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WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence's wife, Karen, has installed a beehive on the grounds of their government residence in Washington. Mrs. Pence says honey bees play an important role in agricultural production in the United States. She says one out of every three bites of food consumed in the U.S. are made possible with the help of pollinators such as bees, butterflies, birds and bats. But managed bee colonies are in decline, posing a challenge to agricultural production. The Pence's beehive has 15,000 to 20,000 honey bees, including the queen bee. Mrs. Pence says honey the bees produce will...

Bumblebees, a linchpin of the global food supply, are vanishing across huge swaths of North America and Europe as a result of climate change, a new study says. The findings, published Thursday in the journal Science, apparently solve a mystery that's alarmed farmers, experts, policymakers and environmental advocates worldwide, as well as bedeviled researchers. While habitat destruction and potent pesticides known as neonicotinoids have destroyed some bumblebee populations, researchers concluded climate change has played the greatest role in the mass disappearance of bumblebee species, which pollinate plants and crops that are part of the food supply for both animals and...

Over 100 scientists worldwide, citing 800 studies, are demanding that the Obama administration follow Europe’s lead and put a moratorium on the use of a new-style pesticide blamed for the deaths of 30 percent of American honeybees every year. In a letter to the EPA and Agriculture Department, the scientists said there is overwhelming evidence from 800 studies that the pesticide family called neonicotinoids are to blame for the substantial declines in honeybees, bumblebees and butterflies, all pollinators needed to help farmers produce billions of dollars worth of food every year. “The 108 signers of this letter therefore urge you...

With honeybees on the decline because of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Varroa mites, a virus-transmitting parasite, Harvard engineering and applied sciences professor, Robert Wood invented Robobees, bee-size robots “inspired by the biology of a bee and the insect’s hive behavior.” […] Despite the hype surrounding these amazing robobees, before farmers go out and try to buy them, they should note that researchers anticipate robobees won’t be functional for at least another 20 years. …

Diesel pollution makes it harder for honeybees to find flowers by changing the chemical make-up of their scent, scientists have found. Honeybees use floral odors to find flowers that will give the best yields of pollen and nectar, but diesel fumes can affect their ability to locate and recognize the plants, potentially affecting pollination and ultimately global food security. British researchers took eight chemicals found in the odor of oilseed rape flowers and mixed them both with clean air, which had no impact on the scent, and air containing diesel fumes. When mixed with diesel fumes, six of the eight...

Israeli scientists have cultivated a cannabis plant that doesn't get people stoned in a development that may help those smoking marijuana for medical purposes, a newspaper said on Wednesday. According to the Maariv daily, the new cannabis looks, smells and even tastes the same, but does not induce any of the feelings normally associated with smoking marijuana that are brought on by the substance THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. "It has the same scent, shape and taste as the original plant -- it's all the same -- but the numbing sensation that users are accustomed to has disappeared," said Tzahi Klein, head...

Honeybees will die out in Britain within a decade as virulent diseases and parasites spread through the nation's hives, experts have warned. Whole colonies of bees are already being wiped out, with current methods of pest control unable to stop the problem. The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said that if the crisis continued, honeybees would disappear completely from Britain by 2018, causing "calamitous" economic and environmental problems. It called on the Government to restart shelved research programmes and to fund new ones to try to save the insects. Tim Lovett, the association's president, said: "The situation has become insupportable and...

The Honey Bee Crisis of 2007 Escalating Honey Bee Decline Baffles Scientists Sally Morton Feb 17, 2007 The honey bee crisis in the United States has been escalating for several years, rising to "unprecedented" levels of honey bee losses between Oct 2006 and Feb 2007. The honey bee crisis of 2005, which was blamed on the Varoa mite, decimated as much as 50% of honey bee populations in the US, but was weathered, overcome, and quickly passed out of most people’s vocabulary. I wrote an article about it for Suite 101, which you can read here. In it, I gave...

Honeybees in a Mite More Than TroubleParasites, an Exodus of Apiarists and Budget Cuts Imperil Vital Insect Excerpts: In recent years, two tiny spider-like parasites have been weakening and killing bee populations across the United States. While the mass media have played up the threat of Africanized "killer" bees in the Southwest, the rest of the country has been losing 80 percent or more of its wild honeybee populations. and ... Even commercial beekeepers, who take extraordinary measures to ward off pests and disease, are in trouble. During the winter of 2000-2001, Maryland was among East Coast states hit...