'Last refuge & # 39; bees in the United States in danger



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Mexico City Bees are finding it increasingly difficult to find food in the United States, according to a new federal study.

The Great Northern Plains, in the Dakotas, and surrounding areas make up the most important area for commercial beekeeping because more than a million settlements spend the summer in it. giving a feast of pollen and nectar of wild flowers and other plants.

However, from 2006 to 2016, more than half of the Protected Land within one thousand of the colonies, they were used for agricultural purposes, mainly crops such as soybean and corn, said the lead author of the study, Clint Otto, of the United States Geological Survey. These crops do not provide food to the bees.

For more than a decade, bee populations and other pollinating insects have declined in the United States due to various problems, such as a poor diet, pesticides , parasites and diseases. And external experts say that the study has highlighted another problem that affects the health of bees.

This area – which Otto called the "last refuge of bees in the United States" – lost about 1,630 square kilometers (629 square miles) of their main habitat, according to the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

And bees that have problems finding food are less likely to survive during the winter, Otto said. They may not be hungry, but they are not healthy either, he says.

John Miller, a 49-year-old commercial beekeeper in North Dakota, said the Dakota and Minnesota were once the best place for bees. Now they are the least bad. "

Miller, whose great-grandfather started the business in 1894, saw honey production decline from 54.4 kilograms (120 pounds) per hive 30 At 22, 68 kilograms (50 pounds) today, however, the price has increased fivefold and beekeepers like Miller are also earning income by bringing their bees into trucks in California to pollinate local crops, mostly almonds.

The federal government pays farmers to keep wild portions of their crops, which benefits bees who find food in pasture, flowers and brush, Otto said. the area that the government would pay and during the ethanol boom, farmers warned that they could earn more with corn and soybeans.

"Commercial beekeepers are struggling to find places to eat. "They carry their bees when the insects are not in a crop that requires pollination," said Diana Cox-Foster, Bee Researcher at the US Department of Agriculture, who said not participated in the study

. A third of the commercial colonies of the United States spend the summer in the Great Plains of the North. The area to the east of the Dakotas is too urbanized and the weather in the west is too dry, says Otto.

Bees are crucial pollinators for more than 90% of the crops that contain flowers in the country, such as apples, walnuts, avocados, broccoli, peaches, cranberries and cherries.

"No bees," says Otto, "our plate of food has less variety."

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