Honey Bee Decline Impacts U.S. Food Source

The demand for food crops pollinated by bees is on the rise, but a member of the bee family is in decline – the honey bee.
“Bee pollination is a quality of life issue, not a life or death issue,” said Keith Delaplane, an entomology professor at the University of Georgia. He gave a lecture on the honey bee decline and why it matters on Tuesday as part of the Wilson Center Science for Humanist Series.
To illustrate how much bees contribute to the variety of foods Americans eat, Delaplane examined the McDonald’s cheeseburger. Without bees, a customer would only be served the bread, he said. The meat, cheese, tomato, ketchup and pickle would not exist. Americans may be able to live off grain foods, such as bread, but such a restriction would be radically different from our current countless options of fruits, certain vegetables, nuts and soybeans, all of which are pollinated by bees.
“With improving diets, there must be pollination in the mix,” Delaplane said.
Delaplane studies the honey bee decline in Georgia. He contributes the decline to habitat loss and exotic parasites, such varroa mites.
Some people attended the lecture to learn more about the status of the decline and what can be done to improve the situation.
“I feel that the importance of the decline has been understated and will only become an issue when it is critical to our well being,” said Henry Parker, a University architect adjunct professor from Athens in an e-mail interview. Parker said he is interested in how bees are an integral part of our environment. He plans to become a beekeeper.
“It's one of many ways to be aware of your surroundings. An awareness of a different world that exists around us that is so fundamental to our food supply.”
In addition to pollinating food crops, honey bees are known for their production of honey. One bee hive produces about 100 pounds of honey, which can be sold for a profit, Delaplane said.
Although bees are at the top of insect pollinators, honey bees are generalists who do not faithfully return to the same flower to fertilize the female flower parts, and therefore are not great pollinators individually, Delaplane said. However, because they are social creatures, honey bees form colonies, which can provide hundreds of visits to flowers to get the job done.
The University received a grant of $4.1 million to investigate the sudden honey bee decline in Georgia in October 2008, according to a Red & Black article. Delaplane heads the research project. He said his research group is using the bee genome map to identify genes that give resistance to varroa mites. These pests, which rest on the abdomen of bees and on their larvae, first appeared in 1987. The bee industry never recovered, Delaplane said.
One way to help the honey bee population is to plant flowers that yield a lot of nectar and pollen, the two food sources of bees, Delaplane said. An example is the sunflower. Also, growing gardens with easy-to-access flowers and creating complicated hedges seem to attract honey bees.
A self proclaimed bee lover and gardener attended the lecture to learn how to stem the decline in bees.
“I love bees,” said Sharon Muczynski, a senior from Athens, in an e-mail interview. “I have a bee garden at home with plants that are popular with bees. I sit and watch them and their industriousness makes me happy. There are also certain plants on campus that I take breaks at and watch the bees.” She said she has noticed a precipitous decline in bee visitors to her garden during the last two years, which makes her sad.
“I would love to keep bees at some point when I am through with school and have the time to devote to doing it well. Right now I feed them with the flowering plants in my yard. I know my house has a big “x” on the bee map as a desirable location.”