[BEES] Loss of species that pollinate is cause for global alarm, researchers say

Washington Post ^ | Thursday, October 19, 2006 | Juliet Eilperin

[B-Chan]

Birds, bees, bats and other species that pollinate North American plant life are losing population, according to a study released Wednesday by the National Research Council. This "demonstrably downward" trend could damage dozens of commercially important crops, scientists warned, because three-fourths of all flowering plants depend on pollinators for fertilization. American honeybees, which pollinate more than 90 domestic commercial crops, have declined by 30 percent in the past 20 years. This poses a challenge to agricultural interests such as California almond farmers, who need about 1.4 million colonies of honeybees to pollinate 550,000 acres of their trees. By 2012, the state's almond farmers are expected to need bees to pollinate 800,000 acres.

[B-Chan]

"Gene Robinson, an entomologist at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and one of the 15 researchers who produced the report, said U.S. farmers had to import honeybees last year for the first time since 1922, underscoring the extent of the problem. "The honeybee industry is at a critical juncture," Robinson said. "The time for action is now." A number of factors have cut pollinators' numbers in recent decades, the researchers said. Pesticides and introduced parasites such as the varroa mite have hurt the honeybee population. Bats, which carry pollen to a variety of crops, have declined as vandalism and development destroyed some of their key cave roosts. John Karges, a Nature Conservancy conservation biologist who works with the federally endangered Mexican long-nosed bat in west Texas, said the bat's U.S. population fell from 10,000 in 1967 to 1,000 in 1983. The species feeds on nectar from the agave plant, which can be used to produce a sweetener as well as tequila. "This bat is rare and suspected of declining rangewide," said Karges, noting that it can now be spotted only at one protected cave site in Big Bend National Park. "I don't think anyone's looking at it annually or closely." The declines have been gradual and in some instances are hard to quantify, the committee concluded. But the panel's chairwoman, entomologist May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, said in a statement that there is already cause for alarm. "Despite its apparent lack of marquee appeal, a decline in pollinator populations is one form of global change that actually has credible potential to alter the shape and structure of terrestrial ecosystems," Berenbaum said. Animals carry pollen, which they pick up inadvertently while feeding on a plant's nectar, and transfer it from one flowering plant to another, sometimes over significant distances. The process not only boosts plant production but increases species' genetic diversity. Animal pollinators fertilize more than 187,500 flowering plants worldwide. Scientists believe these plants, called angiosperms, gained ecological dominance more than 70 million years ago in part because animals help them disperse their pollen so broadly. Other pollinators include hummingbirds and butterflies, as well as wild bees. In many ways pollination works as a chain, said committee member Peter Kevan, a professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, in which even the largest animals depend on small insects. "Canadian black bears need blueberries, and the blueberries need bees" for pollination, Kevan said. "Without the bees you don't have blueberries, and without the blueberries you don't have black bears." Despite this crucial link, Robinson said, many ordinary citizens fail to grasp how important pollinators are to food production. European researchers also have documented serious declines: The diversity of bee species has declined by 40 percent in the United Kingdom and 60 percent in Holland since 1980. Europeans have more detailed records of pollinators than Americans, said University of Arizona entomologist Stephen Buchmann, partly because they have more amateur taxonomists keeping track of them."

***

A note from B-chan: Bees are vital to American agriculture, horticulture, and the wild environment. Honeybees have enough going against them as it is — poison, predators, parasites, and loss of habitat due to sprawl are wreaking havoc on our domestic bee population. I'd like to ask all of you to be kind to bees by not using chemical pesticides, herbicides, insecticides or chemicals on your lawns or in your homes except as a last resort; by planting bee-friendly plants and flowers; and by safeguarding wild beehives. If you see a bee, please don't kill it or fool around with it — just leave it alone; bees are typically not aggressive unless molested, and most will bumble away from you if you give them a chance. If bees establish a hive in a dangerous or inconvenient place, don't spray or burn them out; instead, steer clear of it and call a beekeeper in your area to come and collect the bees. (Most will be happy to take away some free livestock!) Learn to distinguish helpful bees from aggressive wasps and other flying pests. Finally, consider xeriscaping or natural gardening; by planting your yard in native flowers, grasses, and trees, you will cut your lawn's need for water significantly while at the same time creating a beautiful (and pollen-rich!) environment with no need for bee-killing chemicals.

Be kind to bees! Thanks.

[goodnesswins]

Will you come to MY condo complex....and give your lecture to the idiots here who spray to KILL BEES!!!!!!!!

[Tax-chick]

I'm fond of bees, myself, but I don't have enough energy today for global alarm. Sorry 'bout that.

[edcoil]

DO SOMETHING NOW - they say

"Planting your yard in native flowers, grasses, and trees"


Dude, winter is coming for most of us, not a good planting season - bring this back in spring.

[Nathan Zachary]

What a load of crap, and in direct conflict with another documentry that claims due to "global warming" and extended seasonal warm weather, that there is MORE pollination happening, resulting in BETTER crops. The bees are active longer before going into hibernation.

So there, global warming has positive effects especially in agriculture which will help feed all those starving Africans with aids in places like Nigeria, somolia and the Sudan, who can afford guns and ammo, but just can't seem to come up with the cash for food and drugs.

Give them YOUR money Bono, - Wait, you are, that's why they have guns and ammo.

Maybe we should send food instead of money; - wait, we do, except the UN delivers it to the Islamic death cult, who uses it to feed the death squads, and withold it from those they consider Infidels.

Maybe we should send them our extra bees so they can grow their own food.

[alloysteel]

If the domestic bees die off, we may always substitute the African bees, which are perfectly capable of carrying out the pollination duties. Of course, the African bees are a much more aggressive species, which unlike the domestic variety, will pursue anyone or anything who attacks their hive for a considerable distance, and continue the attack even after the object of the attack has fallen motionless and is presumedly stung to death.

In special circumstances, fire ants may be able to substitute for other pollinating insects. Who said these creatures are confined to only one niche in the chain of life?

[READINABLUESTATE]

Un-Beeleivable!

[nomorelurker]

I think thats the only (remotely) good thing I've ever read about fire ants.

[dandelion]

This is already a big deal here among some of my gardening friends. One of my friends had big fruit and garden failures this year because of a lack of pollinators. She asked me if I had any pollinators and I told her I am so blessed to have Wood Bees... AKA Carpenter Bees.

They are big, gentle, bumble-type bees that are exceptional pollinators. The males don't even have stingers, and the females are so gentle I can walk through a whole field of them and never be threatened. They even seem to be friendly; I've had them come up just to "watch" us or follow us around the garden, but they never hurt us. I actually like them.

Perfect, right?

Well, they do have ONE little problem - they like to drill holes in untreated wood. This makes them unpopular with many, but I don't have a problem with it. I'm so in love with these bees, I won't kill them, but I do like to build with wood. Ergo I only use treated lumber on all my projects; otherwise, I stain all untreated lumber.

The bees haven't made even one hole in my two large wooden decks. They nest in the dead wood I have in my acreage next door, and they are wonderful pollinators. I'm going to lay out some untreated boards for them to nest in next year, so I can be assured that I will always have them. They don't make honey, but they make my orchard and garden truly productive. I'm really grateful to God that they share my garden!

[Nathan Zachary]

Bee's aren't dying off, in fact there are more bee's and wasps than ever. It's been an epidemic around here all summer long.

I guess the whole world revolves around findings in California, and they assume that what they see from their apartment balcony is what things look like and happens everywhere else in the world.

I'm so sick and tired of this global warming disinformation.

[PISANO]

It's BUSH's fault!

[Ditto]

Ergo I only use treated lumber on all my projects; otherwise, I stain all untreated lumber.

I had them drilling into stained lumber this year -- albeit, it was a transparent stain. Does it require sold stain to keep them off?

[dandelion]

The loss of bees has nothing to do with "global warming" - rather, it is due to disease, mites, and pesticide. Honey Bees have been decimated by these mites.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/05/050517110843.htm

It is a very real issue, and one that is likely to have huge implications if we cannot find other pollinators to take their place. Fortunately for Texas, the Africanized Honey Bee is less suceptible to the mites in question...

Hybridized European/Africanized "killer bees" might actually end up being a Godsend for gardeners.

[dandelion]

I used a semi-transparent stain (Behr). The carpenter bees would bump their little heads against it, say "yuck" and leave. But I also used treated lumber on the project as well...

[Nathan Zachary]

There are all kinds of bugs and birds, like the hummingbird, that pollinate as a result of their activities.

Just because one small area on the planet is being effected negatively is some respects by normal changes in weather patterns, the opposite is happening somewhere else. This has been going on since the beginning of time. It's normal.

[steveo]

Well since you seem to know a bit about gardening you may know a flower called a '4 o'clock'. Around here the wood bees are cheating for their nectar. They don't bother going into the flower to retrieve their drop (and collect some pollen) but rather they bite through the flower towards the stem on the outside. This lets them access the nectar without fulfilling their part of the bargain.

We have a healthy wild bee population here and a very healthy wasp population too. Our garden is pretty much pest free every year because we don't chase the predatory wasps out. I grown tomatoes every years and because of the wasps, haven't seen a hornworm in years.

[MineralMan]

You're right...it's a serious problem. Too many folks, from farmers to ordinary homeowners are spraying insecticides to get rid of pests (or bugs they think are pests). It kills the bees, too. Bad move all around.

Around here, folks are using heavy insecticides to kill box elder bugs...a completely harmless species. They're annoying when they show up in large numbers, but that's all.

Bees are good critters. We need them.

[dandelion]

I heard about that - I thought it was another kind of bee doing the dirty deed, though! So far the Wood Bees seem to be holding up their end of the bargain around here, but I'll keep an eye out for any cheaters around here...

About the wasps: I like to have had a heart attack when I was my first "cicada killer" wasp this last spring. They are freaky big! But the black wasps were busy with the grasshoppers, and I hadn't seen that before, either, so I don't have a clue about wasps, evidently.

[dandelion]

Maybe we should start the "Bee A Friend" movement! ;)

[Nathan Zachary]

Take a 2 liter(quart) coke bottle. cut the top off off them, it, then unvert the cut off top and put it back into the bottle bottom, like a funnel. pour about a cup or so of the rootbeer back in. There you have a very effective bee and wasp trap. put them around where you think the pests are building a nest. Then seal up the area after few or no bees or wasps show up in your trap.