Greenhouses and bees

Question

It would seem that bees around the world are in trouble, partly as a result of what appears to be the widespread use of pesticides in agriculture. If greenhouses naturally inhibit the spread of garden or agricultural pests to the extent where less and fewer pesticides are needed, then is there any chance that they could pave the way to a more bee-friendly future? I'd be especially curious to hear what those with greenhouses have to say about pest management.

To clarify, I'm mainly interested in ways of reducing the use of pesticides in agriculture and elsewhere, and this may not involve greenhouses at all. The ideal use for greenhouses may in fact have nothing to do with pest management, and everything to do with the responsible management of GMO's, or of enhancing the genetic diversity of cultivars or what not. But whatever this ideal use may be (if everyone around the world were utilizing greenhouse technology, directly or indirectly) would it likely require more or fewer pesticides, and could it be beneficial or harmful to pollinators like bees?

Answer 1

It sounds like you're suggesting using greenhouses to raise bees alongside plants, unfortunately there a many different species of bees and not many of them are domesticated. Some (like the western honey bee) are territorial which would complicate matters. To add further to our misfortunes, the majority of pollination is not done by domesticated bees. Then we'd have to take into account how the bees would take to what is essentially captivity, of which I'm not sure but I can speculate it would negatively effect hive health.

Answer 2

Let me restate my understanding of your question for clarity: Do you think using more greenhouses instead of the alternative could reduce environmental pesticides that are harmful to bees, and thus help the bee population to improve?

I certainly think it's possible. However—

Not all areas are well-suited for greenhouses. Some require more temperature regulation than others, and that might be costly.

Most of the pesticide-laden crops out there are probably grains, though (not fruits and other vegetables), and I have a hard time envisioning companies growing mass amounts of grain in greenhouses. Grain takes a lot of space. Maybe they'll find a way to make it work (like breeding or engineering giant grains that produce a whole lot more grain per stalk, volume-wise).

If we had as many greenhouses as we had fields, there might not be much for the bees to pollinate. So, that could be a problem.

Pests (such as whiteflies) can be a pretty big problem inside greenhouses. I wouldn't expect greenhouse-grown crops to be inherently pesticide-free. Same for fungicides, miticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc. However, at the very least, They shouldn't have to use herbicides in greenhouses, unless they're growing directly in the ground on the natural soil.

I don't see enough evidence to support the notion that using more greenhouses would help the bee population, although I do think seeking to reduce pesticide usage is a noble goal. Bees seem to proliferate more when outdoor vegetation proliferates more.

Even if bees could enter greenhouses, the pesticide problem still exists (whether or not to the same degree), but the reduced herbicide might be beneficial. (And I'm sure bees don't discriminate too much between weeds and domestic garden plants when it comes to pollination, as long as they have the right sorts of flowers.)

The urbanization of society likely has as much, or more, to do with bee decline as anything. For instance, in cities, they spray pesticides (and not just for agricultural reasons, but to kill mosquitos and loads of other things). Citizens in their homes are said to spray more pesticides than farmers, and/or less responsibly: I'm not quite sure if that's true, misleading, or what, but I've read articles on it. Cities have less vegetation, and fewer flowers. Consequently, many urban areas probably have a scarcity of bees. It's nice that people plant things for bees specifically, and have flowering plants in their yards, when they do, but it still tends to be a far cry from the country, or fields of crops with flowers.

Agricultural fields (harmful chemicals aside) can be very beneficial for bees. Greenhouses don't have the same benefits.

So, while I think it's possible that using more greenhouses could help bees, I think it's more likely to hurt them, and lead to the urbanization of more farmland (living in a rural area, I can see that farmland is usually what people turn into subdivisions, and if people aren't farming on it, it'll likely get used for something else, eventually). I'd rather lobby for more responsible farming, an end to dessication, for people (not just the farmers among them) to make peace with insects, for the lost trade of weed pulling to make a comeback commercially, for governments to make more human-made islands, for economists to stop encouraging people to be unethical for the sake of Capitalism, for people to stop urbanizing good farmland (when they could be urbanizing other areas), etc.