When most people think of insects, they automatically think of destroying them to protect a crop or to rid themselves of some biting little creature. Honeybees are an insect that mankind has learned to work with in order to pollinate many crops and produce honey and beeswax. We have 85,000 colonies of honeybees in Ontario and every one of them is an important contributor to the environment in which they are kept. European settlers introduced honeybees to the Americas several centuries ago. Many of the crops that we grow in the Americas originated in Europe where they were dependent on honeybees for pollination.
Honeybees are insects and as such are very, very susceptible to insecticides.
Insecticides are widely used in our society to control many devastating insect pests. Without realizing it, many people inadvertently kill honeybees when they are targeting another insect. Beekeepers are trying to manage honeybees in every agricultural area of Ontario in order to make money from their honeybees. At the same time, they are contributing to their neighbors success at producing various crops by the honeybees contributing to pollinating them. When there is insecticide damage to their honeybees, they become very frustrated and often turn to the media to bring attention to their problem, as it may be difficult to determine where the spray was applied that damaged the honeybees.