Posted on 02/08/2008 2:56:47 AM PST by chessplayer
Feb 7 A malady that's killed billions of bees since 2006, threatening about $15 billion in pollinated crops, has been detected again, according to the US Department of Agriculture's top honeybee researcher.
(Excerpt) Read more at financialexpress.com ...
Werent killer bees migrating north from Mexico and killing the regular bees a few yrears ago ???
Seems like a paltry sum when you consider the billions being spent on pork.........
However, no one to date has much in the way of specifics to the cause. The enviro weeenies immediately run to pesticides, but cannot confirm any specific. (normal)
Since 1904 there have been 5 cycles of measured loss of honeybees. Research has yet to explain those cycles. They have come back each time.
from your article link:
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “The effects of the renewed onset of Colony Collapse Disorder won’t be known until month’s end, when California almond growers begin assessing the quality of crop pollination, said Jeffery Pettis, research leader of the USDA’s bee laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland.”
I thought researchers had found the cause of this outbreak of CCD (a parasite) and had a viable remedy. I am phobic about bees but not the honeybee. we depend on them for so much.
We had siding put on our 200+ year old farmhouse this past fall. There was a large hive of honeybees living in the wall high up on the side of the house. I called a local beekeeper (the only one we could find). He said he’d come out and try to get them. He never came. I called him several times. So I emailed the Pennsylvania Beekeepers association. They never responded. Meanwhile, the weather was getting worse, and the siding company wanted to get the job done. We had to have the wall opened and the hive destroyed. It was a large healthy hive. We felt bad, but didn’t know what else to do! This hive has been here for several years, and every year the hive split and half flew off to create a new hive.
I thought researchers had found the cause of this outbreak of CCD (a parasite) and had a viable remedy. I am phobic about bees but not the honeybee. we depend on them for so much.
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I remember the same thing ,, it was found to be a variant of a known treatable ailament (virus? , parasite? , whatever...) with a simple and cheap cure..
I was at a friends place who is a bee keeper. While observing one of the hives from about 10 yards, I inadvertently located myself on the path of one of the scout bees. It chased me for at least 3 minutes (seemed like an hour) before I was able to get in my truck and close the door. It was relentless at letting me know I didn't belong there.
Which brings up something that occurred to me the other day: the environmental wackos who worship at the altar of globaloney warming are the same folks who buy their food at the sticks and twigs organic stores. They don't care what their schemes do to food prices or other items for that matter because they're already paying high prices to shop in those stores. (I like going in them myself, but only for a few items. If I only did my food buying there, I'd look like one of the Olsen twins minus the billion or so in the bank.)
People who pay so much more than the average person pays for food are not going to care or even understand that burning corn instead of eating it raises food prices. They are the last people who should be advising the rest of us on how it's worth the extra cost to save the planet, the whales, and spotted owls wearing Che t-shirts and berets.
Could be some pathogenic strain, or it could be one of those cyclical things that we do not understand. Ohio State is doing extensive research on the issue. It is and could be a serious problem if we don't see populations increase.
Anecdotally I saw an increase in my gardens this past summer, but then I have an unusual amount of plants that draw bees. I’m on the “12 step program” .... My name is ____ and I am a (sigh) plantaholic.
I took a class in 1997 to become a certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat Specialist.
Back then, it was an NWF course, all we heard was how the pollinators are dying, the pollinators are dying.
Yet here we are in 2008 and we still have tomatoes and stuff growing.
Whatever happened to the disappearing Ozone layer? Did we save it after banning freon, dear lord...freon was the enemy.
How about the Bird Flu? Did the mass epidemic with millions of deaths come and I missed it?
Last evening, in our local beekeeper club meeting (SE Alabama), a well informed gentlemen said that recent research of waxes taken from hives from around the US showed up to 43 different chemicals in these waxes. I think he said this research was being done by the University of Florida. I am to receive more information from him on the on-going research. Now, whether or not this is “the” cause or “a” cause of colony collapse disorder is another question.
” People who pay so much more than the average person pays for food are not going to care or even understand that burning corn instead of eating it raises food prices. “
Right on. And don’t worry so much about the increased cost to the rest of normal America. Contemplate the impact on truly poor third world countries where the cost of wheat and rice has risen in some caes by 100%. We’re not talking about financial burden, but starvation. Liberals do not care about the consequences of their acitons, only about how their actions make them feel about themselves.
Soylent Green?
Thank you for the helpful historical info!
The problem so far is mostly with commercial pollinators and, even then, not really pinned down. For example, lots of CCD was reported in almond pollination colonies, but none in the 60,000+ blueberry pollinators who came to Maine. But some of those operations reported it when they were in Florida.
So far, no crop has suffered from lack of pollinators.
As noted by others, massive honeybee losses are not unusual in recent history. Some causes have been ID but many have no explanation other than a name, like Disappearing Disease. In each case, the honeybee population came back. They can double or quadruple the number of colonies every year. If there were no honeybee pests, we would be up to our armpits in honeybees.
Also, “native pollinators” like Mason bees are not the answer to honeybee loss. They are Solitary bees and the numbers needed for many corps are just not there. Consider that one hive of honeybees has a summer population of 50,000+. Mason Bees are being used for cherry pollination in Washington/Oregon, but it is difficult to say that they are the only pollinator, since there can be honeybees in the area.
The best guess to date for CCD is a new strain of Nosema, a gut disease. Symptoms found in Europe mirror CCD symptoms in the US. If so, there are treatments for it.
There are casualties in this mess, but they are isolated and not found in every operation. Many commercial operations are fine. The ones that are not make the headlines, and some of those had losses blamed on CCD when it was really their practices, which tend to muddy the water and makes it difficult to pin down CCD.
So you can reduce your panic level and start the breath more deeply. The world, as we know it, is not coming to an end.
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