Educational Media Reviews Online

This DVD focuses on the work of entomologist Mark Winston of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver), who has devoted his entire professional life to the study of bees. The DVD goes into the work that Dr. Winston and his research associates have devoted to pheromones (chemicals emitted by animals producing certain behaviors) as they relate to social insects such as bees. One-third of humans’ food production is dependent on pollination activities by bees, so bees’ behavior is of vital importance to our species. Dr. Winston and his fellow researches have discovered that the level of pheromones in bees’ circulatory systems goes down outside the beehive, which has a pronounced effect of their behavior.

One-half of North American beehives have declined in population in the past decade, due to overuse of mitocides and pesticides, antibiotics, diseases (e.g. verroa mites) and other undetermined causes, which poses a distinct threat to farmers. Farmers sometimes think that wild bees will fill the gap when domesticated bees decline in numbers, but overuse of pesticides closes that possibility.

This film outlines a distinct decline in the productivity of an animal that humans depend upon, due to human activities. It is very much worth watching, and its admonitions worth paying attention to. Recommended for undergraduate and graduate academic collections in the life sciences.