The yellow stuff covering this honeybee shows one reason that honeybees are revered the world over. The yellow stuff is pollen, of course, and honeybees are important pollinators of crops world wide. Honeybees also make honey.
But honeybees are not native to the United States. European settlers brought them over here in the 17th century. Honeybees spread rapidly, and the Native American people sometimes called them "white man's fly".
Honeybees are important to us because they pollinate our crops. In fact, they pollinate a lot of different types of flowers. But there are a lot of flowers that are native to the United States and were here before honeybees got here. What do you think pollinated them then? Something had to pollinate them, or they wouldn't set seed.
Do you think whatever pollinated the flowers then is still around now? If not, what could have caused them to disappear?
If something would happen to wipe out all of the honeybees, what would happen to our crops? Could there be another type of bee or another type of insect that would do as good a job of pollination as the honeybee?