S7 E6: 100 Seconds to Midnight: Bees and the Environment

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Hey, Murder it is. I'm
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focus on lesser known cases. We
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science. Hello, and welcome to
Cause of Death one hundred seconds to midnight.

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I'm your host, Jackie Morante.
Bees pollinate about a third of the

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fruits, nuts, and vegetables that
we eat every day. There are about

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twenty thousand bee species in the world, and four thousand of those species are

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in the US. More than two
thousand of the US species are in decline,

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and half of those are facing extinction. Today, I'm going to talk

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about bees and their importance as pollinators
and what would happen if they weren't around

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anymore. It's ninety seconds to midnight, and not only could several ecosystems fail,

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but we could face a critical global
food shortage we don't save one important

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pollinator, the bee. It sounds
pretty dramatic, doesn't it. Something as

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small as a bee could cause a
global food shortage if it ceased to exist.

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Ecosystems could fail, the sky could
fall. Okay, so the sky

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won't fall, but yes, the
rest is true. Ecosystems could fail and

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there would be a global food shortage
without bees. I want to introduce some

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of the native species of bees from
around the world before we get started.

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The smallest bee in North America is
the Perdita minima. They're found in the

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desert southwest. They're solitary bees that
build very small nests in the sand.

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These bees are small, but they're
mighty. They can pollinate as many plants

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as bees three times their size.
U says. Giant bee is the largest

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bee species in the world. They're
roughly the size of an adult's thumb and

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can be found in the rainforests of
Indonesia. They nest in active termite mounds

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found in trees. This bee is
very rare and deforestation is threatening its existence.

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Wallace's giant bee was recently seen on
an island in Indonesia in twenty nineteen.

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It had been assumed that Wallace's giant
bee was extinct since the sighting before

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this was in nineteen eighty one.
The cutest bee can be found in Australia.

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It's called the teddy bear bee.
These are carpenter bees, so that

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means they're amazing pollinators. Those are
just a few of the bees that exist

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in the world and keep the food
chain going. Pollinators of every species bring

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life where there would otherwise be none. They pollinate several kinds of plants that

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wildlife depends on for food sources,
from cacti to fruit trees. Insects and

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mammals alike depend on pollinators to survive. Bees move from flower to flower,

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collecting pollen on their bodies. When
they collect from a male flower, they

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transfer that pollen to the female flower, and this is how plants survive.

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Pollinated plants produce seeds that they drop
on the ground, producing more plants.

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Sometimes those seeds provide food for other
animals like people. According to the USDA,

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about seventy five percent of the world's
flowering plants and roughly thirty five percent

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of the world's food crops depend on
pollinators to reproduce. But agriculture isn't the

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only place where bees are imperative.
They're also vital to plants that produce half

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of the world's oils, fiber,
and other raw materials. Plants that prevent

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soil erosion and plants that decrease carbon
emissions. Bees themselves produce essential food sources

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like honey, royal, jelly beeswax
propolis, and honeybee venom. Bee keeping

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has become an important source of income
in many rural areas. The western honeybee

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is the most widespread managed pollinator in
the world. There are more than eighty

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million managed hives that produce about one
point six million tons of honey every year.

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Now, bees are suffering from colony
collapse disorder. This is when most

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worker bees flee the hives, leaving
behind the queen and a few nurse bees.

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Without the worker bees, the social
structure of the hives collapse and the

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bees die. Suburban development, monoculture
or farming industries, and road construction are

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contributing causes of habitat loss in bee
populations. Structures like these keep native flowers

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from growing and the bees can't find
enough nectar to eat. Climate change is

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another factor. The shifting weather patterns
and temperatures alter the distribution and the flowering

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times of plants, giving shorter periods
of growth when the bees can harvest nectar.

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This makes life challenging for the bees. They either have to travel farther

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to find food, or they have
to rely on the few plants that survive

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in their neighborhood. Of course,
pesticides are killing off bees and droves.

