Honeybee die-off threatens food supply

[superconnected]

Source: Associated Press

BELTSVILLE, Md. - Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_on_sc/honeybee_die_off

[Fridays Child]

1. The company that files for a patent on the solution...

...probably caused the problem. :tinfoilhat:

[ck4829]

7. You never know. Watch Monsanto magically find a solution to this big problem.

[Phoonzang]

2. We're all going to die

*panics* *panics* *panics* Ok....I'm good now.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Them bees from outer space, that must

be what it is.... "cue Twilight Zone theme...."

[Democrats_win]

4. Progressive columnist Jim Hightower says cause is consolidation of bee industry.

http://www.jimhightower.com/node/6106

"few people realize that many of America’s food crops – from almonds to watermelon – rely heavily on commercial honeybees for pollination."

"Another little known fact is that bee pollination is increasingly a highly concentrated industry. Rather than a dispersed system of local hives, a few commercial operators now haul tens of billions of bees from coast to coast, trucking their hives in 18-wheelers."

"The industrial bees have lost the diversity and natural traits of wild bees.

Second, constant trucking puts stress on the bees, suppressing their immune systems and making them vulnerable to viruses, mites, and diseases. Also as part of their forced migration, the bees are fed a limited diet of high fructose corn syrup – about as healthy as humans trying to live on Cokes. Other research is indicting certain pesticides and genetically altered organisms that have been artificially spliced into many field crops."

[IndyOp]

6. Whoa! Holy hell - that's disgusting. I had no freakin' clue. (n/t)

[bdamomma]

31. bees also pollinate 80% of our crops.

[Psephos]

20. "The industrial bees have lost the diversity and natural traits of wild bees."

That's a nonsense statement. Honeybees are an alien species in North America, brought here a few centuries ago by European settlers. They can't lose a "natural diversity" they never had, given that the natural state would be that they were never brought here in the first place.

Meanwhile, the bees that *are* native to North America - so-called asocial or solitary pollinators such as bumblebees, ground bees, and the like - continue on with their normal 70% share of pollination duties. These native bees are not affected by the honeybee plague. Even if every honeybee were to disappear (which is silly) the native bees would still be there, doing their job. Their populations would soon expand to exploit the niche left by the departed European honeybees.

Anyway, sad news for the conspiracy theorists, but it seems that the cause of the bee decline is an overlooked single-celled fungus. Epidemics in any species are classic nonlinear ("chaotic") systems of interaction between host and parasite. It's to be expected that once an outbreak begins, disease should proceed dramatically, rather than gradually. Bee populations may very well be hit hard, then the epidemic will subside for reasons no one can quite pinpoint, and populations will recover. Human epidemics follow similar paths. The flu epidemic of 1918 is a sterling example. It swept across the Earth from seemingly nowhere, and claimed tens of millions of lives...and then poof, it was gone. Somehow humankind survived. So will the bees.

Of course, this isn't as fun to contemplate as the image of empty markets and barren fields and wailing children. Especially if one gets to blame cell phones and Evil Corporations (TM) and global warming as the causes, too. :-)

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-bees26apr26,1,2391633.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

[Occulus]

29. I don't read the LA times because their registration system is such a mess

Do you have a link from a different site?

[Psephos]

42. I don't blame you - it IS a mess

Here's a similar take from Newsday.

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/la-sci-bees26apr26,0,4152870.story?coll=ny-leadhealthnews-headlines

Anyone familiar with epidemiology will recognize classic patterns in the "bee crisis." It will take a while to confirm the pathogen responsible, but that's true of any outbreak. Remember how long it took to figure out what was causing AIDS?

[JCMach1]

22. Exactly, little genetic diversity... There has been a boom in Bee population

here in the UAE this year... I have had two spring swarms come through and hundreds of bees on my flowers at any given time.

[Sequoia]

30. Hijack the trucks and let the bees out!

Free, we're free!!!!! Buzzzzzzzz away.

[JetCityLiberal]

35. From Jim's lips...

And many others out there talking about this thank god. We better get this. This is serious IMHO.

VERY serious.

