Help save the bees: New app turns users into bee counters

Starting May 1, there'll be a free app as part of the first World Bee Count project, and all you need to participate is a smartphone and a willingness to snap photos, says Wilkes. — Dreamstime/TNS

Threatened honey bees, endangered bumblebees, fading butterflies... we hear alarms all the time about the global decline in pollinators, but does anybody really know how many are out there?

Starting May 1, there'll be a free app to try to answer that question as part of the first World Bee Count project, and all you need to participate is a smartphone and a willingness to snap photos, says beekeeper, farmer and computer science professor James Wilkes.