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One type of pesticide, known as
dionic cottonoids, stay in water, plants,

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and soil for months. While these
pesticides don't directly kill the bees,

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they impair their immune systems, delay
development, and undermine their ability to navigate

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and reproduce. Several European nations have
banned the use of neonic continoids, but

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the US still uses them in abundance. Here in the States, the twenty

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eighteen Farm Bill was passed by Congress. This bill included accountability for agricultural industries

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to use pesticides responsibly and limit development
projects in wild areas. The Trump administration

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changed the Endangered Species Act regulations so
that wildlife areas could be freely developed,

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and the restrictions on neocontinoid pesticides were
lifted in protected areas. I'm just going

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to let you percolate on that.
Air. Pollution is also a factor.

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Pollutants interact with the scent molecules released
by plants. Bees use these scent molecules

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to locate the nectar that they need
to survive. This makes them less able

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to forage efficiently, meaning that they
become slower and pollinate less. Many bee

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keepers import animals that have been mass
bred and transported to their hives. These

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bees carry pathogens and parasites that are
also killing off the native bee populations.

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Two of these diseases are deformed wing
virus and a parasite called Crithydia bombie.

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I'll talk more about crithydia next season
when I talk about parasites. For now,

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just know that Crithidia bombie is a
parasite that affects insects and is killing

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off many species of bees. The
US isn't the only country in the world

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where bees are becoming endangered. In
two thousand and six, many countries in

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Europe were reporting colony collapse disorder.
Ireland revealed that they had lost up to

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f fifty percent of their bee colonies. Native vegetation is becoming replaced by roads,

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lawns, non native gardens, and
industrialized agriculture. This not only affects

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the bees, but other native animals
that live in those habitats. We've replaced

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ninety five percent of our natural plant
systems with things that are foreign, and

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this upsets the balance between the animals
and the plants they need to survive.

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Safe bee habitats include all the resources
they need like pollen and nectar sources,

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nesting sites, and shelter. Native
bee species have coevolved with the plants that

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are native to the areas they exist
in. Native plants have adapted to the

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climate, soil, light, and
water conditions in their regions. As more

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and more on native species of plants
replace the native fauna, the bees and

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other native creatures lose their habitats.
So what would happen if the bees cease

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to exist? Well, the human
race would continue to survive, but there

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would be drastic changes in the things
we eat. The first thing that would

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go would be honey. Honey would
cease to exist. No more royal jelly

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either. You can't have those things
without bees. I mentioned that many fruits,

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vegetables, and nuts would disappear.
Coconut oil, almond oil, canola

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and sesame oil would all be gone. Chocolate, coffee, peaches, almonds,

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tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, apples, pumpkins, melons, vanilla,

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and many other things that are so
dear to my heart would disappear. Potatoes

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and carrots don't rely on bees for
pollinations, so they'd still be around,

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but there would be less of them. Dairy would also be gone. Cheese,

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ice cream, milk, yogurt all
gone. Dairy Cows eat alfalfa,

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and alfalfa is pollinated by bees.
Dairy cows are also a source of beef,

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so a huge chunk of that would
disappear from the grocery stores. There

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would still be pork, goat,
and chicken, but steak would be off

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the menu. Without these staples in
our diets, many would suffer from malnutrition.

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Scurvy would be rampant without natural sources
of vitamin C, and humans would

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lack other vitamins and minerals found in
fruits and vegetables. And you know what

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else, Bees pollinate cotton. Not
only would we lose clothing options, but

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we'd lose bedding, diapers, and
toilet paper. All those things have some

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blend of cotton in them. Yeah, we'd still have synthetics, but even

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those resources would be limited. If
the bees weren't around. We would have

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to pollinate the plants ourselves. That
would become our full time and a half

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job. One person can't hand pollinate
enough plants in a day to keep themselves

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fed, much less the entire global
population. There are a few countries experimenting

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with robots and drones as pollinators,
but they're not as fast or as good

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at it as the bees. Pollination
sounds so easy. You take a little

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paintbrush and pick up some pollen from
the male plant and then put it into

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the female plant, No problem,
right, It's a bit more complicated than

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that. How do you tell a
male plant from a female plant? And

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then which part of the plant do
you take it from? And what part

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do you give it two? And
how do you keep from destroying the plant

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that you're trying to pollinate? Hand
pollination fails more than it succeeds unless you're

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really good at it, and I'm
not. I've tried. It's much easier

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to let nature take its course.
Ultimately, if there were no more bees,

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people would be competing for food sources. Food would become so expensive that

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many would die of starvation. There
just wouldn't be enough to go around.