Paul

[IndyOp]

5. Purdue entomologist: Bee die-offs have been happening once every 3-4 years

I am *not* implying that we do not have a problem or are not looking at a bigger crisis than has occurred before, but I think it is important that we put this year's die off in perspective to understand what is happening.

I followed a link posted by Zensea on another thread and found the following:

Greg Hunt, bee specialist and entomologist at Purdue University, tries to keep a straight face and shed some light on the subject. He says honey bees dying off is nothing new- it's been happening about once every three or four years for some time. Best bet, he says, is that a combination of factors is responsible, everything from poor nutrition on. At the center of the mystery are likely mites that infect honey bees, he notes. Also suspect are management practices whereby the beekeeper moves bees about every two weeks during the honey-producing season. Moving the hive adds extra stress upon the bees, Hunt explains. Nearly all the hives affected by the colony collapse disorder so far have been migratory hives.

What's more, in Indiana, problems this winter aren't linked to colony collapse disorder at all, Hunt says. Instead, he believes bees are simply starving. After honey was collected by beekeepers in Indiana in late summer, the weather turned wet. Weather conditions interfered with the pollination season for fall flowers. Bees simply weren't able to gather enough food to make enough supplies to get the hive through the winter, at least in some cases.

====

First hand reports from the growers here and around the Midwest...

We are in to the pollination season, and we are hearing that the hives are "hotter" than anyone can remember. That is, stronger and more active. The beekeepers are struggling to add supers fast enough to keep the bees from swarming.

Another interesting observation that I personally made this morning, and that we are hearing from other growers as well, is the large number of native pollinators out and about and on the blossoms. When the weather is cool more native pollinators are out and that is what we are seeing.


Links...

http://www.peopleforchange.net/index.php?showtopic=32572&st=0&p=276441&#entry276441

http://www.peopleforchange.net/index.php?showtopic=32572&st=0&p=276419&#entry276419

[rosesaylavee]

8. I have hives for the first time this spring...

took a class from a former bee inspector who's kept hives for 30+ years here in Illinois. He had a major hit on his hives a couple of seasons ago - lost about 30%. At only 125 hives, he is still considered a hobbyist so that kind of loss isn't recorded officially. He thinks this has been going on for awhile but its just this spring that the commercial beekeepers are getting hit hard.

Lots of speculation why this is happening. U of Montana is collecting info and studying it and will hopefully have a report out in June as to their findings.

The bees are dying in the field rather than in their hives so its hard to find their little bodies to evaluate what killed them. Interesting thing - other bees are not robbing hives that have this 'collapsed' syndrome. There may be something not right with the remaining pollen or honey in these hives.

Theories to date include:

> pesticides that don't break down and stay in the soil longer
> pollen from genetically modified crops contaminates the hives
> cell towers/cell phones are interfering with the bees innate navigational senses
> new virus that they have no immunity to as yet
> they are inbred much like poodles (sorry poodle lovers) and it has weakened the species.

[mainer]

39. Are they easy? What do you do with them in the wintertime?

I live in Maine where it gets about minus 15 in the winter. Do I need to keep them in a heated environment? I'm interested in this as i have 300+ acres and plan to use it for fruit trees. Thanks!

[rosesaylavee]

41. They are wonderful.

I don't know that I would describe them as easy - as I love this, it is easy for me. There is preparation work that, if done well, makes for less work during the summer. They need attention at least once a week during the warmer months.

You may need to find a class or an extension office that can give you some pointers. They live through winter in their hives. If you place their boxes in a well drained, well lighted place they should do fine. If it gets that cold, you may get covers for the hives. It gets that cold here (actually was colder this last February) and I plan on getting some covers for them.

A good book to read is 'A Book of Bees' by Susan Hubbell. Very readable and gives some good practical pointers of keeping bees... one of my favorite books. Another book of hers, 'A Country Year' was the first book I read of hers and it was in reading it that I realized that I wanted to keep bees because of her experiences with them.

Let me know if you do - I would be happy to share what little knowledge I have with you.

