There’s a somewhat disturbing report on Discovery on how bumblebees appear to be vanishing. People don’t pay nearly as much attention to them as they do to honeybees, which we already know have been in trouble.

Reading this article made me think. I haven’t seen bumblebees much lately in my area. They were never so common as honeybees, but they weren’t rare.

From the article:

But if bumblebees were to disappear, farmers and entomologists warn, the consequences would be huge, especially coming on top of the problems with honeybees, which are active at different times and on different crop species.

Bumblebees are responsible for pollinating an estimated 15 percent of all the crops grown in the U.S., worth $3 billion, particularly those raised in greenhouses. Those include tomatoes, peppers and strawberries.

As more of these problems show up it becomes all the more clear that we need to pay attention to what is happening in the natural world. Pollinators are one of the most vital links in the entire food chain no matter what it is you like to eat.

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