Bees not only produce honey, they pollinate all flowers, crops and vegetation. They are disappearing and that spells disaster for the human race. One Oklahoma man, Dr. Yoon Kim, is trying to keep the honey flowing.

Kim teaches part time but is working full time to save the bees. He is a University of Oklahoma graduate and has taught English for more than 20 years in local colleges -- Langston, Oklahoma City University, St. Gregory's -- and he was dean at a school in Little Rock, Ark. He received his master's at OU and his Ph.D at Oklahoma State University.

"Yes, I'm a turncoat," he said.

His interest in bees began more than 20 years ago when his father had two colonies. Kim reads, does research and has colonies at his home.

"I would love to save more bees in the Norman area," Kim said. "I have made this my personal mission. I have been saving feral bees."

Kim saves the bees because "they have survived the mites," he said.

There are two kinds of mites, he said. One is tracheal mites that attaches itself to the bees trachea and passes from bee to bee. It came to America in the '80s. The other mite is a varroa mite that attacks the thorax or wing area and sucks blood out of the bees. It also came to America in the '80s from Asia where it wiped out not only kept bees but feral bees.

"As far as I know through extensive reading and research," Kim said, "the colony cleft disorder that people hear about at this point appears to be more than one cause."

The number one reason bees are disappearing is the misuse of insecticides and herbicides, Kim said.

The first thing people do when they are bothered by bees is "go to Lowe's and find a chemical spray," Kim said. What people don't know is that bees are somewhat protected by federal law, he added.

Spraying the bees can kill the entire colony but within 21 days the brood will rehatch, Kim said. The brood is protected inside the sealed comb and after hatching, will come back to the carcinogenic comb or other bees will try to rob the contaminated honey.

"The nasty chemicals robbing the leftover honey from the spray can impact bee keepers within a three or four mile radius," Kim said. "That bee keeper won't know his honey is tainted."

Kim said the best way to get rid of the bees is to remove the nest and seal off the void or the crack with insulation foam. The bees will find a nest in buildings that are not insulated or the insulation has fallen over the years.

Another problem with spraying chemicals is cross pollination, Kim said. Corn, for example, is already low in protein and nutrients. The bees collect the pollen seeded by systematic pesticide neonicotineoid that kills the host insect in a sustained way and it seems to stay on the soil. When the farmer plants the same crop year after year, (monocrop), there is a culminated affect.

A big contributor to the bee decline is habitat loss. The constant encroachment to accommodate human people is a big problem, Kim said.