"Oh, BEE-have!"
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.
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.
I have been hearing about the mites for the last serveral years. I remember the guy in the office next to me claim the bees were dying due to the US not signing Kyoto. Then the mite story came out. He was not happy man wasn’t the cause of it.
Ed claims that honeybees will be nearly extinct within the next 2 years.
If he is correct, this effect should be observable worldwide. It would not be isolated to the U.S. Any other similar honeybee reports from other places in the world?
Yes.
Why would you expect to find piles of dead/dying bees in one place?
Their “dosages” would be different in total exposure and also obtaines at different times........so each individual bee would become immobile and drop to the ground at the point in time contingent on the time and degree of exposure. Their distribution on the ground would be widely disbursed and haphazard.
Wanna bet that the 22 States referred to in the article DOESN’T coincide with the greatest purchase and application of these 3 drugs? If so, I’ll take that bet....
When England had a similar problem over a century ago, the authorities consulted Charles Darwin. He said, ‘More cats.’ So they got more cats, and the problem disappeared.
I don’t think that DDT is a potential issue with the bees.....you ought to start a DDT thread if you want to argue with someone about it.
Meanwhile, crop pollenation is going to become a serious problem if the bee matter isn’t addressed, and mosquitos can’t do the job, LOL.
Ed Danes announced that he and the boyz were going to have an announcement about Nataee Holloways whereabouts next week.....that was a year ago.
Good grief are you stupid.
Perhaps bio terror? A bee-specific agent would be a neat tool for our enemies.
"Oh, BEE-have!"
Ed Dames track record does not inspire confidence in his predictions:
http://www.zetatalk.com/index/dames2.htm
http://www.ufowatchdog.com/rvdames.html
That is kind of disturbing that it is hard to get regular seeds and the Dems might even criminalize that. Obviously the seed companies profit if you have to buy from them every year. The Democrats probably have a grander scheme than that. Imagine a socialist economy where farmers are strictly controlled and they are only allowed to grow plants that cannot reproduce. They make it a crime to grow plants that can reproduce. That would really destroy whatever self-sufficiency that is left.
And everything I’ve ever read indicates that the accusation that DDT harmed bald eagle egg shells is just utterly fraudulent.
FINALLY!
Amen.
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