[Morgana LaFey]

9. Well, I live out in the country and I haven't seen much more than

literally ONE honey bee each spring for a number of years now. They just aren't here. There are OTHER similar insects (tiny bumble bees, for example) that are apparently doing some pollination, but the honey bees are absent. And I have a year full of blooming clover, and a bunch of fruit trees, so it's not for want of bloomin' things to visit.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. They can start by naturalizing the hives and stop transporting them

from field to field

[StarryNite]

11. Outsourcing seems to be bad

for bees too.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. Can you hear me now?

I can almost forgive Bill Maher for all the other disgreements we may have in politics, for that one line.

[DrZeeLit]

12. One of my students gave speech today. His father is a beekeeper...

Earlier in the semester, around Feb 1, he gave a speech on beekeeping.
After that speech, I gave him an article on the recent problems.
Today he gave a speech that detailed the issue.
Seems a couple weeks ago, all was fine.
Then they went into their hives and found 4 of every 5 -- bees gone.
No dead bees on the ground.
No swarms having left.
Just "poof" gone.
And he knows in his neighborhood they are all organic farmers not using pesticides.
He detailed the mystery.
And it is weird -- like a detective movie.

btw, he's a senior in college.
He waited all this time to take the required speech class.
Most of the students are freshmen.

[laylah]

25. Maybe the followed

the Anasazi? :silly:

I have had a few bumblebees and some honeybees so far this spring (NW IL) but nothing to brag about.

[burrowowl]

13. New Job openings!

for people to pollinate by hand! E.g., vanilla only grows in Mexico, however, it is a crop in the Phillipines, but has to be hand pollinated. I suggest that CEOs of pesticide, herbicide, cell phone, outrageous building developement, etc. companies. be paid $1.00 a day to hand pollinate in the Spring and not collect their regular salaries while they are hand pollinating.

THIS IS SERIOUS!

[Shallah Kali]

14. German article on bees | Collapsing Colonies

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,473166,00.html

Manfred Hederer, the president of the German Beekeepers Association, almost simultaneously reported a 25 percent drop in bee populations throughout Germany. In isolated cases, says Hederer, declines of up to 80 percent have been reported. He speculates that "a particular toxin, some agent with which we are not familiar," is killing the bees

snip

In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the insects' immune system may have collapsed.

The scientists are also surprised that bees and other insects usually leave the abandoned hives untouched. Nearby bee populations or parasites would normally raid the honey and pollen stores of colonies that have died for other reasons, such as excessive winter cold. "This suggests that there is something toxic in the colony itself which is repelling them," says Cox-Foster.

snip

university of Jena from 2001 to 2004. The researchers examined the effects of pollen from a genetically modified maize variant called "Bt corn" on bees. A gene from a soil bacterium had been inserted into the corn that enabled the plant to produce an agent that is toxic to insect pests. The study concluded that there was no evidence of a "toxic effect of Bt corn on healthy honeybee populations." But when, by sheer chance, the bees used in the experiments were infested with a parasite, something eerie happened. According to the Jena study, a "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" occurred among the insects that had been fed a highly concentrated Bt poison feed.

[denverbill]

32. My guess is the culprit is GM foods also.

Of course, the USDA will never admit that, because it would be bad for large agribusiness corporations.

[StarryNite]

40. I don't know

I have read that England isn't into GM foods or all the pesticides to a very great extent but they are having the bee problem too.

[bleedingheart]

43. add to that the fact that a lot of homeowners use a crap load of chemicals on their lawns

and you have a disaster...

I think GM foods are less of an issue than the folks that put up to 4 different chemicals a year on their lawns...and some of those chemicals are to kill insects so that the homeowner can have a "bug free" experience in nature..

[HeeBGBz]

15. I have a neighboring wood bee that always buzzes around my door.

I've nicknamed him Coodbee. I've been friendlier to him since I've read of the plight of his bee brothers.

[LiberalFighter]

16. It is caused by radio frequencies messing their system up.

Only right wing gasbags like Rush Windbag, Bill OLiely, and Glen Feck spouting their hate and screwed up beliefs.

[volstork]

17. It's those damn immigrant bees

crossing our borders to take pollination away from legitimate AMERICAN bees. We should build an enormous net to prevent their illegal entry!

