The mysterious deaths of the honeybees

CNN Money ^ | 5:28 PM EDT | Amy Sahba

[mmanager]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Beekeepers throughout the United States have been losing between 50 and 90 percent of their honeybees over the past six months, perplexing scientists, driving honey prices higher and threatening fruit and vegetable production. At a House Agricultural Subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., today, members of various organizations came together to share their concerns about what they have been calling the "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD. Honeybees have been mysteriously dying across the United States, sending honey prices higher and threatening the agriculture industry.

[Quix]

The Africanized bees have a resistence to another bee problem--a bee mite. But then the Africanized bees are not so nice to have around.

[JasonC]

It is like westerners reaching the new world bearing small pox. Migrations readily allow infectious diseases or other parasites to spread into new populations that lack the defenses of older, established hosts.

These things will just happen. Good news is, the niche being present, they will certainly bounce back eventually. Not saying it can't be serious in the meantime...

[JasonC]

Pure speculation and it fits ideological notions of human virtue more than the biology of die offs. The usual cause of population busts and boom is interspecies competition and infectious disease. Humans have had black plague and flu epidemics, why wouldn't bees from time to time?

[Liberty Valance]

*

[Quix]

True enough.

Though the business about the bees not being able to build memories from some of the synergistic effects of some of the combinations of agrichemicals was verified conclusively in the lab.

[Siobhan]

No such thing as Colony Collapse Disorder.

The bees are dying because of GMO crops.

[SierraWasp]

Did you know they're now putting human ear genes into ears of corn so's your morning cornflakes can collect your opinions and transmit them to Archer Daniels Midland's lobbyists for relaying to CONgress???

THIS IS THE NEW WORLD ORDER!!!

[dfwgator]

Did you know they're now putting human ear genes into ears of corn so's your morning cornflakes...

Is this the cereal in question?

[SierraWasp]

"Hate the things."

Hey! We'll have none of that waspish "hate speech!" Don't give it to us Wasps, cause we've already go enough problems!!! You're liable to get stung AGAIN!!! (tawlkin like dat)

[SierraWasp]

No! You were more correct the first time!!! (snort!)

[SierraWasp]

Now THAT's a "HALL OF FAME" quality reply!!! Entirely too funny for human consumption!!!

[SierraWasp]

Because we think threads like this are hilarious to the max!!!

[tubebender]

Did you hear about the Blonde Wasp who called her boy friend to come over and help her put together a difficult puzzle of a Tiger. When he got there he told her to put the Corn Flakes back in the box they would watch TV...

[SierraWasp]

"I noticed 3, or 4 years ago, the sweat bees disappeared."

Now THAT's a REAL CRISIS!!! I agree with that other guy... It's been brought on by BUSH!!! Bush lied... Sweat bees died!!! Bush also got them danged chemtrails started and now this AIDS for gay bees... I can't take it anymore! We're all gonna die!!!

[saradippity]

Thanks for the information. I have been quite concerned about this and have wondered if it was caused by genetic engineering.

Maybe it's just because my antenna have been up on seeds that die off each year with no apparent advantages except the financial benefits that accrue to those companies that develop and then get to market them every year.

I have heard complaints from friends with relatives who have small farms in the midwest. It seems they face difficulties since the crops cannot reseed,thanks to Montesanto and some other large agribusinesses.

I wish I were more familiar with the particulars of the problem and were able to express it better but I think it may be a real problem unlike so many of the manufactured scares we hear about on a daily basis.

Anyway it's good to know that someone sharp is watching,thanks.

[FateAmenableToChange]

We've lost three hives this winter. Don't know why. Clean hive, no sign of mites, just dead. they were healthy last fall.

Ours were mixed. We actually had 4 hives in the Fall. One just mysteriously vanished -- not a swarm, just every bee disappeared, leaving lots of honey but very little brood. That left us with one hive in a styrofoam setup and two more in wood setups. The styrofoam setup was almost empty but for a golf-ball size cluster (frozen). One wooden one was similar. The other wood setup was filled with dead bees. We'd treated with apistan that fall and no sign of trach mites or any other disease.

On the other hand, the December and January we had, with lots of days above 50degrees but no bloom probably didn't help.

[colonialhk]

BHIV?

[arthurus]

Swoosh! Over your head.

[Siobhan]

Of U.S. rice and arsenic

[MarkL]

I've got a bumper crop of wasps in and around my house. Hate the things. Is there any way we could trade them for bees? (Or can we take whatever is killing the bees and give it to the wasps?) Got stung in my bedroom at 6:30 in the morning last fall, and I am still on the warpath

I learned while working in a machine shop that the best wasp killer is "Gunk Enginebrite." It's a solvent in a spray can used for cleaning engines. You do NOT want to get this on most surfaces! I don't think that I'd use it in a house at all.

We found a nest of wasps in the machine shop, back behind one of the lathes (we found it because when we turned on the lathe, a bunch of wasps flew out, looking for trouble. The only thing at hand was a can of Gunk, so I sprayed it at them, and as soon as it hit them, they began flying like bricks. I guess it dissolves their exoskeletons in a fairly short time, but if it gets on their wings, it dissolves the wings in an instant, and they fall right out of the air.

Mark