Eli5 I just saw a meme that said bees are necessary for our existence. How does one species affect all human beings?
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We can all help by planting more and not mowing everything down for them. I have a few bee houses in my yard, for solitary bees, they don’t sting. You can make them and hang like birdhouses. Poor bees….. bats, too. Little nuggets.
A huge number of plants don’t have dicks, they have flowers. They need to have sex to produce seeds which sprout in a fruit which is delicious and hence carried away to other parts of the land where more baby plants can grow. Bees carry the semen of the female part of the plant to the male part of the plant or to another male plant since plants cannot move. Hence Bees are crucial. Actually everything is crucial to ecology as it’s “balanced” and we humans are just a tiny part of it.
Others have explained the how, but I thought it’s worth pointing out that there are more than 20,000 species of bees, not just one.
It comes down to the sheer number of plants bees pollinate every year. Sure, other animals/insects and the wind pollinate plants, but bees are critical for fruits and vegetables.
While dandelions are included in those plants that bees pollinate, those plants that humans rely upon for produce are dependent on bees.
Humans could survive, probably, but there would be unforeseen ramifications that affect other species in the ecosystem.
We can all help by planting more and not mowing everything down for them. I have a few bee houses in my yard, for solitary bees, they don’t sting. You can make them and hang like birdhouses. Poor bees….. bats, too. Little nuggets.
Others have explained the how, but I thought it’s worth pointing out that there are more than 20,000 species of bees, not just one.
It comes down to the sheer number of plants bees pollinate every year. Sure, other animals/insects and the wind pollinate plants, but bees are critical for fruits and vegetables.
While dandelions are included in those plants that bees pollinate, those plants that humans rely upon for produce are dependent on bees.
Humans could survive, probably, but there would be unforeseen ramifications that affect other species in the ecosystem.
One answer: pollination.
Most plants have evolved to reproduce via pollination. Basically, if you want fruits, vegetables or any sort of plant life, you need an insect that will go from flower to flower, dispersing pollen. Some plants use flies (looking at you carrion flowers you sick f***) but most plants use bees (or a subspecies of bees).
So no bees, no pollination, no pollination no plant reproduction and just the death of most ecosystems. And the collapse of our food supply. That too.
Consider where you got the information: A meme.
You’ll see many comments saying “Bee’s pollinate crops”. This may be true for some niche crops, NOT “35% or more”.Most crops are self pollinating or wind pollinated.
Top 10 crops in the world:
1. Sugarcane – wind pollinated
2. Maize – self pollinated
3. Rice – self pollinated
4. Wheat – self pollinated
5. Oil palm fruit – actually pollinated by a weevil known as Elaeidobius kamerunicus
6. Potatoes – self pollinated
7. Soya Beans – self pollinated
8. Cassava – Wild stuff is pollinated by insects (not only bees) , wind, and rain, agriculturally raised varieties are manually pollinated by farmers (sticky stamen, easy to pollinate)
9. Sugar Beets – Wind Pollinated
10. Tomatoes – Self Pollinating
Literally none of the top 10 crops rely on bees, and only 1 somewhat uses them, and it uses tons of other insects too and also the wind.
Bee’s are cool and all, and pollinate a lot of things, but crops are not them. If we relied on bees to pollinate crops we wouldn’t be able to farm stuff in large quantities.
Others have explained the how, but I thought it’s worth pointing out that there are more than 20,000 species of bees, not just one.
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