You may have been stung by a passing bee at least once in your life. You may not realize it, but these tiny bugs are vital to both us and the entire ecosystem.

Many types of food we eat are in supply due to many pollinators travelling from plant to plant, flower to flower and allowing pollen to reach other plants and began reproduction. According to Nova, managed by the Australian Academy of Science, 80 to 90 percent of the pollinators are honeybees, resulting in one-third of global food production, including several fruits and nuts.

Honey bees also produce several products that have benefited us, like honey which has antimicrobial properties, beeswax which is used in several skin products and, sure enough, bee venom which is now being used for cancer treatment.

While these bees help produce more food and maintain balance in the ecosystem, their population and size is currently diminishing fast. According to the USDA, the bee population has dropped from 5 million in the 1940s to 2.5 million today. Several bee hives have been also experiencing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which is the death of a bee colony. Although no scientific cause have been proven for the disorder, several factors may be connected to the decline of these critters.

One factor of the decline is the presence of parasitic Varroa and tracheal mites in beehives. According to a study at the University of Kentucky, these parasites feed on the bee larvae in its hive cell and grow until the adult bee leaves the cell; at that point, the mites will have already reproduced and will be looking for other larvae to leech on. As a result, the bees become weaker and more vulnerable to outside stress, resulting in the decline of bees and even hive deaths.

Another factor for the shrinking bee population is the use of pesticides. According to a report by the Xerces Society, pesticides containing a chemical called neonicotinoid has been linked to the dying-off of bees. These pesticides gets sprayed onto plants, which absorb the chemical, making the plant toxic for many insects. Although there is no direct link between neonicotinoid and CCD, the chemical may make the bees more vulnerable to several parasites and pathogens.

If these factors continue to weaken and kill off the bee population, serious consequences to not only ourselves, but the entire ecosystem can occur in the following decades. As said before, bees produce around one-third of the world food supply by being the major pollinator for several plants. If the bee population becomes endangered or even extinct, we would not be able to survive much longer since our food supply has cut short. This does not mean only fruits and nuts will be in scarcity, but every kind of food. As entomologist Marla Spivak puts it:

"Fewer bees lead to lower availability and potentially higher prices of fruit and vegetables. Fewer bees mean no almonds, less coffee and less alfalfa hay available to feed dairy cows."

So, how do we stop this course from happening? Simple solutions such as planting native plants in plots of land that crop production cannot reach, like roadsides and city lawns, can help mitigate the effects. More effective solutions, including monitoring beehives and bees' health and remove any signs of infestation of parasites and reevaluating the EPA regulations to identify which products contain chemicals harmful to bees, can help protect the bees in the long run and even increase their population.