Keeping the Bees: Why All Bees Are at Risk and What We Can Do to Save Them

by Laurence Packer

Overview

From the jungles of South America to the deserts of Arizona, one thing remains consistent: bees are disappearing. A world without bees would be much less colourful, with fewer flowers. But that’s not all-bees are responsible for up to one-third of our food supply, and the consequences of not taking action to protect them are frightening. While the media focuses on colony-collapse disorder and the threats to honey bees specifically, the real danger is much greater: all bees are at risk, whether it be from loss of habitat, pesticide use or disease, among other factors. And because of the integral role these insects play in the ecology of our planet, we may be at risk as well.

In Keeping the Bees, Laurence Packer, a melittologist whose life revolves around bees, debunks many myths about these creatures and takes us behind the scenes with scientists around the world who are working to save these fascinating creatures before it’s too late.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062306463
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Laurence Packer obtained a B.A. in zoology from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He has been at York University since 1988, where he is currently a professor of biology.

Table of Contents

1 Buzz Free: A World without bees: Stuck Under a Truck in the Atacama Desert, Chile 1

2 The Future of our Food: Serenading the bees on Cape Breton Islands, Nova Scotia 17

3 Honey, Queens, Hard-working Workers and Stings: Misconceptions About Bees: Stung by Bee Killers on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom 35

4 A Bee or Not a Bee? A Difficult Question to Answer: Insulting the Experts in Portal, Arizona 51

5 Two Bees or Not two Bees? An even More Difficult Question to Answer: Uncovering Irregularities at the National History Museum, London 63

6 It's a Bee's Life: Up Before Dawn in the Australian Outback 79

7 The Sociable Bee: Digging Nests After Dark in Calgary, Alberta 101

8 Sex and Death in Bees: Choosing a Mate in Subtropical Florida 117

9 Where the Bee Sucks, There Hunt I: Painful Bee Sampling in the Tehuacan Desert, Mexico 131

10 Anti-Bees: Sexually Transmitted Child-eating Female Impersonators on a California Sand Dune 157

11 What are we Doing to the Bees?: Bee-Free Day in Germany 173

12 The Proverbial Canaries in the Coal Mine: Upsetting Ornithologists in Rome 195

13 Help the Bees: Dodging Hippos at the African Pollinator Summit 211

Epilogue: Bee Worship on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico 223

Acknowledgments 229

Appendix 1 Bee Families 233

Appendix 2 Bee Names 235

Sources 241

Index 263