/sci/ - Science & Math

>>3229782
Extinction? Not on this continent. (I'm an Amerifag, for context.)
See, honeybees are native to Eurasia, and so all the bee-pollinated American plants are handled by bumblebees or similar. (Most bumblebee-pollinated plants can't actually be visited by honeybees, since their tongues are somewhat shorter than bumblebees'.)
However, there are plenty of plant species that we brought over from Europe, and that ARE pollinated by honeybees. Citrus fruits, almonds, and alfalfa (an important source of cattle fodder), for example, are all pollinated by honeybees. They won't go extinct because of Colony Collapse Disorder in America, but they are economically important, and everyone will suffer if honeybees go down the tubes.
As long as I'm on this topic, I should mention a few things about CCD. Normally, when a hive dies, the dead bees are found in the hive, their bodies piled by the hundreds on the bottom board. However, colonies lost to CCD are nearly empty, indicating that the bees were not killed by some pathogen, but rather were rendered incapable of returning home. Some say it's caused by radio transmissions, but that's bullpucky; bees aren't terribly sensitive to RF radiation. Personally, I find the pesticide theory the most plausible; some pesticides used in the USA have been banned in France and other nations because they have been known to cause nervous system disruption in insects. A bee flies out, gets dosed with the pesticide, and can't find its way back home because its nervous system is so screwed up. So the bees slowly leak away from the hive, and those few that remain starve to death because nothing's bringing them nectar. This theory would certainly explain why environmentally-conscious states like Illinois have been relatively unscathed by CCD.

>>2850736
>butthurt in homework thread
>not even a hard problem
>high school sophomore chemistry
>GLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!