Scary but true: in Harvard University they are working on a colony of robotic bees, the robobees.
http://robobees.seas.harvard.edu/
Pollution, pesticides, genetically modified crops and monocultures are, in combination with parasites and pathogens, contributing factors to the disappearance of the honeybees. According to Albert Einstein, if all the bees disappeared of the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.
Fact is that honeybee populations are declining around the world and so far there seems to be only one other way of pollinating mass numbers of plants. It involves employing people to go round with feather dusters, brushing the insides of plants with pollen. They are already doing it in parts of China to pollinate pear trees in areas where the insects are extinct.
However, the scientists of Harvard University are developing the ideal robot honeybee, called the ‘robobee’. The researchers state that coordinated agile robotic insects can be used for a variety of purposes, including the autonomous pollination of a field of crops.