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Let's take a break to hear from
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talk about some histories in ways that
we can help native bees thrive and survive.

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So there has been a lot of
buzz about the honeybees becoming extinct.

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But honeybees are thriving. Their numbers
are way up. That's good news,

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right, except they're not nativebe species. Native bees are the ones we need

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to worry about, like the rusty
patched bumblebee. In twenty seventeen, the

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rusty patched bumblebee was added to the
long list of endangered species. So what

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can we do to build a native
friendly bee Habitat first thing is feed them.

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Everyone loves to eat, including the
bees. Choose plants and flowers with

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a variety of shapes and colors,
and choose plants that bloom at different times

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of the spring and summer. The
most important thing is to choose plants that

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are native to the area that you
live in. First of all, they'll

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be easier to grow and the native
pollinators will love them. Seventy percent of

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the world's bees live underground. They
need bear mulch, free well drained soil

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in a nice, sunny area to
create their nests. If you must put

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down mulch, use compost or leaves
rather than would bark, and keep the

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mulch layers really thin, no more
than a half inch deep. After the

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flowers in the garden die, don't
trim them to the ground. Trim them

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so that the cavity nesting bees can
move in and lay eggs. Leaf flower

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stems up through the fall and winters
so that migrating birds can eat the seeds

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in the spring. Trim those flowers
so that they can provide homes for other

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bees like mason bees. Trim them
to anywhere from about eight to twenty four

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inches high. And lastly, don't
use pesticides. Native species are built for

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the regions they grow in, so
they can deal with the pests on their

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own. Remember that pesticides not only
kill the pests, but they also kill

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off anything that you want to keep
around, like the bees. If pesticides

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are an absolute must, choose something
that's targeted to the particular pest you're trying

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to get rid of, and use
something that's organic avoid applying any pesticide to

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the blooms of flowers or directly on
the ground. This all sounds pretty simple,

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right, These simple things will not
only help native bees, but they'll

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help other pollinators too, the bats, the butterflies, and the birds.

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We depend on all of them to
eat. So let's talk about a little

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history just so you all understand how
dependent we really are on bees. The

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practice of keeping bees has been around
for centuries. The first evidence of honey

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hunting comes from a cave painting in
Spain that dates back to fifteen thousand years

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ago. Many wild hives are found
on steep cliffs, so the ancient honey

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hunters would have to work as teams
to climb the cliffs, using ropes for

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descent, and ultimately finding honey.
These people were not necessarily bee keepers,

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they were honey hunters. The painting
depicts a woman hanging on a rope ladder

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on the side of a cliff,
reaching into a hive to gather honey.

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Early honey hunters would sometimes knock the
hives out of trees, essentially destroying them.

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Then they would run or be lined
out of there until the bees calmed

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down. After that, they would
come back and harvest the honey from the

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hives. They also knew that fire
and smoke would deter bees, so they

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would carry lighted torches to keep the
bees away from them while they were harvesting

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the nests. This was not a
sustainable way to harvest honey. The bees

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would often be killed before the honey
was harvested. Many times this was done

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by holding a piece of burning sulfur
to the opening in the hive, suffocating

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the bees inside. Once the bees
were dead, the harvesters would break open

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the hive and collect the honey.
Ten thousand years later, the Egyptians would

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write about organized beekeeping. It's thought
that beekeepers would transport the hives in large

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pots up and down the Nile to
follow the blooming flowers and warm weather.

