Vanishing Honeybees Mystify Scientists

[Don Giovanni]

Vanishing Honeybees Mystify Scientists

This could be more damaging that your worst nightmare scenario.

We are talking about Billions of bees

Click On Me

[Megan Blocker]

There's a story on this in the NY Times, as well:

More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.

...

Honeybees are arguably the insects that are most important to the human food chain. They are the principal pollinators of hundreds of fruits, vegetables, flowers and nuts. The number of bee colonies has been declining since the 1940s, even as the crops that rely on them, such as California almonds, have grown.

[takadi]

GLOBAL WARMING!! ahh!!!

[pax]

On bees: "This is Mother Nature's Way of saying, 'Can you hear me now?" ~ Bill Maher

[Kent D]

Even though Kansas isn't included in the critical states on the NYT map, I know that it's rare to SEE a honeybee in my garden anymore, and the level of my produce production has suffered.

[Dave the Cook]

Not to be ebullient over such a sobering issue, but our own Shaun Chavis gave early warning on this issue way back in January.

Now in his mid-60s, Tapp owns one of North Carolina's thirteen largest commercial apiaries. Of those, eleven owners are at least 60 years old. Tapp's wife helps him with his business, along with two men who are both Tapp's age or older. The three men work building and repairing hives, extracting honey, and loading 80-pound hives full of bees onto trucks so they can be taken to fields. Their ages are not unusual among beekeepers: seventy percent of America's beekeepers are over 45. Many are retired.

During my visit to Tapp’s apiary just outside Chapel Hill, I asked him, "I'm wondering, does fifteen billion dollars worth of food a year depend on a bunch of retired hobbyists?"

I fully expected him to tell me I was exaggerating. Tapp turned his head, looked me in the eye and with a straight face said, "Well, yeah."

Shaun's piece in the Daily Gullet is well worth reading -- or reading again.

[Marigene]

I haven't seen a honeybee in my garden the past two years. It is scary.

[Allura]

I was reading a blog post that made me remember this thread. I actually don't follow the author usually (DH sent me the link), so I don't know much about the author specifically. However, there's a lot of links in the article, discussing honeybees, africanization, feral & domestic, etc. I thought it was interesting, in general. One quote that particularly caught my attention was,

...a Canadian study suggested that if canola farmers leave 30 percent of their land fallow, they will increase their yields. Wild land provides habitat for native pollinators, improving pollination and increasing the number of seeds.

"If we cultivate all the land, we lose ecosystem services like pollination," Lora Morandin, lead author on the study, stated in her research. "Healthy, sustainable agricultural systems need to include natural land."

Edited April 26, 2007 by Allura (log)

[rancho_gordo]

Since honeybees aren't native, what was done before they were brought over?

[heidih]

Since honeybees aren't native, what was done before they were brought over?

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Not to be "flip" but I am guessing we did not have mega agro biz then and relied on accidental pollination more and had less yield. I was overcome the other day walking the dog in a So Cal canyon to hear the intense bee buzz in some flowering trees.

[eje]

Since honeybees aren't native, what was done before they were brought over?

←

In what sense? Commercial Farming, you mean?

There were/are a lot of native bees, like Bumble Bees and Leaf Cutter bees, that pollinated plants before the introduction of the European Honey Bee.

[chappie]

I had read about the recent disappearances, but it's been years and years since I've seen honeybees in significant numbers here. When I was a kid I used to step on one a day, it seemed. Didn't a parasite wipe out billions of them in the early 90s?

[BarbaraY]

I asked my neighbor, who has a hive, how his bees were doing and he told me that he had his disappear last year. Has since replaced them and he says they're doing well.

They come here to drink since I have running water in my birdbath.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that there are far fewer bugs in the Central Valley now than there were a few years ago.

In driving across the Valley the windshield would be covered with bugs by the time I got home. No more. The insects are gone and I believe it's due to spraying.

I was surprised to see some butterflies this morning.

[rancho_gordo]

Since honeybees aren't native, what was done before they were brought over?

←

In what sense? Commercial Farming, you mean?

There were/are a lot of native bees, like Bumble Bees and Leaf Cutter bees, that pollinated plants before the introduction of the European Honey Bee.

←

Thanks to you and your suggestion of the book 1491, I've learned that the Americas were much more advanced than we've been led to believe. And they was major agricutlure. But as I write this beans, corn, tomatoes don't need insects to pollinate...

But what are the native bee populations like now? Mason bees, too, I think are native.

[Pan]

Rancho, squash is native to the Americas, correct? Doesn't that profit greatly from pollination by bees?

[offcentre]

this has been reported in the UK too and the effect looks to have spread to Europe. There is an article in the Independent that suggests it may be due to mobile phone signals.

[annecros]

Since honeybees aren't native, what was done before they were brought over?

←

In what sense? Commercial Farming, you mean?

There were/are a lot of native bees, like Bumble Bees and Leaf Cutter bees, that pollinated plants before the introduction of the European Honey Bee.

←

Thanks to you and your suggestion of the book 1491, I've learned that the Americas were much more advanced than we've been led to believe. And they was major agricutlure. But as I write this beans, corn, tomatoes don't need insects to pollinate...

