Honey Bees Are Not The Best Insect Pollinators

During the past ten to fifteen years, entomologists and other scientists all over the world have been discussing the issue of declining bee populations around the world. Obviously, the declining bee population is alarming due to the fact that bees are earth’s primary pollinators. Much of the time, news stories on this topic mention dwindling honey bee populations while ignoring all other bee species. You may be thinking that honey bees are addressed more often than other bee species because honey bees are the most important pollinators. However, this is not necessarily the case, as a recent study has demonstrated that only one third of crop plants in the United Kingdom are pollinated by honey bees, and even fewer honey bees pollinate wild plant life in the country. Bumblebees pollinate far more plants than honey bees, and new research is showing that honey bees can even contribute to the current global bee population crisis.

In addition to honey bees, insects like flies, butterflies and other bee species also pollinate plants. Naturally, some insects pollinate plants more rapidly than other insects. There are many factors that determine how effectively certain insect species will pollinate plants. Insects that are big and hairy, like bumblebees, end up pollinating the highest amount of plants since pollen easily becomes stuck within their hairs. This pollen eventually dislodges from the bumblebees body and winds up falling on a flower, successfully pollinating the flower. Honey bees can even spread exotic plants and pathogens that often kill other pollinating insects. In this case, honey bees contribute to the global drop in pollinating bee species.

Do you think that the population decline affecting bee species could be caused by a disease that only affects bees?

The Bees That Drink Your Bodily Fluids

Believe or not, but your bodily fluids are in high demand. You cannot get paid for your tears and sweat, but bees would certainly appreciate a heaping helping of your perspiration. Your sweat and tears are highly sought after by hundreds of different bee species. So why on earth do bees consume sweat and tears? Well it turns out that your bodily fluids are quite nutritious. This is the best explanation that researchers can come up with concerning the love that bees have for mammalian bodily fluids. Bees are selective when it comes to the bodily fluids that they consume. For example, bees prefer sweat and tears that are extra salty. This is why bees prefer human bodily fluids over bodily fluids from all other animals. Humans have relatively high amounts of salt in their tears as a result of consuming salty processed foods. This preference for sweat and tears is so common that even the latest bee to be discovered cannot get enough of that salty goodness.

The large group of wild bees that seek out mammalian perspiration are small relative to many other types of bees. This is why flying sweat-bees go unnoticed by people most of the time. Also, people rarely take notice of wild sweat-bees because they do not sting. Even if a sweat-bee landed on a person’s arm or leg, they will most likely go unnoticed. Sweat-bees are plentiful in the United States. In fact, the latest bee to be discovered was found and captured in Brooklyn, New York. This new sweat-loving bee species has been named Lasioglossum gotham.

In order to determine just how much certain bees love sweat and tears, researchers used themselves as guinea pigs in an experiment. Researchers in Thailand gathered several different species of bee, all of which consumed mammalian bodily secretions. The researchers sat in a room with their eyes wide open. The room also contained significant amounts of meat, Ovaltine, cheese and a variety of other foods. Much to the surprise of the researchers, each bee species preferred to consume the human tears as opposed to the other edible items that were available. In the experiment the bees landed near the researcher’s eyes for a quick tear fix. Of course, the researchers automatically blinked when the bees approached their eyes, but the bees were persistent, so they kept making efforts to consume the researcher’s tears.

There was one particular bee species, Lisotrigona, that landed on the researchers eyes so softly, that the researchers did not even notice the bee’s presence. Even when one researcher walked about the room the bee that was actively consuming his tears went unnoticed. Not surprisingly, it became uncomfortable when several bees attempted to consume the researcher’s tears. Bees even desperately tried to access more tears after the researchers closed their eyelids. Bees likely prefer tears and sweat due to their high protein content. Eventually, the research team captured two hundred and sixty two bees by using their own eyes as bait.

Would you be willing to let a bee drink your tears for science?