From Environmental New Service: (no mention of radio waves)
Honey Bees Dying of Mysterious Disorder
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania, January 29, 2007 (ENS) - A die-off of honey bees has beekeepers struggling for survival and farmers worried about whether bees will be around to pollinate their crops this year.
An affliction recently named colony collapse disorder, CCD, has decimated commercial beekeeping operations in Pennsylvania and across the country.
“During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States,” said Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “Since the beginning of the year, beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses.
Initial studies of dying colonies revealed a large number of disease organisms present, with no one disease being identified as the culprit, says Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Ongoing case studies and surveys of beekeepers experiencing CCD have found a few common management factors, but no common environmental agents or chemicals have been identified.
“Preliminary work has identified several likely factors that could be causing or contributing to CCD,” said vanEngelsdorp. “Among them are mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning.”
The bee keepers I know say their worst problems are mites and drought.
It's AIDS! The gays have sunk to a new low, queen bees.
Shouldn’t the price of honey start going up?
I know someone who, in addition to his regular job, keeps bees. He has complained of hives dying off for some time now.
I have also noticed that when I go picking apples in the autumn, there are far fewer honey bees than there used to be there. Finally, I don’t see nearly as many bees in my own yard. Whatever it is, it is serious.
It could be something (pesticide?, mites?)from China. Are their bees susceptible to the same problem?