Summer is approaching and that means there will be bees all around us. They get inside your cars, they sting you at parks, and they fly around your house. Bees can make a hive in your tree, causing problems for your kids. You might find yourself wishing you lived in a world without bees. Yes, bees can cause problems for you. Especially if you get stung, ouch! A world without bees would have far greater problems. Let’s go over the importance of bees so that the next time you get stung you can remember all the good they do.
What Bees Do for You
Take a look at your plate of dinner tonight. Typically, around ⅓ of it had the help of bees to get to your plate. Bees pollinate around 30% of the world’s crops, so the chances are high. Bees probably pollinated the fruit and vegetables on your plate. They also pollinate the food that animals eat. So if you’re having steak, potatoes, and broccoli for dinner bees helped grow your dinner more than you realize. They pollinated your broccoli. Then they helped pollinate the hay your cow ate to gain weight and go to the butcher house. Without bees, many of the food crops we enjoy would die off. A lot of your meat sources would have trouble getting fed as well.
Bees also give you honey and beeswax products. Because of bees you have honey, Honeynut Cheerios, and honey infused face masks. You have candles, chapstick, and lotion. The list goes on and on. One thing is certain, we need bees.
Image Source: Pixabay
The Dangers Facing Bees
Bees are facing many adversaries in today’s world. One of the biggest adversaries being urbanization. Cities will never stop expanding. With constantly expanding cities comes constantly decreasing habitats for bees. Trees are being cut down, grass is being dug up, and flowers are being mowed over. Habitats for bees simple aren’t a priority. Expanding cities are given priority over wildlife habitat. If this trend continues, there won’t be any place for bees to go. They will slowly, but surely die off.
Another adversary that bees are facing is pesticides. Most crops have some sort of pesticide on them to prevent bugs from infesting them. Bees are exposed to these pesticides and the effects can be harmful. It can cause a whole hive of bees to die. You will see dead bees all around their hive from overexposure to harmful pesticides.
We all need bees. It’s as simple as that. Bees create food for us, and give food to our food. Where would we be without them? Or fruit and vegetables would start dying, our animals would start dying, and all the products we use would be discontinued. Our lives have become very dependent on bees. We all need to take care of bees just a little more to be able to help them stick around. Yes, bees sting you. Yes, they fly around buzzing in your house. But without bees, all of our lives would be far, far worse. I think getting stung is worth having bees around.
Image Source: Pixabay