So, how serious is the disappearing Bee problem?

[Quixote1818]

I was just watching the Bill Maher video where he was discussing the disappearing bees and it was a little disturbing. Anyone have any interesting information or good articles they can post on this? Are they figuring out what is causing their disappearance yet and if they are expected to make a comeback?

How worried should we be?

[uppityperson]

1. I don't know but will kick. Perhaps WillPitt might know, something about his head.

:evilgrin: kick to mark to check later to see what anyone else knows.

[NMDemDist2]

2. it's pretty darned scary. check out the Environment/Energy forum

for more info

[medeak]

3. a friend has 100 hives and travels every weekend

from orchard to orchard in CA. Each hive has 100,000 plus bees. It's his passion (most amazing school teacher working in school with 5% whites..all minorities..and they all love him)

After all these years he's now in huge demand...and I get honey..great for allergies btw.

[kimmerspixelated]

13. That's great!

Love to hear stories like that.

[medeak]

23. they are his babies

and believe me....he knows every theory out there...he's moved bees between two different states...always has bee stings including his beloved dog...but the bees come first.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Very serious

Here in Arkansas, the native honeybees are being eaten and destroyed by Africanized honeybees, which are mean and inflict bad stings. We pest control operators have to take special courses if we are to handle getting rid of them--they are that dangerous. If we opt not to take the special course, we must notify our state regulatory agency who will send out a team that is trained and equipped to handle them.

So far, they are only in the southern part of the state, but if things happen like they usually do with invading species, they will be in my neck of the woods sometime down the pike.

[StarryNite]

5. Colony Collapse Disorder

That's one of the names they are giving it. Some believe something is trashing the immune systems of the bees.

[Quixote1818]

6. I just looked up several articles and most suggest it's cell phone signals

that are throwing off the bees navigation. I am not sure I buy this because cell phones have been around in huge numbers for several years now. Why would it just start happening this year and only in the US? They said they had a similar die off in Europe several years ago.

It probably is some kind of virus or pesticide or something to do with global warming.

[supernova]

8. Parasites

have also been investigated as culprits. Poor little honey bees. :-(

[MonkeyFunk]

9. "most suggest"?

No. ONE article last week got some attention, but it wasn't based on ANY real research. Cell phones are very UNLIKELY to be the cause of the problem.

It's most likely mites.

[JDPriestly]

19. The research was done at Landau U. in Germany.

You can google it. The university felt it's research was inconclusive, but you should look for yourself.

[MonkeyFunk]

32. I did

believe me, "most" scientists discussing this don't believe it's caused by cell-phones.

http://forager.newsvine.com/_news/2007/04/18/670272-honey-bee-cell-phone-study-is-questionable-at-best


Even the scientists involved admit their research provides "a hint to a possible cause", and that they didn't actually study hive-collapse.

[rurallib]

7. Try googling colony collapse disorder

Tons of articles. First I saw was on Kos about a month ago.
EG http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/03/15/bee-colony-collapse-disorder-where-is-it-heading/

Simply put no bees, no food - no food, no people.

[Quixote1818]

10. That was a great read. Thanks! nt

[sarge43]

17. We still have food, but

not as much, not as much variety and a hellva lot more expensive.

[jakem]

11. They havent found any dead bees...

as i understand it-

[sarge43]

15. They're not finding dead adult bees in any great numbers and.

those that they find apparently died of old age - no disease, malformation, infestation, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. The adults just abandoned the hive. It is a mystery.

[sarge43]

12. Very serious and very worried

No one is sure what is causing CCD - a lot of guesses, but nothing certain yet. Come back? Until the cause is determined, who knows.

http://www.beeculture.com

Bee Culture is one of the stand byes in the bee keeping game; it's been in publication forever. There are three articles about CCD on the current page you might want to read.

[illinoisprogressive]

14. i would like to know more. it's serious as i'm a gardener. they say it's a virus

[Duer 157099]

16. I heard a bee keeper being interviewed

One of the most interesting comments I found was that the empty hives were not being immediately invaded/scavenged by the usual suspects. They had to open the hives and let them air out before the honey etc was taken by scavengers (some beetles and other insects, don't recall the specifics).

It could very well be a problem with multiple aspects, but some sort of "offgassing" or something in the hives ought to be investigated. Pesticide residue would be a good guess.

On the other hand, I can't help thinking of the part in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where the whales all left and said "Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!"

Maybe... "Goodbye and thanks for all the pollen!" ??

In any case, it's not good for the rest of us living beings.

[StarryNite]

21. No opportunistic scavaging

John Chapple, Chairman, London Beekeeping Association, London, England: “In London, we normally expect to have 10% to 20% losses every winter in our bees. But this year, at the last meeting of London members, loads of people reported far more than the normal percentage. And in talking around, they all came up with the same thing that is happening: the bees just disappeared. There were no dead bees to look at, so we could not examine anything. And they all had plenty of stores (of honey) left. And a phenomenon that we can’t understand is that they don’t appear to be robbed out by other bees.

CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT?

Normally, when a hive is deserted, robber bees from other colonies come and take the stored honey away. They would much rather get it from there than go looking in flowers. But for some reason this year, it hasn’t happened.

SO, THE NORMAL OPPORTUNISTS ARE EVEN STAYING AWAY FROM THE EMPTY HIVES?

Yes. And we don’t know why.

THAT’S VERY CONSISTENT WITH REPORTS FROM AT LEAST 22 TO 24 STATES IN THE UNITED STATES AND APPARENTLY IN SOME LOCATIONS JUST DISCOVERED IN THE PAST WEEK OR TWO IN SASKATCHEWAN AND ONTARIO, CANADA.
http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1230&category=Environment

[alfredo]

24. Is it just the honey bee? If it is, then it will be the big

factory farms that get hurt the most. Native bees do pollenate, but don't travel the great distances of the European bee.

If it is just the honey bee, then the farmers will have to rebuild habitats for native bees.

I notice a lot of bumblebees pollenating.

I remember not seeing the honey bee until the season is in full swing. Other bees like the Mining Bee appear first. So let's wait and see

[sarge43]

25. The mite and virus infestations in the past 30 years have decimated

the feral honey bee population.

Many insects pollinate, but honey bees are particularly efficient.

[alfredo]

34. We will still have pollinators. We will have to find a way to use the

ones remaining.

[Clark2008]

18. I had a bee in my kitchen today.

I opened the window and let it out.

[Duer 157099]

31. Last week a bee was checking out my newly planted garden

and instead of doing what I would ordinarily do in that situation (wave my arms around while hopping and running around to discourage the bee from getting near me, and generally just looking foolish), I silently felt grateful to the bee for visiting and was glad that I had planted some things he seemed interested in.

I hope he comes back.

Now, the wasps, that's different, but haven't seen any of those yet (why can't they be the ones to go missing??)

[LibinMo]

20. FWIW, here's a link

http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1230&category=Environment

Linda Moulton Howe is a frequent guest on Coast To Coast AM, that's
where I heard it first.

[StarryNite]

22. Linda Moulton Howe

was interviewed this week on a local radio station here in Phoenix. It was a very interesting interview. Bottom line is so far they don't really know what the problem is. That seems to be the answer to a lot of things going on lately, pet food comes to mind.

[mudesi]

26. All I know is, Einstein was not usually wrong, so I would worry (nm)

[Uncle Roy]

27. Penn State is hosting a working group that is looking into the problem

Their web page is here:

http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html

They don't know what's causing the problem yet, but there's lots of good solid info there, which is what you need to sort out this kind of thing.

[GregD]

28. Anyone heard this?

I had friends over for dinner last week. Sarah, a very outspoken gardner type, expressed her view that most commercial bees are of Italian origin. She notioned that it is the Italian bees are the ones that are subject to the disease.

She further notioned that local bees are ok. I don't know the accuracy of this. Has anyone heard this view?


Here is what we are looking at for our local community:

If you google Mason bees and houses, you will find that the mason bee house is like a small bird house filled with a bunch of straws (like drinking straws). Installed on the south-facing wall of your home, and under the eaves out of the weather, bees will populate the house and be present to polinate the local flowers. Mason bees are non-agressive and good polinators. With enough of these spread throughout our county, we hope this might help ease a terrifying situation.

Will this work? Dunno... Still researching, and welcome DU input.

[sarge43]

29. Well, first, there's no real evidence yet that CCD is caused by a disease.

If she has any verifiable proof of that, the Dept of Ag and several research labs would like her phone number.

Second, the Italian variety is the most common, but there are others. For example, the Russian variety is favored by northern keepers for its hardiness. Italians don't do as well in colder climates. Another up and comer is the Buckfast which combines hardiness and gentleness. Further, these varieties will interbreed, so there may not be many pure Italian colonies around.

Yes, CCD isn't wiping out every colony in the country; it's spotty. It seems to be hammering the large commercial keepers hardest.

The drawback with Mason bees is numbers. A healthy honey bee hive can have between 30K to 40K bees; Mason a few hundred at best. They're just not as effective nor efficient as honey bees. Certainly, use them -- can't hurt, might help. But they can't at this point replace honey bees as Number One pollinator.

[GregD]

30. Thanks Sarge

I appreciate the input.

[mahina]

33. GMO corn is the culprit

We were cool here, had the only native bee population in the US, but not as of last week. Monsanto bought a bunch of old sugar land for GMO research- fuckers- and one apiary in my valley now has the mite that has killed so many bees. Coincident to the Monsanto thing, not causally related, just happened at the same time. But they are both very bad news.