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The Egyptians kept bees in natural settings, like hollow trees or logs, so

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that they could imitate the natural settings
that the bees would nest in. Honey

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was a luxury in ancient Egypt,
and would often be included with other treasures

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at burial sites for royals. Soon, the practice of beekeeping spread from Egypt

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to Greece and Rome. The Roman
poet Virgil wrote guides to beekeeping. The

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Spanish took beehives with them when they
discovered South America during the seventeenth century.

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George Weller, an English clergyman and
travel writer, described his experiences in Greece,

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where the hives had removable frames so
the honey was easier to harvest.

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Thomas Wildman wrote a treatise on the
Management of bees in seventeen seventy. In

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this book, Wildman gave guidance on
hive building that prevented the killing of bees.

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It included a skeep with an open
top and a woven removable lid.

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He also developed hanging frames, which
provided structure for the bees to deposit honey

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rather than building a free form structure. This design also prevented harm to the

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bees by allowing for stacked steps,
and it also provided a new space for

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bees to migrate after filling the first
step. Ultimately, this allowed beekeepers to

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harvest the honey from the skeep that
was filled without disturbing the bees. In

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eighteen fifty one, Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, known as the father of American beekeeping,

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improved upon Wildman's design. He found
that by allowing only one centimeter of

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bee space between the scips, bees
would refrain from building bridges of comb and

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propolis between the structures. This allowed
beekeepers to remove the frames without destroying any

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structures that the bees had made.
This helped the bees and the keepers.

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The bees were happier that their hives
were not being destroyed, and the keepers

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could more easily monitor their bees for
problems. Langstroth also replaced the woven skips

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with wooden boxes in eighteen sixty three. Charles Dedant found that using larger boxes

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increased honey production. He noticed that
after mating, the bees didn't want to

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move up the stacks of skeeps to
lay their eggs. They wanted to lay

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eggs in a single box. Ddant
found that by making the boxes larger,

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the queens could lay more eggs.
This meant there would be more worker bees

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available. His design gave the queen
plenty of room to lay the maximum number

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of eggs since the box was deeper. In seventeen fifty, the role of

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bees as crop pollinators was first recorded
during the nineteen hundreds. This became a

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practice in the US in the nineteen
thirties. Denmark began renting bees as pollinators

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to farmers for their crops. Today, fifty percent of bees are transported to

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California to pollinate crops, particularly almond
trees. Ancient Egyptians learned to use bees

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wax to embalm their dead and seal
the coffins. They used beeswax in their

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writing instruments and in skin creams and
healing ointments. The Chinese, Egyptians,

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and Greeks made candles out of beeswax, and these candles were preferred at religious

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sites since they didn't have any other
elements in them. Many bee hives were

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found in ancient monasteries and abbeys.
Now, beeswax is used in soaps,

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creams, and other health products,
not to mention food supplements and candles.

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Today there are bumper stickers, t
shirts, and other merch out there proclaiming

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that we should save the honeybees.
But as I said earlier, the honey

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bees are doing fine. Colonists brought
the first European honeybees to North America sometime

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around sixteen twenty two. These bees, which were referred to as the white

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man's flies by the Native Americans,
spread westward with the colonists as they moved

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across the country. As large scale
farming took hold across the country. It

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took habitat away from the native bees
and other pollinators. The use of pesticides

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led to a severe decline in the
populations of native bees, resulting in declined

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pollination. The solution was to truck
the honeybees that the colonists had brought so

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many years before and have them pollinate
the crops. This is how honeybees became

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known as the best pollinators. But
while the best pollinators in North America are

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indeed bees, they're native bees,
not honeybees. In fact, honeybees are

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more of a problem when it comes
to saving bees or pollinating. Here's why

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native plants need native bees. As
I mentioned earlier, native bees co evolved

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with native plants. The native bees
have adapted behaviors that make them better pollinators.

