What happens if bees become extinct?

noddyflavin

How relevant are bees in worldwide plant/crop pollination, if they become extinct are we looking at a serious knock on effect of plant failure, thus causing the collapse of a multitude of species, would we be looking at serious food shortages?...

kryogen

Yes

DB21

This should probably go in the biology section

superluck

It doesn't bovar me, it won't affect me, i'll still be able to buy an iPad 10 or super-plasma tv.

golden lane

superluck wrote: »

It doesn't bovar me, it won't affect me, i'll still be able to buy an iPad 10 or super-plasma tv.

and you wont get stung.....

superluck

what do bees do anyway except sting people all day? they're good for nothing.
so are other animals on the planet, taking up space and getting in the way of industrial progress, all these tree luggers getting in the way of mans innovation.

Look what man can create with technology, shurely we can just create bees in a laboratory if we need them ....nature only thinks it's boss.

we could always genetically engineer some bees without their stinging feature.

lookitsme

superluck wrote: »

It doesn't bovar me, it won't affect me, i'll still be able to buy an iPad 10 or super-plasma tv.

bee's pollinate 30% of the worlds crops so without them crop prices would increase and then increase food prices. If you pay more for your food odds are you would have less money in your pocket for your ipad or super dooper plasma tv

andy1249

Artificial pollination is childsplay , it has been and is being done in glasshouses all over the world for your tomatoes and anything else that comes from under glass. This has been the case for decades now if not centuries.

Bees are already extinct in some areas of Japan , and the locals simply use sticks and cotton wool to transfer pollen from plant to plant for their crops , a little bit of extra manual labour , and guess what , no one is starving !

Most of the areas with no bees in Japan are due to the introduction of the western honey bee , who have not developed the defense mechanism against the very aggressive and large local wasps , who wipe out hives in a matter of hours.
The local bee had developed a defense whereby they all land on and smother the wasp , the wasp body temperature rises , and it dies. The foreign bees dont do that , so they got wiped out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EZtXNIT5QQ

superluck

Interesting case for the eradication of hornets since they probably do nothing except kill honey bees.

other insects i'd like to see extinct: blue bottle fly, cockroaches and woodlouse

all of these insects don't do anything productive anyway so why not just get rid of them for good.

i think an eradication program is in order.

charlemont

Monsanto will rule us all.

RoboClam

Someone think of a conspiracy theory relating to this or I will have to move it!

Suggestion: (carrying on from what charlemont said) If the bees become extinct (naturally or otherwise), then maybe Mosanto's genetic use restriction technology may come into play.

Phil the Greek

superluck wrote: »

Interesting case for the eradication of hornets since they probably do nothing except kill honey bees.

other insects i'd like to see extinct: blue bottle fly, cockroaches and woodlouse

all of these insects don't do anything productive anyway so why not just get rid of them for good.

i think an eradication program is in order.

Grasshopper. You have so much to learn about nature and trolling.

Run_to_da_hills

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live." Robert Einstein.

hooradiation

That's a pretty big if.
Nature is nothing if not remarkably persistent.


And if it fails, we are remarkably inventive.

noddyflavin

i got kicked outta Nature already!...

wingsof daun

This idea of scientists being able to synthesize food is nonsense, cannot and will not ever happen. Certainly food that is suitable for human consumption. If man does not comply with the supreme he will face drought and famine - it is all in the Bible. There are other forces at work determining wether we have rain or bees for pollination. Repent!

Cork24

Just look at china the east part there are no bees as they killed them all years back they now have to do every thing that a bee should do by hand..

So please tell little kids never kill a bee their rare as it stands

Cork24

wingsof daun wrote: »

This idea of scientists being able to synthesize food is nonsense, cannot and will not ever happen. Certainly food that is suitable for human consumption. If man does not comply with the supreme he will face drought and famine - it is all in the Bible. There are other forces at work determining wether we have rain or bees for pollination. Repent!

For once could we have a debate without that dam bible all up in this place

golden lane

wingsof daun wrote: »

This idea of scientists being able to synthesize food is nonsense, cannot and will not ever happen. Certainly food that is suitable for human consumption. If man does not comply with the supreme he will face drought and famine - it is all in the Bible. There are other forces at work determining wether we have rain or bees for pollination. Repent!

where did manna come from ????

Monty Burnz

lookitsme wrote: »

bee's pollinate 30% of the worlds crops so without them crop prices would increase and then increase food prices. If you pay more for your food odds are you would have less money in your pocket for your ipad or super dooper plasma tv

He's doing his subtle satire trick. It's very subtle.

bnt

golden lane wrote: »

where did manna come from ????

Manna = a food that appears on the ground overnight. Mushrooms, then.

I seriously doubt that bees will go extinct: they're not a single species that is equally at risk, all over the world. This "colony collapse disorder" is evolutionary pressure, under which some bees will do better than others. I'm sure the bees will be all right in the long run; not so sure about the people.

D3V1L

What would cause this extinction. Is it to do with GM crop's ?

bnt

D3V1L wrote: »

What would cause this extinction. Is it to do with GM crop's ?

Lots of theories, more than one of which may be partly true. Blaming a single factor such as GM crops is too simplistic.

Undergod

superluck wrote: »

other insects i'd like to see extinct: blue bottle fly, cockroaches and woodlouse

Not an insect.

/pedant

studiorat

Undergod wrote: »

Not an insect.

/pedant

No, insects are small!!

Undergod

Give me a sec to Google image search for "largest insect"... :pac:

studiorat

Undergod wrote: »

Give me a sec to Google image search for "largest insect"... :pac:

Not insect.

/pedant...

Undergod

studiorat wrote: »

Not insect.

/pedant...

No, I meant, "give me a second to find a picture of a correspondingly large insect to match your large woodlouse" not that you posted a picture of an insect.

Dave!

/pedants

kryogen

Whats the craic with wasps then?

any truth to the theory they are extra terrestrial?

what do they do on the planet? (besides sting people) does anyone know?

Undergod

kryogen wrote: »

Whats the craic with wasps then?

any truth to the theory they are extra terrestrial?

?

Priori

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

"If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live." Robert Einstein.

Robert, eh? Who was he then? Albert's entomologist brother?

Corkfeen

Priori wrote: »

Robert, eh? Who was he then? Albert's entomologist brother?

I guess he had to attribute it to someone as there's no evidence that Einstein said anything of the sort, although it's often claimed he did.. :pac: I'm still trying to figure out why a physicist would make such a statement........ He was responsible for creating a far more effective way to wipe out humanity so I doubt that he was particularly worried about the extinction of bee..

SafeSurfer

One serious consequence of bee extension would be no more crunchy nut cornflakes which could lead to riots in the streets.

Winty

lookitsme wrote: »

superluck wrote: »

It doesn't bovar me, it won't affect me, i'll still be able to buy an iPad 10 or super-plasma tv.

bee's pollinate 30% of the worlds crops so without them crop prices would increase and then increase food prices. If you pay more for your food odds are you would have less money in your pocket for your ipad or super dooper plasma tv

Bats pollinate crops as much as bees do.

www.batworlds.com/bat-role-in-pollination.html

Daithi 1

Winty wrote: »

Bats pollinate crops as much as bees do.

www.batworlds.com/bat-role-in-pollination.html

Yeah but bats don't make honey. And bears eat honey. Almost said horny there, instead of honey.