Why are bees on the verge of extinction?

Researchers have recently stated that one of the causes of the disappearance of bee colonies is neonicotinoid, a form of insecticide that acts by damaging brain functions and disrupting the nervous system of bees. After a period of nervous excitability, insects exposed to neonicotinoid, paralyze, and subsequently die.

QIn a new weld published by Harvard University in the United States, Chensheng Lu, PhD in biology and his colleagues, argue that bees exposed to neonicotinoid are much more likely to suffer a collapse of the colony than those that have not been exposed. The colony collapse symptom (CCD) includes an extremely unpredictable behavior of the bees, the bees leaving their colony in the winter without returning back. This behavior occurs especially after exposure to the aforementioned pesticide, which apparently interferes with the activity of neurotransmitters in the brains of bees.

Although much research is still needed, it is clear that neonicotinoid should be eliminated from our arsenal of insecticides. Ironically, in an effort to protect our crops from pests, we may inadvertently destroy them.

Without bees, extremely many plants could not reproduce, and this would lead to the extinction of about 40% of the plants we know among which apples, onions, avocados and many others. Without bees fertilizing plants or fruit trees, we could lose a lot of species forever and part of the ecosystem being destroyed.

This is an alarm signal that we should take into account, given that we are still able to save these wonderful insects from extinction, and us along with them!

Source: http://io9.com