“If we die, we’re taking you with us.”
It has been one of many slogans that have been drilled into us for almost our whole lives from everything from Honey Nut Cheerios’ #BringBacktheBees campaign of 2016 to the 2007 Bee Movie, as it has always been understood that bees are dying at an alarming rate. Humans and bees share an important symbiotic relationship, where without them, plant life as we know it would essentially be wiped out and humans doomed. However, what if I told you that this was just not true? In fact, the environment as a while would be a whole lot better if the bees just buzzed off, permanently. Now, first of all, honeybee populations are on the rise for like, the first time ever, and this truly is a positive news story.…show more content… It has become almost an aesthetic for teenaged girls, as without any prior research they just automatically accept that the bees are dying out and our ecosystem is destined for failure because of it. I know plenty of people who would be actually angry I was writing this, because they refuse to face the truth - because in fact, as surprising as it might seem, the Western honey bees (the species in which everyone is trying so hard to “save”) is not even native to North America. They are an invasive species that were first introduced back in 1622 when the European settlers brought them over. The Native Americans at the time even called them the “White Man’s Fly.” And, let’s be clear, they weren’t brought over for their ability to pollinate plants, but rather for their ability to make honey. Western honey…show more content… 75% of all crops require pollination, however the idea that honey bees are a critical part of this process in the United States is just a complete and utter myth. First of all, the black and yellow striped honey bees are not the only species of bee out there - there are more than four thousand species of bees who are actually native to North America, and more than twenty thousand species worldwide. The black and yellow striped species, known as the apis mellifera or the Western honey bee, is just one of the few. For example, we can take the Agapostemon genus of the bee family. These insects don’t make honey, and look almost nothing like the little yellow honey bees we are all so familiar with, but these little green guys are bees nonetheless. They’re known as sweat bees as well, because also unlike honey bees who get their nutrients by making honey from the nectar of flowers, these little bees feed from the sweat of mammals - which, yeah. Includes humans. So at this point if you’re starting to feel like you’ve been lied to your whole life about the specificity of bees, you kind of have. But, let’s rip that bandaid off entirely right now - bees aren’t just yellow and black, only very few species actually makes honey, for most bees stinging does not mean death, if they even sting at all, and those twenty thousand species of bees aren’t the only pollinators out there. Pollen wasps, ants,
