Posted on 04/07/2007 7:02:03 AM PDT by Nomorjer Kinov
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US beekeepers have been stung in recent months by the mysterious disappearance of millions of bees threatening honey supplies as well as crops which depend on the insects for pollination.
Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent.
According to estimates from the US Department of Agriculture, bees are vanishing across a total of 22 states, and for the time being no one really knows why.
"Approximately 40 percent of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in my 30 years of beekeeping," apiarist Gene Brandi, from the California State Beekeepers Association, told Congress recently.
It is normal for hives to see populations fall by some 20 percent during the winter, but the sharp loss of bees is causing concern, especially as domestic US bee colonies have been steadily decreasing since 1980.
There are some 2.4 million professional hives in the country, according to the Agriculture Department, 25 percent fewer than at the start of the 1980s.
And the number of beekeepers has halved.
The situation is so bad, that beekeepers are now calling for some kind of government intervention, warning the flight of the bees could be catastrophic for crop growers.
Domestic bees are essential for pollinating some 90 varieties of vegetables and fruits, such as apples, avocados, and blueberries and cherries.
"The pollination work of honey bees increases the yield and quality of United States crops by approximately 15 billion dollars annually including six billion in California," Brandi said.
California's almond industry alone contributes two billion dollars to the local economy, and depends on 1.4 million bees which are brought from around the US every year to help pollinate the trees, he added.
The phenomenon now being witnessed across the United States has been dubbed "colony collapse disorder," or CCD, by scientists as they seek to explain what is causing the bees to literally disappear in droves.
The usual suspects to which bees are known to be vulnerable such as the varroa mite, an external parasite which attacks honey bees and which can wipe out a hive, appear not to be the main cause.
"CCD is associated with unique symptoms, not seen in normal collapses associated with varroa mites and honey bee viruses or in colony deaths due to winter kill," entomologist Diana Cox-Foster told the Congress committee.
In cases of colony collapse disorder, flourishing hives are suddenly depopulated leaving few, if any, surviving bees behind.
The queen bee, which is the only one in the hive allowed to reproduce, is found with just a handful of young worker bees and a reserve of food.
Curiously though no dead bees are found either inside or outside the hive.
The fact that other bees or parasites seem to shun the emptied hives raises suspicions that some kind of toxin or chemical is keeping the insects away, Cox-Foster said.
Those bees found in such devastated colonies also all seem to be infected with multiple micro-organisms, many of which are known to be behind stress-related illness in bees.
Scientists working to unravel the mysteries behind CCD believe a new pathogen may be the cause, or a new kind of chemical product which could be weakening the insects' immune systems.
The finger of suspicion is being pointed at agriculture pesticides such as the widely-used neonicotinoides, which are already known to be poisonous to bees.
France saw a huge fall in its bee population in the 1990s, blamed on the insecticide Gaucho which has now been banned in the country.
There, fixed it. I have nothing against profits. I love profits too. But it is possible to go too far. 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, I can wait to see what disaster this GM tampering causes.
There is a cinderblock wall down one side of the property line of my house. Within this cinderblock wall dwells a very old colony of bees. I’ve lived here over 40 yrs and they were in residence when I got here.
Through the years various neighbors and others have attempted to kill this hive. I’ve never heard of anyone being stung, but still the initial reaction is to kill, kill, kill.
I came home one day to find that my neighbor had plastered up the small crack in one cinderblock that was the entrance to the hive. When I asked him why he said he “may” get stung (he’d lived here even longer than I and had never yet been stung). The poor bees were buzzing around trying to get into their home. So, I took a drill and made a nice hole for them.
Fortunately - I own the wall - it is 12 inches inside my property line.
One day as I stood at my front door a pesticide truck drove up and the exterminator was looking at the bees and writing things down on his clip board.
I went out to talk to him and he said someone down the street had asked him to spray the hive. I told him in no uncertain terms: I own the wall, it’s on my property - he doesn’t have my permission to cross into my property nor to touch the bees. When I asked him if anyone had been stung - he said “no.”
Another neighbor across the street wanted me to kill the bees because childen live in the neighborhood and they “might” get stung. By this time I had seen in the forty years I’ve lived here a couple of generations of kids (including my own) playing in the area - and no one had ever been stung.
Through the years for no reason at all there has been attempt after attempt to kill this hive. Seems to be the first reaction of human beings is to kill.
I know the professional bee hive owners across the country have a serious problem - which means we have a serious problem since bees are so important.
This reminded me of my little experience with bees - and so I took the liberty of telling you about it.
Your warnings can go to the sprint into human genetic manipulation as well. But that is for another thread.
I too have clover, lots of it :) I raised my children with looking for the 3-leafed ones for luck. :) And numerous hours of enjoying each other's company, telling stories, discussions, exercise, re-enactments, lots of play on our fields of "clover".
Yep, I love the smell of clover.... :)
Disturbing. This mystery is very curious..
A convenient excuse to raise the price of fruits and veggies?
Well, someone better concoct some BEEagra, and put the buzz back into their lives!
Actually, this _is_ a serious problem, amid all the joshing. I found these suggestions the most interesting:
1. GBA's comment about bees leaving the hives and then "getting lost", unable to find their way back "home"...
2. Sgt_Schultze's comment about genetically-altered seeds.
- John
I agree.
Of the 6 main species of honeybees, 4 of them originate in Iran. (I didn’t read the whole article)
Um...hybridization has been around for centuries.
Are frogs missing too?
“Invest in tinfoil.”
Very cute. Time will tell who is the schumck here.
You are exactly right, this could be VERY serious. No bees, no food. That is the bottom line. I wonder though if it may be that scientists, attempting to stop the spread of africaized bees, caused it?
Thank you again for this ping. Since these articles have come out I’m really looking for bees this spring. Our yard is full of spring blooms (we’re in the deep south) but I haven’t seen a bee yet. The only thing flying are bumble bees and butterflies. I’m hoping for the best with our vegetable garden.
We also have lots of clover, and no interest in getting rid of it.
The only part of our property that has any “formality” to it, are the rows of veggie crops........everything else is as it is!
Neonicotinoids are classified by the EPA as both toxicity class II and class III agents and are labeled with the signal word “Warning” or “Caution.” Because the neonicotinoids block a specific neuron pathway that is more abundant in insects than warm-blooded animals, these insecticides are more selectively toxic to insects than mammals
Acetamiprid.....MT....= moderately toxic (kills if applied over bees)
Imidacloprid....HT....= highly toxic (kills upon contact as well as residues)
Thiamethoxam....HT....= highly toxic (kills upon contact as well as residues)
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PI117
There’s the answer plain as day, for the problem....the first one kills them dead if they fly into the mist; the other 2 kill them dead if the bees just come into contact with the residue on the plants while collecting pollen.
Bee rapture?
Silly...the bees are Gay and want to be liberated from the traditional slavery of the beehives. Let the homophobes get their own honey elsewhere while the drones make honey with each other....Buzz off.....
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