University of Maryland entomologist Samuel Ramsey sits down with NPR’s Maddie Sofia to discuss how America’s honeybees are faring in 2020. It’s a question worth asking because honeybees pollinate a wide variety of plants that produce the fruits and vegetables we consume every day, contributing $18 billion to the US economy every year.
While millions of honeybees stopped abandoning their colonies about five years ago, a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, these important pollinators still face several serious threats, most notable among them a deadly pest called the Varroa destructor that literally consumes bees from the inside out.