Enviromental Wackism, the new Secular Religion. All regions have their wacko doomsday cults, “Environmentalism” is our secular version of them.
Nature’s bees are dying too I suppose. Why would it effect just commercial bees?
Commercial bee hives support agriculture, which of course is not natural habitat. If you want to grow high concentrations of crops, you need high concentrations of bees. The natural environment doesn’t produce enough food to sustain a civilization. Assuming that any enviromental concern is leftist BS is just as foolish and knee-jerk as the environuts hysteria.
Your ignorance, as usual, is monumental. (Read post #20 for guidance).
If domestic bees are dying it is safe to assume that wild bees are as well.
Judging from your tagline, perhaps you need to smarten up on this issue.
I have a small apiary of honeybees, yet I too have to be just as concerned for my “girls” as does a large commercial beekeeper. All bees in the US have been subject to a number of diseases and pests and pesticides. Other countries have been dealing with similar problems as well. Beekeepers have to medicate their hives to rid bees of varroa and tracheal mites. Some use natural means while others use chemicals but when the honey flow is not “on”. Beekeepers have to deal with hive beetles which can decimate a hive in ten days or less. Still others have to deal with wax moth (really noxious pests), foulbrood and other diseases. In short, there are several ways for bee hives to be weakened and ultimately lost. These maladies affect both wild bees as well as domesticated bees. These diseases and pests has resulted in a significant decline in the number of feral bees so your remark about “removing all commercial bee hives today would mean the world would continue along just fine” is absolutely incorrect. Fortunately, domestic bees have beekeepers to look after them. Were it not for this, the total bee population would decline even more. I read once that 80 percent of bees were in urban areas. Obviously, these bees had hives to return to and beekeepers to manage them.
This recent malady has experienced beekeepers and scientists scratching their heads. No one seems to have a handle on the magnitude of the problem nor its cause. Some posit that genetically modified plants may be the culprit. Supposedly, these plants have a built-in pesticide. Obviously, this would be detrimental to honeybees. There may be a number of other and as yet unknown reasons.
Locally, I have to be concerned about the city government worker who drives the streets in the early evening spraying mosquito killer into the air as he drives by. The fact that we are in a long drought and there is no standing water available for mosquitoes to incubate doesn’t seem to matter. It’s spring time and we must spray. Nevermind that this spray does a number on my bees.
The point is that there truly is a significant decline in bee population underway. Losses are higher now than in previous years partly because of the rise in the use of pesticides. The economic loss to US agriculture and to society in general will be staggering unless a cause is found for this most recent “colony collapse disorder”.
I’m not an environmentalist wacko so get off your “hysteric leftist” kick.
Note to hysteric Leftists. Get over yourselves. You are not the center of the Universe. The world does NOT revolve around your butts. LONG before “commercial bee hives” were invented, plants grew and pollinated all over the world just fine. If you magically removed all commercial bee hives today, the world will continue along just fine.No. This is a real problem, and an ongoing one. The media has ignored it until recently, but it's very important to understand. In the 80's/90's I don't remember the exact time frame two invader species, a fungus and a mite pretty much annihilated the wild honeybee population in America(isn't globalization great?). That's why agriculture has to rely on "commercial bee hives" for pollination, there *are no* wild bees to do it anymore. If the kept bees die off we *will* be looking at an epic disaster.
Enviromental Wackism, the new Secular Religion. All regions have their wacko doomsday cults, “Environmentalism” is our secular version of them.
I was wondering about just how many native wild bumble & honey bees have been having the same problem.
Can’t we find one comet to name ‘Comet Eco-Bob’?