Researchers seek causes of honeybee colony collapse

[cory777]

Source: Reuters

SOUTH DEERFIELD, Mass., March 5 (Reuters) - Birds do it, fleas do it but when bees do it, it is worth some $200 billion to the world economy.

That's why scientists are seeking a way to stem mass deaths of the world's primary pollinator -- the honeybee -- which affect more than 30 percent of bee colonies in the United States and more than 20 percent in some European countries.

Researchers have identified some probable causes of colony collapse disorder, including blood-feeding parasites, bee viruses, fungi, pesticide exposure and decreased plant diversity causing poor nutrition for honeybees, experts say.

"It's a complex interaction of several different factors that are causing bees to die, resulting in quick colony decline," said Jeff Pettis, entomologist and chief researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland.

Read more: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/researchers-seek-causes-of-honeybee-colony-collapse

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Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[Corruption Winz]

1. Obviously troubling...

As animals, insects and all types of wildlife die off, the evolutionist in me feels that it's simply what happens. However, this is one that we truly can't afford to lose.

[joanbarnes]

2. Its the Bayer pesticide.

[Javaman]

3. Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies

-snip-

Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical, produced by Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of the German chemical giant Bayer, is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It was applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine this spring. The seeds are treated in advance of being planted or are sprayed while in the field.

-snip-

Clothianidin, like the other neonicotinoid pesticides that have been temporarily suspended in Germany, is a systemic chemical that works its way through a plant and attacks the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency it is "highly toxic" to honeybees.

-snip-

This is not the first time that Bayer, one of the world's leading pesticide manufacturers with sales of €5.8bn (£4.6bn) in 2007, has been blamed for killing honeybees.

In the United States, a group of beekeepers from North Dakota is taking the company to court after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995, during a period when oilseed rape in the area was treated with imidacloprid. A third of honeybees were killed by what has since been dubbed colony collapse disorder.

[Historic NY]

4. I thought it was determined to be linked to a virus also ???

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33938.pdf

[Bigmack]

5. Heard a knowledgeable guy who says...

part of the problem is that the bees are made for working only spring through early fall. Hives now are moved south during the winter to take advantage of other flowers.

Hives get no rest, and it wears down their immune system.

Then along comes the pesticides and mites and bacteria and virus.

[defendandprotect]

6. We're killing every species on earth -- why is this a suprise? We're killing ourselves -- !!

And what life we haven't actually killed yet, we're making ill --

cancers, diabetes, leukemia, asthma, obesity, high blood pressure, heart attacks --

Could anyone think that we're doing anything right?


BLESS THE BEES!!