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Let's talk buzz pollination for a second. This is when a bee takes

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hold of the flower and shakes the
pollen loose. Large bodied bumble bees do

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this, and they're really good at
it. Honey Bees lack this sort of

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behavior. In fact, honey bees
are really subpar pollinators. Honey Bees groom

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their pollen and make it all nice
and neat and form little cakes out of

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it. This makes it less likely
to contact the part of the plant that

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needs to be pollinated. They're also
known to be nectar robbers. They access

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the nectar through the base of the
flower by biting a hole in it and

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never come in contact with the pollen
at all. Native bees dive right into

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that flower to get that nectar.
They carry pollen as dry grains all over

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their bodies. Then they move on
to the next plant where they can dive

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in and leave the pollen where it
needs to be. One single hive of

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honeybees can mean that fifteen thousand to
fifty thousand more bees are competing for food

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in an area that may already be
lacking in flowering plants. This means that

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the native bees have to work harder
to find food. One study on honeybees

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calculated that over a period of three
months, one single hive collects as much

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pollen as could support the development of
one hundred thousand native solitary bees. Honey

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Bees spread diseases to the native bees, then those bees bring the diseases back

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to their hives. We've talked about
this and we'll talk about it more next.

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Thea and urban honeybee hive densities are
far too high in most areas.

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A recent study from Montreal showed that
the number of species of native bees declined

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as the number of honeybees increased in
that area. The London Beekeepers Association found

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that some parts of London had as
many as four times as many hives as

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the cities, gardens and parks could
support. Bug Life is a conservation organization

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00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:40.839
dedicated to saving many species of insects
and they recommend that five acres of habitat

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should be created for each hive.
That's a lot of land for one hive.

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And this is why when it comes
to the extinction of bees, it's

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not the honey bee that should be
concerning. It's the native bees that we

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risk losing. And when it comes
to plant survival, the native bee is

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a much better pollinator. It's ninety
seconds to midnight and one third of our

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00:30:17.759 --> 00:30:22.319
food supply is in danger of becoming
nonexistent if we don't start taking care of

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our most prominent pollinators. Thank you
so much for listening to Cause of Death

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00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:34.039
one hundred seconds to midnight. Check
the show notes for ways you can help

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00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:40.640
the native bees in your areas survive
and Thrive. If you love the show

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00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:44.200
and would like to contribute, there's
a link to my Patreon page where you

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00:30:44.240 --> 00:30:49.960
can get several cool incentives like ad
free listening, and early release. Yes,

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00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:55.599
I'm also working on bonus content too. My day job has been a

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00:30:55.640 --> 00:30:59.079
little crazy lately, so it's been
taking up a lot of my time.

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00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.279
Hopefully it'll calm down soon. There
are also links in the show notes to

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00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:11.519
my sponsors. This month's sponsor is
Easy Melts. I really love their vitamin

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00:31:11.640 --> 00:31:15.119
choices, so if you're thinking of
getting yourself on a vitamin regimen but can't

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00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:19.920
stand the thought of swallowing a bunch
of pills, check them out. Not

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00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:23.960
only do I look forward to taking
my vitamins every morning, but I feel

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00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:30.680
so much better now that I'm on
a healthy regimen. This is the second

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00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:34.880
to the last episode in this season. The season finale is going to address

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00:31:34.960 --> 00:31:41.000
the nuclear arms race and what it
means today. I thought that would be

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00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:45.240
a fitting end to a whole season
one hundred seconds to midnight episodes. It'll

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00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:51.400
also fall right after, if not
on the day that the Board of Atomic

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00:31:51.519 --> 00:31:57.519
Scientists announces the movement of the doomsday
clock for this year. Should we be

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00:31:57.640 --> 00:32:04.400
worried about nukes again. Thank you
for listening to Cause of Death one hundred

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00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:08.799
seconds to Midnight, where in two
weeks you'll find out if the nuclear threat

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00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:14.880
is really a threat. Until then, keep the bees in your life buzzing,

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00:32:15.119 --> 00:34:07.279
and support those pollinators in in