Save the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee
The Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee is Critical to Our Economy
What would you do if all of a sudden you could not buy tomatoes, peppers, cranberries, or many other fruits and vegetables at the store? The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is essential to every one of our lives because it pollinates the plants that provide our food. And while this is just one bee species of hundreds, the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is one of few who provide buzz pollination (pollination by rapidly beating their wings) which is completely different than what bees such as honeybees do. Some plants, including tomatoes, peppers, and cranberries, require buzz pollination, and we need that food to survive (Bumble Bees: Rusty Patched)!
These Crops are Essential to Our Economy
Overall, the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is a contributor in pollinating roughly 1/3 of the food we eat (Colla, 2010). Imagine only being allowed to eat one or two meals a day instead of three because there was not enough food! The tomato industry alone is worth $2 billion annually, and four of the top six tomato-producing states are within the Rusty Patched range (Tomato, 2012). However, with the current rate of population decline, soon, there will be none of the crucial overlap between the vital bumblebee and one of America’s biggest crops. In fact, tomatoes are said to be one of the healthiest foods in the world! (Tomatoes: What’s New). We have been lucky to live in a world where everything we need is so easily accessible. But if one of the most healthy foods to us is less available because we let a bumblebee species die off, then prices will go up to buy this food. People will not be able to afford to eat healthy, and it will result in a human population in much worse condition than we are in right now. Therefore, we MUST do everything in our power to prevent the Rusty Patched Bumblebee from becoming extinct. If not for them, at least for ourselves! Can you believe that nothing has yet been done in the United States to preserve the Rusty Patched?!?
Another major crop that relies on the Rusty Patched’ buzz pollination is peppers. In 2015, bell and chile peppers were combined to have a crop value of $835 million (Naeve, 2015). However, with recent technological advances, the argument has begun to be made that humans can pollinate these crops in place of bumblebees. This is not true!! While in the short term, it may be possible for humans to hand pollinate small amounts of such crops, it is in no way sustainable. When you hand pollinate, you do not reach the reserves of nectar at the back of the inside of the flower, and are not getting the full potential out of the plant. Furthermore, because of how slow the pollination would go, it would not produce nearly as much yield as when bees do the pollination (do you see that picture on the right of your screen? They have to do that for every single plant!) (Clothier). In addition, we would have to pay all of the workers for their time. That, combined with the cost lost from the lower yield, would drastically change the economy of not only peppers and all other crops handled in this way, but would throw off the balance of those crops not directly affected as well.
Therefore, it is absolutely critical that we can maintain the vital practices of the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, so that we do not have to go desperately searching for a (worse) alternative solution. If we cannot save this species, it would require our culture to drastically change the way we look at the things we eat and how we prepare our food. All together, bumblebees and native bees currently provide essential services to agriculture that are estimated at $3 billion annually! (Rusty Patched Bumble Bee One Step Closer to Protection, 2015). For such a small animal, they are worth SO MUCH to our society, and we must ensure that they stay that way.
There Is So Much Backstory To The Food We Eat Everyday
The vast majority of the time, people do not think directly about what went into the creation of their food before they sit down to eat. They do not consider the insects that pollinated the flowers on the plants or the micro-organisms that ensured nutrient cycling could occur or the predators who kept away animals that wanted to eat the plants. But all of these things are essential parts of the creation of the food placed on our tables. Today, agriculture and related industries are worth $789 billion (Ag and Food Sectors, 2015). Without the bumble bee pollinating so many of the plants that go into the industry, we would lose not only our vital lifeline--food--but also billions of dollars along the way.
One Step at a Time to Saving the Rusty-Patched
Without a place on the United States Endangered Species List, there is no recovery plan with a clear understanding of the amount of time and money it would take to preserve this bumblebee. However, the Xerces Society has created a tentative Conservation Plan in which they outline the importance of creating a high-quality habitat for the Rusty Patched through the selection of native plants, reducing or stopping pesticide use which is killing the bees and their nests, and decreasing the amount of commerical beekeeping which is limiting the resources and placing harmful non-native diseases in the proximity of the bumblebees (see the threats page). While there has been no monetary value set for the cost of preservation of the Rusty Patched, it starts on the individual level (see the how you can help page). You are the difference between the preservation or extinction of the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee.
