FACING AN UNKNOWN ENEMY Have you ever been stung by a bee? If so, then you were considered such a threat that a bee gave up its life in defense of its colony. But bees face bigger threats than just humans, they have found themselves fighting an enemy who lives inside of them. Some people consider them as annoying insects, and they may be ignorantly glad of their disappearing. But what people ignore is that bees play an extremely important role in the preservation of our existence. Honey is just a minor benefit that we get from them, their role in pollination, on the other hand, it is the greater benefit. If there were no bees, then there were no crops and no food. It is said that 'bees pollinate one out of every three bites of American food'. Moreover, bees have been considered 'biological indicators', that means that the environment state is as good as the bees' health state is. However, in the United States, some beekeepers recently reported 50% to 90% of losses in their colonies, and this happened within few weeks, which means that thousands of colonies and millions of bees have suddenly died. These bees contribute to an income of billions of dollars to the agriculture industry. The mysterious thing is that nobody knows what happens to the bees, they just disappear, no dead bodies are found near the colonies, they simply vanish. The hives are left almost empty, with maybe a few worker bees, the queen, and honey. This phenomenon has been called 'Colony Collapse Disorder' and nicknamed 'disappearing disease'. This enemy that is causing the massive disappearing of bees, not only in America but around the world, it is still unknown. Although it has been under investigation for several years now, researchers have not been able to come up with an accepted explanation. But they think it may be caused by a combination of multiple factors such as contamination by chemical toxins in the environment (like pesticides used in crops), genetically modified crops, pathogens, parasites, poor nutrition, etc. While specialists still try to find out how to save the bees, people can help at a small scale by planting bee-friendly gardens and reducing the use of pesticides. So next time you see a bee, don't see it just like an annoying bug, but as a little friend in danger.