survive in more ways than we know.

What we are aware of is that they are the ones that produce the savory sweetness called honey we buy at supermarkets. Other than that, we see them as potential stingers which must be avoided and screamed at whenever one goes near.

Albert Einstein emphasized in his entire genius mind how bees affect our existence, that without them we will not survive 4 years on this planet. Bees are fundamental in agriculture. They are the basic pollinators which help the plants reproduce and make the kingdom Plantae flourish. Yes, there are many insects out there which are more effective in pollinating. But honey bees are best known for their ability of not disrupting the normal life cycle of the bee family because they move their colonies in such a distinct pattern.
Honey bees, you may not have noticed, have decreased alarmingly in population. They have been faced with many threats to their survival which should concern us since we are directly affected by any change. Some of the threats to honey bees include parasites, diseases which are commonly transferred between colonies and other known predators. Over the last 15-20 years they have been found to have decreased in population and this posed a major threat to our agriculture since crops needed their natural pollinating capability.

Researchers all over the world tried to find solutions to the arising problems of the most important pollinators in the world. They found out other reasons for the bad decline in the bee population. These include habitat disturbances and degradation, increased disease transmission, environmental pollution, the use of pesticides which have some chemical content and other predators of honey bees. The bees’ habitat plays a vital key to their survival. With the advent of industry growing today, natural sanctuaries are difficult to find. More so, climate changes affect their existence. There is also a grave decrease in the flower industry which is the most important factor in the survival of these species. Bees need flowers to pollinate and collect nectar from to produce honey. Honey is stored for their larvae to feed on and they keep this in their beehives for the winter season. Thus, without flowers, there would be no honey; no honey, no bees.
Mites are known to be one of the killers of bees. The tracheal mite which lodged and reproduces inside a bee’s trachea kills the bees. They send thousands of bee colonies into mortality. Good thing that mite control has been discovered, but if feral colonies are left untreated, they eventually die.
There is also an external type of mite which is called the varroa destructor. It sucks out the blood of the honey bees which weakens and kills colonies. These types of mites originated from Asia and there has been no control found out over these.

These are only some of the examples of the many threats to bees’ survival among other pests and predators in the ecosystem. What we can do is to manage our environment well enough and to be more knowledgeable about every species that help us survive.

We, human beings are but part of a vast linkage of life here on earth. If one chain of life is taken for granted, we are affected greatly and our survival is under threat.