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After nearly 20 years studying bees, Boris Baer, the director of UWA’s Centre for Integrative Bee Research, knows a thing or two about our buzzing, black-and-yellow friend, Apis mellifera .

“I started my bee research when I was a PhD student,” said Boris. “That was with bumblebees in Europe. To be honest if you start to work with bees, after a couple of days you just fall in love. They’ll keep you busy for the rest of your life.”

Bees are very complicated, complex creatures. “I always say, a hive is like a mirror of human society. Bees achieve and create the same way humans do – they collaborate, they have division of labour,” said Boris. “There are carpenter bees, nurse bees, bees that regulate the temperature of the hive, bees that take care of the queen, foraging bees, and police bees.”

A hive needs police bees because, just like in human society, some bees try to cheat and break the rules – for example, laying eggs when they’re not supposed to.

“We call some of them anarchistic bees,” Boris explained. “And if they are able to escape the police bees, the colony is doomed as too many lay eggs and too few actually do some work.”

But apiary anarchists are the least of the problems that bees are facing. Bee populations worldwide are currently in steep decline.

“The USA has lost more than 10 million hives in just six years,” said Boris. “Certain areas of China have lost bees entirely.”

Boris attributes the decline to a mix of factors, such as overuse of pesticides and the global spread of the blood-sucking, bee-killing parasite, the varroa mite.

But he’s also quick to point out that the collapse of bee populations means more to humans than just a shortage of honey. It could mean a significant disruption to global food supplies.

“About 80 crops depend on bees for pollination, about a third of what we eat,” said Boris. Without bees, fruit and vegetables worldwide would be in short supply.

In regions of China where bees have been entirely lost, workers are now paid to pollinate plants by hand – a labour-intensive and ultimately unsustainable process, said Boris.

The crisis is driving Boris and his team to seek a solution.

“We’re looking at the bee immune system, trying to figure out ways to help bees defend themselves by building their levels of tolerance through breeding,” he said.

“We’re breeding better bees.”

Boris will be giving a public talk about his work, Molecules of Love and Warfare , for UWA Research Week at 12:00pm on Thursday, 10 September at the Wilsmore Lecture Theatre.