Another link, perhaps the main source A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis
Thanks for posting this piece. The word on actual causes of the hive collapses need to be heard.
I remember a study in South TX where these flies or similar were brought in from South America to kill fire ants.
The bee, he is a busy soul
He has no time for birth control
And that is why, in times like these
There are so many SOBs
Zom-bees!
It’s been more than 50 years since I cared for a bee hive, so I’m not up on everything, but I have been following the colony collapse syndrome problem. This discovery is significant. I hope it leads to a solution.
the link at the bottom of my comment is to a PLoS ONE item.
Oh what a glorious thing to be,
A healthy grown up busy busy bee,
Arthur Askey’s “Bee Song”
(This will make you crazy.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx3epp1nTNs
Whiling away
The passing hours
Pinching all the pollen
From the cauliflow’rs.
I’d like to be a busy little bee,
Being just as busy as a bee can be,
Flying round the garden
Brightest ever seen,
Taking back the honey
To the dear old queen.
Bzz bzz bzz bzz, honey bee, honey bee,
Bzz if you like but don’t sting me.
Bzz bzz bzz bzz, honey bee, honey bee,
Bzz if you like but don’t sting me!
You may be interested in this:
http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/dec/28/superbees-creation-has-industry-abuzz/
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On a farm on the outskirts of Frederick, Md., Kelly Rausch and Adam Finkelstein crack open a wooden beehive whose design dates to the 19th century. Inside, they point out a superbee they have made for the 21st century.
In two months, the carefully bred queen bee has built a large, productive colony that knows how to cluster against the cold and fill the winter larder with honey.
More important, her bees have sought out and destroyed a sneaky parasitic mite that feeds on their baby sisters. “The bees are definitely taking care of everything,” Finkelstein said from behind his veil.
The desire for a bee that will look after itself might seem pretty basic. But with as many as one-third of honeybee colonies routinely dying off each year and the rest requiring extraordinary care, the quest for a better bee has become critical.
Scientists are trying to find the cause of colony collapse disorder, the 5-year-old phenomenon of worker bees suddenly disappearing. Other maladies abound and could be a factor in the disorder: new pests and diseases, the effects of pesticides and the strain of industrial-scale pollination.
Farmers rely on the insect not just for honey but also to pollinate much of our food.
Rausch and Finkelstein run a business called VP Queen Bees, which supplies breeder queens to producers for as much as $165 a queen, from their five bee yards in Frederick County, 50 miles northwest of here. The producers, in turn, propagate daughter queens by the thousands and sell them to commercial beekeepers and backyard hobbyists for about $30 each.
The object: a queen that will pass on to her colony the traits of disease and pest resistance, gentleness, productivity and winter hardiness.
I remember reading about parasites being a cause of Colony Collapse years ago, but it was in a more fringe publication, mainstream just kept touting its something we are doing, pesticides, etc... whenever I saw a report about it in the mainstream press.
Amazing how the truth is ignored..
Bush’s fault.
I am just learning about mason bees (Osmia lignaria) now from seeing them in garden catalogs. Quite a neat little species: much more effective pollinizers than honeybees and very docile.
http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/inse006/inse006.htm
Since they are solitary, I’m guessing they don’t suffer from colony collapse or anything like that.
Here in Socal, I find bees on the ground either acting drunk or dead. Could fit the pattern.