# Life without bee's

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-without-bees/401134>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 22, 2007, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-without-bees/401134 "2007-04-22T01:32:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2007, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-without-bees/401134/1 "2007-04-22T01:32:35Z")

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After reading a new Snopes article [Did Einstein Say Without Bees, Mankind Would Soon Perish? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp) regarding a falsely attributed quote to Albert Einstein, it got me thinking.  
What will be the effects of a total extinction of honeybees on human life?

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**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-without-bees/401134/2 "2007-04-22T02:41:52Z")

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The apostrophe goes after the s for a plural. But that only raises the question: without bees’ what?

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**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-without-bees/401134/3 "2007-04-22T03:19:34Z")

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[QUOTE=RyJae]  
After reading a new Snopes article [Did Einstein Say Without Bees, Mankind Would Soon Perish? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp) regarding a falsely attributed quote to Albert Einstein, it got me thinking.  
What will be the effects of a total extinction of honeybees on human life?  
[/QUOTE]

There certainly wouldn’t be total extinction, but a lot of plants would die. There’s an excellent article [here](http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~uaoe/pdf/paper/ProcRoySocLondon2007,274_303-313.pdf) that covers the importance of pollinators which details the major pollinators of human-consumed foods. It lists wasps, hover flies, butterflies, beetles, thrips, blackbirds, and starlings as pollinators in addition to bees, so there would be some species available that could survive.  
One economics studies show that [agricultural products would cost more.](http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/Pollinator-Declines.htm), and [this](http://www.jstor.org/view/09628436/ap000047/00a00210/0) article indicates that pollinators are enormously important for many plants.

This doesn’t mean that they are important for _all_ wildlife, though.

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**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2007, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-without-bees/401134/4 "2007-04-23T14:37:29Z")

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I just read an article on [cnn.com](http://cnn.com), I thought the threat of honeybee extinction was just used in the urban legend not a real ongoing event. The article said paraphrased “imagine eating oatmeal without fruit on top”  
New question on hive collapse disorder (if that’s correct) is this only getting the paid bees’ or is it getting wild bees’?

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**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-without-bees/401134/5 "2007-04-23T17:08:13Z")

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[QUOTE=RyJae]  
New question on hive collapse disorder (if that’s correct) is this only getting the paid \*\*bees’ \*\* or is it getting wild **bees’**?  
[/QUOTE]

Hey **Alan** , at least he took your advice.

Sorry, I can’t help but laugh.