40% of all insect species have declined globally in recent decades, and a third of those are considered endangered. The impacts that wild insects have on our lives are incalculable, while the benefit to humanity by domesticated honeybees is measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

With this decline in insect populations, including the bees that pollinate our food, what can we do? Searching for answers and to understand what was leading to a bee decline, several years ago I reached out to Dr. Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a research scientist and associate professor of entomology at the University of Maryland and the former Chief apiarist for Pennsylvania to find out more.

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Resources:

• Dennis vanEnglesdrop, PhD
• Dennis vanEnglesdorp: A Plea for Bees (TED Talk Video)
• Bee Informed Partnership
• Crop Pollination Exposes Honey Bees to Pesticides Which Alters Their Susceptibility to the Gut Pathogen Nosema ceranae

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