ATHENS – Humans need bees for survival on the planet but they’re disappearing – including in Greece – because of the growing use of pesticides, climate change and environmental factors gradually erasing their numbers, said Kathimerini.

While the effect has been less in Greece, it’s still a worrying factor and in  2015, the site BeeCulture wrote about what was killing the bees even then, blaming pesticides and that the country seemed to be suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder symptoms (CCD) as well.

There are a total of 1.5 million beehives, Greece ranking second in the world behind Hungary with 11.1 behives per square kilometer (0.6 miles) and Greek honey is one of its most precious commodities, with Genetically-modified crops (GMO) prohibited, keeping the honey pure.

But pesticides are allowed and they are a killing factor.

Bees have an almost sacred place in Greece, where some ancient philosophers believed people could be reincarnated as bees or that the insects were the souls of those not yet born.

Greeks eagerly await the real arrival of spring, seeing bees outside their window pollinating flowers and trees and food products that would be lost without bees, and the loss was worse after fires in the summer of 2021 destroyed bee-keeping hives on the island of Evia.