How Important The Bees Are

I have written on many occasions inspired by viewing Horizon documentaries on the BBC.

I have seen another one recently, that has given me much pause for thought.

Quite simply, it was about a phenomenon which is virtually global, and which may affect almost every human community.

Although for most people, this will come as some surprise. It is a problem that has been almost invisible, and although scientists are working hard to discover more about its causes, it is a difficult problem, and one for which a solution is not immediately obvious.

Perhaps by September of this year, 2013, a little more may be understood about what exactly is causing this problem.

There is research underway for which the results may become clear as soon as September.

The problem is Bees. They are just about the only insect species that provides an important source of nutrition for people, by way of honey.

But this insect is suffering numerous problems.

I had not quite appreciated the scale of the problem, nor indeed the significance of this tiny creature, so often perceived as a pest when we encounter it in our homes, or at a picnic.

But the truth was underlined in this documentary, when the staff at a television company were given for breakfast one morning what they would be able to eat if there were no bees to pollinate crops. Food items that we simply take for granted.

Such as milk, any kind of fruit, virtually the only staple that we would be able to grow in any quantity would be wheat.

Almost everything else is pollinated through the intervention of the bee.

Perhaps the most significant obvious problem is the virus that is affecting hives throughout the Western world, thanks to a small mite that spreads the virus.

Once it affects a hive, it can often spell disaster, with complete colony collapse.

The cause of the problem that infection with this virus causes is not obvious, and there may be other issues that are causing difficulties for the humble bee.

Changes in agriculture seem to be the most likely culprit, so that it is far more difficult for bees to find sources of pollen from which the bees manufacture honey, that supports their colony, as well as providing this most nutritious food.

One study of pollination using students armed with paintbrushes indicated that the financial cost of what bees undertake as part of their life cycle free of charge indicated a potential cost of almost £2 billion for the UK economy alone.

And the practicalities of this are not without significant problems in themselves.

It may be that the virus interferes with the sensitive means by which the bee navigates across large distances to find its source of food.

Or the complex ways in which the bee communicates with other members of its colony.

Studies of the way in which these tiny insects travel large distances to gather pollen have involved actually replacing tiny antenna unto them, so that they can be tracked by radar systems.

Some of the weedkillers regularly used in modern agriculture, particularly the neo- nicotinoids, may disrupt the capacity for bees to be able to return to their hives.

The only encouraging sign within the program was the fact that hives placed in urban centres seem to be flourishing, only adding to the mystery as to why these insects are suffering such problems.

And indeed many of the wild species of bee, as distinct from the cultivated honey bee, seem to be suffering less of a systematic virus problem.

But this is a serious problem.

And yet another occasion when the lifestyle that we take for granted in the modern world must be questioned as to whether it is sustainable, on a planet where it seems every life form has some interdependency with every other, and human communities are beginning to grow unsustainably, dependent upon a lifestyle which seems to create as many problems as it solves.

It is ultimately humbling to think that something as small as a bee could be such an important factor in the creation of food in nature.

I look forward with some trepidation at hearing the results of study is underway, which may perhaps/some greater light on the causes of this particular problem.