Honeybee Population Continues To Decline

05:27

May 11, 2016

Steve Corniffe works on collecting honey produced by the bees at the J & P Apiary and Gentzel's Bees, Honey and Pollination Company on April 10, 2013 in Homestead, Florida. Honey bee owners along with scientists continue to try to figure out what is causing bees to succumb to the colony collapse disorder which has devastated apiaries around the country. Reports indicate that the disorder which kills off thousands of bees at a time has resulted in the loss of some 30 percent of honey bee populations among beekeepers since 2007. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A new survey shows that 44 percent of the country's honeybee colonies died in the past year. It was the second year in a row that losses have surpassed 40 percent, and now there are signs that the die-off is spreading into the summer months. Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson speaks with May Berenbaum, professor and head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign about the decreasing bee population.

Guest

May Berenbaum, entomologist, head of Dept. of Entomology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champlaign. She tweets @MayBerenbaum.

This segment aired on May 11, 2016.