Since we have so many honeybees, why does it matter that native bee populations are endangered? I’m not sure if this is true, but bee predators don’t really care about bee species right? They just eat whatever bees they can find. And since bees all pollinate, shouldn’t it be fine that some bee species are dying out?
In: Biology
honey bees dont pollinate the same plants as native bees. For example figs. native bees can pollinate them, but honeybees can not (or atleast dont)
First of all, we don’t necessarily have that many honey bees either. Collapse is a very real threat and the population of honey bees is not guaranteed.
Even if we ignore that, not all bee predators eat honey bees. Some native bees are solitary so predators that target those wouldn’t go after a whole hive of bees. Some native bees are very small so honey bees are too big for those predators. And many other factors.
Also, many plants can be pollinated by native bees but are not pollinated by honey bees. Those plants would go extinct.
There are no honeybees alive today that are native to North America. They are basically a commodity – a managed species like cows or sheep. They compete with native pollinators, they don’t pollinate native plants as well as the bees that evolved with the native plants, the products of honey and wax are sold just like the pollination services are.
We have lots of sheep, too – and wolves don’t care what the sheep taste like. But the farmer who is raising their own sheep wants to protect their product against any predator or other causes of loss.
Part of the problem is that we’ve interfered with their environment. Natural evolution gives some native species defenses against bee predators. We’ve moved the honeybees out of their natural environment and allowed predators from other environments to interact.
All bees pollinate, but no bees pollinate all things, and native bees pollinate a lot more native plants than invasive bees.
Latest Answers