Page 10 - May-June 2017 Vol. 35 No.1

STATEWIDE By Chris Pianta
Protect Honey Bees in Tennessee

Ever since being introduced to North America in the 1600s - Photo above and below left by Barry Richards, Tennessee Beekeepers Association
by European settlers, the honey bee has become a critical
link in agriculture and an extremely important factor in food Above right, Chris Kinser prepares a hive and (below) one of his hives on a tree.
production. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
one out of every three bites of food we eat relies on honey
bees for pollination. Honey bees are estimated to contribute
over $16 billion to the U.S. economy via pollination services
each year. The value of crops in Tennessee that depend on
their pollination exceeds $119 million annually. In other
words, we need bees!

One recent study predicted that if honey bees were to go
extinct, more than 90 percent of the world’s plants would
be lost as well. The good news is that the honey bee is not
going extinct, yet. However, over the past dozen years or so,
a number of new and accumulating pressures are threatening
bee populations.

Since 2006, Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, has become
the generic label as the cause of declining bee populations.
Experts believe this phenomenon may be caused by a number
of interwoven factors such as global warming, habitat loss,
mite outbreaks and the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

Beekeepers across the U.S. lost 44.1 percent of their honey
bee colonies from April 2015 to April 2016 compared to
40.6 percent for 2014-2015, according to preliminary results
of a nationwide survey conducted by the Bee Informed
Partnership in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of
America, with funding from the USDA. The annual survey
asks both commercial and small-scale beekeepers to track
the health and survival rates of their honey bee colonies. As
the numbers reveal, the battle to save the honey bee is far
from over.

Since their introduction in the 1990s, neonicotinoids
have taken over the global insecticide market. In the U.S.,
neonicotinoids are currently used on about 95 percent of corn
and canola crops; the majority of cotton, sorghum and sugar
beets; and about half of all soybeans. They’re used on the vast
majority of fruit and vegetable crops and are also applied to
cereal grains, rice, nuts and wine grapes.

Neonicotinoids are one of the leading suspected causes of
the declining bee population, which led to their restricted
use in Europe beginning in 2013. Research has shown that
the pesticide can affect a bee’s behavior, including its ability
to collect pollen and its ability to navigate. In the U.S.,
companies such as Lowe’s Home Improvement have begun
to phase them out of their stores. However, bees aren’t the
only ones affected. Pesticides are harmful to other insect
species, earthworms and microorganisms that maintain
good soil health. Also, it is no surprise how much the
environment is affected by them as well. Pesticides can end
up in runoff, leading to our water systems, and pollute the
air that we breathe.

One of the other most significant causes of honey bee
decline is the Varroa mite – a parasitic mite that feeds on
the bees when they are developing in their cells. When the

10 TPW May/June 2017