The Government seems, if a little belatedly for the tastes of anxious apiarists and farmers, to be putting its shoulder to the problem of Britain's withering bee population. Yesterday the National Audit Office ticked off the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for its failure to tame the problem of the varroa mite that has been killing Britain's honeybees.

The NAO said that control of the varroa parasite was being hampered by the limited inspections of colonies carried out by Defra's National Bee Unit - particularly of the 20,000 or so beekeepers who keep hives as a hobby and whose unsupervised colonies may be spreading a disease that wiped out 30 per cent of Britain's bee colonies last year. This follows a pledge in January by Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Secretary, to spend £4.3 million on protecting bees and researching why so many are dying. It may not be enough.

If Britain's bees died we would lose more than just honey for tea, and a reason for Winnie-the-Pooh to wake up in the morning. Nearly £200 million of fruit and vegetable production in Britain relies on pollination by bees. In America, where colony collapse has ravaged the bee population, the sums are larger still: bees there pollinate $15 billion of agricultural output.

This is not the only contribution bees make to mankind. Because of their social hierarchies and their co-operative industry, bees have captivated thinkers from Aristrotle and Plato to Leonardo, who recognised in beehives miniatures of human society. More recently the behaviour of bees has helped academics to study how reaching consensus improves decision-making. It may even turn out that we need bees more than they need us.

The Times 4/3/09