But what are the native bee populations like now? Mason bees, too, I think are native.

←

That's a good observation, Rancho. Squash are native to the America's, were cultivated here, and managed without honey bees for centuries. When you consider the other great Native American agricultural leaps, they are in fact wind or self pollinated, though sweat bees and ants do yeoman's work and I have observed them visting my peas.

Here is a good (dated, but refers to the mite crisis) article on the other pollinators:

The Other Pollinators

Nature has many wild workers. When watching insect activity around my flowers last spring, I missed the honeybees, but hoped they would come buzzing around. I saw very few because--as I found out later--their population had been devastated by a mite, but as I watched for them, I made a wonderful observation: Plenty of pollinating was still going on. My flowers were blooming, my vegetables fruiting. What was doing it?

The author is a bit cavalier about the honeybees - but those are just my personal feelings on the matter I think. I want the honeybees around for selfish reasons.

It is interesting that it is the "imported" horticulture that is particularly dependent upon the imported pollinators. I guess that should just make sense.

Edit to add: Here's a link to the USDA's list of plants attractive to native bees. I've been putting in thunbergia, honeysuckle and clock vine this year. Least we can do is feed the little suckers!

List of plants attractive to bees

[BarbaraY]

On the local news this morning, there was a report that suggested that this may be caused by a fungus. Time may tell.

[eje]

Thanks to you and your suggestion of the book 1491, I've learned that the Americas were much more advanced than we've been led to believe. And they was major agricutlure. But as I write this beans, corn, tomatoes don't need insects to pollinate...

But what are the native bee populations like now? Mason bees, too, I think are native.

←

I wish I was an expert!

Hopefully someone else will chime in.

I have a lot of California Poppies in my garden (couldn't get rid of them if I wanted to) and the native Bumble bees (Bombus californica! Great name!) are all over them every spring.

I think it's a matter of growing the flowers they like and avoiding insecticides.

Here's a cool site at UC Berkeley about encouraging California native bees:

Urban Bee Gardens

[Abra]

Because we love to watch them, I always plant the containers on my deck garden with every flower I can find that's known to attract bees, as well as some for hummingbirds and butterflies. Nonetheless, the number of bees visiting our deck has been declining noticably over the past three years.

[JanMcBaker]

Thanks to a link from my cousin's blog, Suburban Guerrilla, here's another theory concerning disappearing bees. Specifically, the pesticides that coat genetically modified corn seeds.

[eje]

Excitingly, some new information as a result of some work done by a researcher here at the University of California in San Francisco, indicates the problem may not be Cell Phones at all; but, fungi or combination of other pathogens.

Experts may have found what's bugging the bees

A fungus that caused widespread loss of bee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is wiping out bees across the United States, UC San Francisco researchers said Wednesday.

[annecros]

Thanks to a link from my cousin's blog, Suburban Guerrilla, here's another theory concerning disappearing bees.  Specifically, the pesticides that coat genetically modified corn seeds.

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Interesting theory, but it was my understanding that the coating on corn seed is simply that, a coating of pesticide, that discourages pre-emergence pests that feed under ground. Genetically modified corn that has the pesticide genetically built in, actually produces its own pesticide that does appear in pollen as well as all other tissue in the plant, including the fruit or seed.

Regardless, it is my understanding also that honeybees are not fond of corn. If anything, it would be hurting bumble bees, who spend time in corn. Corn is a wind pollinator, and does not depend upon insect activity. That's why it has to be planted dense and big.

Not that I would want any of them hurt.

[legourmet]

Bees diappear in Germany too. About 30 percent of the population has gone the last year. My neighbour is a bee keeper and he said that the mite "Varroa jacobsonii" will cause that problem. When bees suffer from immunodeficiency (caused by the mites) they will leave the beehive to die. That's because the beehive will be seen empty.

[russ parsons]

Bees diappear in Germany too. About 30 percent of the population has gone the last year. My neighbour is a bee keeper and he said that the mite "Varroa jacobsonii" will cause that problem. When bees suffer from immunodeficiency (caused by the mites) they will leave the beehive to die. That's because the beehive will be seen empty.

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i just finished doing a bunch of reporting on this. the Varroa mite is a huge problem--outbreaks in the 1980s just about wiped out the wild honeybee population in the us. But the experts say Varroa mite infestation works differently--that they find dead bees in the hive. In this case, the workers bees have abandoned perfectly sound hives.

the BT corn hypothesis is probably shot--the problem has occurred in as many places where corn is not grown as where it is (and bees will visit corn when it is in tassel).

The pesticide hypothesis may have some legs. Studies have shown that the pesticides in question are systemic ... they are taken up by the plant and can transfer from seed coating to pollen (pretty amazing!).

There are still lots of questions unresolved. The fungus found by the USF researchers seems promising.

But my guess is that when it all settles out, there will be multiple causes. The one unifying factor in all of the affected hives so far is that they had suffered severe stress--either climate or food. My guess is the stress weakens the hive and allows the other factors, which might otherwise be survivable, to kill the bees.