By Judy Hoy, Stevensville
World Bee Day is May 20. We here in Montana need to get immediate attention to bumblebees, especially endangered bees living here, the Western bumblebee (Bombus occidentalis) and Stuckley cuckoo bumblebee (Bombus stuckleyi). Those bees and endangered bumblebees in other states need to be put on the endangered species list to instigate measures to save them from extinction.
In the 14 years between 2000 and 2014, Europe’s total bumblebee populations fell by 17% and North America lost an amazing 46%. That is 3.3% per year in NA. With six more years of loss since 2014, NA has lost at least 65.8% of our bumblebees. In nine or 10 more years, there will be no bumblebees in NA.
Andrew Barron says, “Bees hold our ecologies together. If they disappeared, goes an apocryphal quote often attributed to Albert Einstein, man would only have four years of life left.” Barron is a neuroethologist who studies how nervous systems generate natural behavior in animals. If Einstein is correct, people will be gone in 15 to 20 years.
We need to ban Neonicotinoids and Roundup, the main killers of vertebrates and invertebrates soon. Those who do not “believe” science are not exempt from extinction.