[madrchsod]

18. everyone is over looking the obivous reason

[Divine Discontent]

19. it'd be super funny if...

it weren't so serious, but it's still made some good one liners from ya all. If this continues, we're honestly going to get STUNG by it. I had an image of mass animal death in a dream last summer, and I mean MASS death that effected humans way of living, if ya believe in that kind of thing, it's pretty amazing to me, I've just been preparing as much as I can to take care of my family, like we all should be doing anyhow. God bless everyone, and those bees who've had enough of this country!

definitely worth a KICK and REC!

www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- check it out, top '08 stuff

[Screwfly]

21. No thanks

I almost lost my ass over that Y2K bullshit, so I'm not buying jack to survive the Great Honey Bee Die Off of 2007.

[StarryNite]

37. What's the latest BUZZ?

Gotta love them one liners. Hey if we don't laugh we'll wind up crying, right?

[JCMach1]

23. When was the last time anyone saw wild honeybees in the U.S.?

When I was a kid, me and my dad would sometime rob wild hives for the honey...

Where are they now? Habitat destruction? That would also help to destroy the genetic diversity of the tame population as well.

[12345]

26. An old beekeeper keeps some of his bees on our land.

Every year at least one swarm escapes and creates a wild hive. We haven't been here long, and it's the first time I've seen wild hives since I was a child.

Sometimes the beekeeper will capture one of the wild hives and reestablish a domestic hive. I'm sure there aren't many like him...

[truthisfreedom]

24. Interesting and IMPORTANT news about Organic Bees!

http://www.guerrillanews.com/articles/3044/Colony_Collapse_and_Honeycomb_Size

Colony Collapse and Honeycomb Size
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700


Print Version
Email Article
By Sharon Labchuk
"Natural" beehives appear less affected by the strange new plague dubbed colony collapse disorder.
Colony Collapse Disorder in domestic honey bees is all the buzz lately, mostly because honey bees pollinate food crops for humans.
However, we would not be so dependent on commercial non-native factory farmed honey bees if we were not killing off native pollinators. Organic agriculture does not use chemicals or crops toxic to bees and, done properly, preserves wildlife habitat in the vicinity, recognizing the intimate relationship between cultivated fields and natural areas.
While no one is certain why honey bee colonies are collapsing, factory farmed honey bees are more susceptible to stress from environmental sources than organic or feral honey bees. Most people think beekeeping is all natural but in commercial operations the bees are treated much like livestock on factory farms.
I’m on an organic beekeeping email list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with commercial operations is pesticides used in hives to fumigate for varroa mites and antibiotics are fed to the bees to prevent disease. Hives are hauled long distances by truck, often several times during the growing season, to provide pollination services to industrial agriculture crops, which further stresses the colonies and exposes them to agricultural pesticides and GMOs.
Bees have been bred for the past 100 years to be much larger than they would be if left to their own devices. If you find a feral honeybee colony in a tree, for example, the cells bees use for egg-laying will be about 4.9 mm wide. This is the size they want to build – the natural size.

[Vinca]

27. Ok, but can someone 'splain to me why my veggie garden, which I interplant

with all kinds of bee-attracting flowers, has had squash-producing problems the past couple of years? Seeing a wild bee is rare - and I'm out in the boondocks. I think the few squash I got were pollinated by squash bugs. This years I'm resorting to an artist's brush.

[superconnected]

33. Thanks for posting that.

I have to wonder if those mobile fertilization companies are sending the bees to gm crops then to regular crops.

[Babette]

34. You can look into buying mason bees.

I know that Nichol's Garden Nursery sells them in tubes and cans. They stay near their home and seem to be fairly easy to keep.

[BrightKnight]

38. Housing for Orchard Mason Bees

Drill 5/16th inch diameter holes about 1 inch apart on the edge of a 2x4 and mount it somewhere out of the rain.



http://snohomish.wsu.edu/mg/ombblock/ombblock.htm

They are very gentle and only sting if you hold them.

[devilgrrl]

36. But doing something about it wouldn't be cost effective, so why try?

:sarcasm: