Mysterious disappearance of US bees creating a buzz

Yahoo News ^ | Apr. 6, 2007 | Jean-Louis Santini

[WayneH]

I have started using Mason Bees for pollination. No honey. They just pollinate, propagate and die. That’s just like using “guest” workers.

[uglybiker]

...GM brought to you by the same good people who brought you Kudzu, rabbits, to Australia, and all sorts of other introductions meant to fix one problem but caused other problems far worse...

Those fiascos were not brought aboutby corporations. They were orchestrqated by gov't officials working with taxpayer funds.

[Arrowhead1952]

The only problem I see with that explanation is that dead bees are not being found. At these numbers, we should be seeing piles of dead bees.

That is something I feel is missing here. Years ago when I was growing up on the far, we had over 30 hives of bees. The wax worms killed most of the larve and the worker bees died in the hives.

I think some of this is caused by the Africanized bees crossbreeding with the domestic bees. They are very agressive and not good for pollination of crops.

[SuzyQue]

Hmmm. Could be right.

You all staying warm today? Awful weather for central Texas.

[Sender]

If you search for BEES PESTICIDES MONSANTO etc, you will note that most of the bee catastrope articles out there are on anti-Bush websites.

And who gets the blame for the missing bees? You guessed it.

[Arrowhead1952]

Sure is awful today. The temp is about 38 now.

[dogbyte12]

Osama Bin Laden was heavily invested in honey, in the Sudan I believe. He used it as a funding source.

[jetson]

There is a lot of engineered seed now. Mayhaps the food, genetically altered to resist disease, is also poisoning the bee population.

There is also some talk of the herbicide roundup being involved. I myself wonder if the shifting of the magnetic poles is making them think their tops are on the bottom and their bottoms are on the top.

[FormerLib]

I have a friend who keeps bees as a hobby. He was telling me about this over a year ago. He told me there’s a type of mite from Europe that’s causing the problem. The mites get into the hive and pretty much wreck everything.

I’m betting the mites are from France. We need to go kick their butts for this. Do it for the bees.

[Dianna]

I too have clover, lots of it :) I raised my children with looking for the 3-leafed ones for luck. :)

If we don't keep our grass mowed, we grow small flowers that attract bees. At least two of us get stung every darn summer while walking through the backyard.

[steve86]

Good story. Best wishes to YOUR bees.

[Tunehead54]

"Good grief are you stupid."

---

Since you have excluded any possibility of agriterrorism from the discussion you must know the cause of this "colony collapse disorder".

Please do share your wisdom as were the CCD problem to continue it could in fact threaten our very survival.

Thanks in advance.

[Ping-Pong]

Would you elaborate a bit? I haven’t heard anything about frogs. Is it just in your area or across the States or Europe? Does anyone know the cause?

[Miles the Slasher]

To bee, or not to bee...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Its been reported for the past dozen years in the US and I’ve noticed it locally, too. Something...sunlight, chemical pollution, disease or whatever, has reduced the frog numbers in lakes and ponds. We still have tree frogs in good numbers and toads and other like creatures seem plentiful. If you do a search on the subject, you’ll find plenty has been written about the disappearance but no one knows why its happening.

[Levante]

Damn aliens! First they mutilate cattle! Then abduct people! NOW OUR BEES!

[theFIRMbss]

>I haven’t heard anything about frogs

MAXINE McKEW: Australian scientists have joined an international effort to attempt to solve a worldwide environmental mystery - a drastic decline in frog numbers.

[Ping-Pong]

Thank you for your reply. We have a pond in our back yard and the frogs were almost deafening in the evenings. Now that it’s spring I’ll have to start listening for them. I hate to lose them as they keep the mosquito population down. Come to think of it I havent seen any dragon or damsel flies yet. Maybe it’s just too early in the season. Thank you again.

[Ping-Pong]

That was an interesting article - thank you for telling me about it.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Where is your pond ? North, south ?