Bees: Where Would We be Without Them?

Wild+dandelion+in+Westsides+Prairie

Alexandria Tovar

Wild dandelion in Westside’s Prairie

Bees, are small, fuzzy little creatures who devote their lives to work hard to make honey, but is that all that they do? Without bees, our world would probably start to crumble at our feet. Some people believe that the fruits and vegetables that we find from farmers markets and grocery stores, come from someone who just planted a seed and took care of it. However, when we really look into it, all of our food is a product of a bee’s pollination. And while yes, a farmer does play an important role to growing our food, bees are a vital part, helping the plant grow into a fruit, vegetable, or a flower.

After the farmer plants the seeds, little Honeybees fly around. They land on different plants: dandelions and tulips. In the center of the flower, there are pockets that hold pollen. As the bees stand on the flower, their little legs slip into these pockets to pick up the pollen in the flower. Then they fly around and distribute the pollen throughout the environment. Imagine, without the bees helping the plants pollinate, our grocery stores would have half the amount of products we have now. Which means we would struggle to maintain the world population.

The world’s bee population is starting to deteriorate due to pesticides, habitat loss, climate change, and disease. Pesticides are commonly used in farming and even in our own yard to keep away bugs that eat up our plants and sometimes rodents. Habitat loss happens when an invasive species takes over, and sometimes that invasive species is the human race. We tend to go into areas where a lot of bees live and we just start to take over. Habitat loss brings in the idea of pesticides because when we see a beehive, we tend to spray something on it or try to hit it down. And while there are many other reasons as to why our bee population is decreasing. We could find more organic practices to make pesticides and design a bee sanctuary. So next time you see a bee happily buzzing around, think about the many ways a bee helps you as a person.