Toxic Cloud: Angie the Bee and the Danger of Pesticides

'There needs to be a concerted effort to bring the bees back to Earth,' he said. You have to know that Morgan owns a ranch in Mississippi, the stuff of the rich, but there is not only the classic mega pool of Hollywood stars and all the wonders they usually love so much there. In his park, he has also created a space just for us and comes to feed us water and sugar, personally, without even taking honey, but just for the sake of having us as neighbours. You are quite right to worry about the bees. Do you or do you not understand that we are in danger of extinction? If you don't believe us, I will give you this news: in just thirty years, from 1980 to 2010, the world population of bees and wasps has shrunk by 36 per cent. In fact, my hive has had it pretty bad too. In fact, let's say it had to... change location.

By now you have got to know me, I hope: I am an explorer bee, but for me this definition is an understatement. Above all, I feel like a warrior, meaning not like guns, rifles, bombs and that nasty stuff there, but mainly because I never resign myself to injustice. So, a while ago, I caught a farmer in the act of spreading weird pesticides around. They mean death to us! In 2018, the European Union banned three neonicotinoid pesticides (imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam), which are considered dangerous for pollinating insects. They are widely used in agriculture and today are only allowed in greenhouses. But this restrictive measure is not enough! There is in fact a body called Efsa, which would be the European Food Safety Authority. Here, you should know that the gentlemen from Efsa have already said that even stricter toxicity tests should be carried out on pesticides before they are allowed to be used in this way, at the drop of a hat!

Unfortunately for us bees, in Brussels they didn't give a damn about this opinion. Greenpeace is even calling for the banning of four other insecticides, the use of which is unfortunately permitted in Europe today: acetamiprid, thiacloprid, sulfoxaflor and flupyradifuron. The use of these four pesticides is growing steadily, precisely as a replacement for the three banned neonicotinoids. So, as I was telling you, my hive also went on red alert one day. I was quietly fluttering among the mallow flowers when I saw this rascal spraying something in his field with a mask. A German zoologist by the name of Randolf Menzel said that bees are very intelligent, because: 'They learn, they recognise their surroundings, colours, they smell. And they have an incredible memory: they can remember next year what they learned a year before'. My brain is top-notch stuff, in short.

I knew immediately that it was something to be reported urgently to my mother, the queen bee. I ran towards the hive to look for her. I met Birichina, the head sweeper, first. "Circulate, circulate! Angie, I don't have time for you! Can't you see I'm busy? You're the usual time waster," she apostrophised me. "But it's an emergency!" "What emergency? Does it look like there's a bigger emergency than dirt? This hive is not a hotel! I have to clean the cells, prepare them for new eggs and for pollen and nectar supplies. It's full of wax waste here. Look, it's just not my day, go away. I also found some corpses of our dead companions to take away. I feel like crying today'. I continued further, Birichina refused to understand.

Here I am in front of Beatrice, the nurse bee: "Quick! I must find Mummy!" "Look at me? Do I look like I have time for you?" she replied. She was intent on feeding the larvae with her mouthparts: she was feeding some of them royal jelly, some slightly older ones a mixture of pollen and honey. "But I only ask you... a nano second." "I can't. Afterwards, I have to go binge on honey too, otherwise how do you think I would have the energy to feed them? You should know!" So, to cut a long story short, I had to find Mum on my own. She wasn't well at all, though. She had probably already come into contact with the pesticide, which had compromised some of her functions.

I didn't want that, realising she was sick, someone would get the terrible idea of killing her by raggomitulation, i.e. suffocating her. They do not do this out of cruelty, the replacement of the queen bee is essential for the survival of the hive. If the queen is sick, and has poor production of the royal pheromone, or worse, if she dies, another one has to be found. So I woke her up from the strange torpor that had befallen her and convinced her to abandon the mother hive and go found a new colony. Better that than dying, right? Of course, I also had to convince a nice group of worker bees to follow.

I assure you that I brought out the best in my oratorical art: 'Companions, I have a dream, I have a dream! To find a better place. Do you fear novelty? Do you always want to live in the same place, in monotony, without stimulation, without ever having seen beyond your nose?" Oh God, nose is a figure of speech. We, instead of noses, have antennae, but these are very sophisticated, in fact we perceive smells spatially. This gift of ours is called 'toxic sense'. Unfortunately, it is being seriously compromised by the damn pesticides! I also said many other things and convinced them. They followed me and my mother. We swarmed and created a new hive. All my words have gone down in the history of us bees as the I have a dream speech. How do you say? Had a famous human done this before? Um, strange, I've never heard of it....