The Mystery of Dying Honey Bees ...
Across, nearly 2,500 square kilometres of California's vast San Joaquin Valley, small nut trees - arranged in laser-straight rows - are shaking off the cobwebs of winter. They're gearing up once again to produce nearly half a billion kilograms of nuts, worth US$3 billion to annual flower-crop economy.
However, as with all flower-crops the trees cannot produce the bounty on their own. They need bees - a million hives worth – currently being trucked in from nearly forty U.S. states -because honey bees are dying by the millions…
However, as with all flower-crops the trees cannot produce the bounty on their own. They need bees - a million hives worth – currently being trucked in from nearly forty U.S. states -because honey bees are dying by the millions…
- Cosmos
To be exact, the latest round of bee deaths started in November last year and has spread to 27 U.S. states, with similar collapses reported in Brazil, Canada and parts of Europe.
The problem with America’s bees, has created the largest managed pollination event in human history, because as we all know, honeybees don't just make honey… they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have on the planet, including: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers... and lots of the really sweet and sour stuff too, like : citrus fruits, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.
All the things we humans need to maintain our vitality and health … in fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80% of that pollination!
It is now clear that there is a global problem emerging as honey bees continue to die off, hive by hive. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the nations beekeepers have lost over one-quarter of their colonies in the past few months -- or about five times the normal winter losses -- because of what scientists have labelled as : Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
Although CCD is not a completely new phenomenon, what actually causes the carnage, remains a bewildering mystery throughout history, because even before CCD was identified and labelled, America's honeybees were thought to be in trouble. More recently, beekeepers throughout the world have been opening up their hives to find no workers, just newborn bees and the queen.
All well and good, but unlike past bee die-offs, where dead bees were found near the hive, this new epidemic is different, as the dead bees have just ... disappeared?
The new symptoms are baffling scientists across the globe, but one of the emerging hypotheses is that the scourge causes a collapse of the bees' immune systems. Stressed out by cross-country truck journeys and drought, attacked by viruses and introduced parasites, or whacked out by harmful new pesticides, some researchers are hinting that bees' natural defences may have simply given way… that modern life is catching up with them…?
But this doesn’t fit either, because mysterious declines in bee colonies are nothing new, with records, as far back as 1896, listing CCD as a problem again and again, only under different names like : 'fall dwindle' disease, 'May dwindle', 'spring dwindle', 'disappearing disease', and 'autumn collapse'.
Whilst the names sound more poetic than CCD, the symptoms remain the same throughout. What’s baffling scientists now, is trying to figure out not only 'what is killing the honeybees,' but what is also causing them... to just fly out for pollen...never to return?
A key study this week points to some kind of disease or parasite. A quick experiment with some of the devastated hives, made pesticides seem like a less likely culprit, because after reintroducing new, irradiated bee colonies, a better survival rate was noted. This suggests that some kind of disease or parasite is responsible and is killed by the radiation.
The parasite hypothesis has history and some ‘new findings’ to give it a boost then: It seems a mite practically wiped out the wild honeybee in the U.S. in the 1990s. And another new one-celled parasitic fungus was found last week, in a tiny sample of dead bees by University of California San Francisco molecular biologist, Joe DeRisi, the same guy (coincidentally), who isolated the human SARS virus.
Verroa destructor mite
Bee infected with Verroa mite
But the latest hive die-offs occur within two to three weeks?
So, while many of the colonies lost during the winter of 2006/2007 exhibited symptoms consistent with those previously observed with parasitic mites, about 25% of the colonies (or more, the exact % has not been determined) displayed symptoms that are not consistent with mite damage, or any other known cause?
This suggests that some new, unidentified agent is responsible. Several groups, including beekeepers, state regulatory personnel, USDA-APHIS and scientists from both USDA-ARS labs and university labs, are now co-operating to determine the actual cause of death.
New pathogens and possible pesticide poisoning are among the suspects being investigated. It is important to bear in mind then, that despite some concrete claims by certain scientists, our understanding of the current phenomenon is in a very early stage and will change as new facts become available.
Whatever the outcome, losses on the current scale highlight the continued fragility of the global pollination system, and our dependence upon it... and the honey bee.
techy.Bytes
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Enviro Warrior
An Extra Ordinary Life
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...that is such a good suggestion ... and (bottom-line profits) wouldn't surpise me, at all.
*wry chuckle*
It would certainly explain why a scientist capable of singling out the SARS virus, can't find the reason for this happening to the bees, wouldn't it?
Thanks for the thought provoking comment.
Lilla ...
good topic..
I did one on the same subject called Colony Collapse Syndrome on Stitch In Time...
It still amazes me how we continue to rape and pillage this planet, and then get shocked and surprized and terrified when it fights back..
Strange that eh?
Great post,
Take care,
Nick
Enviro Warrior
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... personally I am never shocked, or surprised when I read about such things... the latest outbreak and the change in (otherwise) habitual behaviour patterns of the 'mite' theory - is what stimulated me to write this article.
I am no conspiracy theorist, but I never bought the mite as the single cause for CCD, and always felt that the explanations were always too simple...I 'feel' that something else triggered it, perhaps even causing the mites to mutate... perhaps a honey bee AIDS of some kind? But I have always felt that it has occurred as an unexpected side-effect of modern (chemical) intensive, farming practices.
I missed your post on this story and will go and look for it, as I am very interested in what you might have to say on it, since you are more qualified than me, to notice finer nauances - perhaps with a trained eye...I would be really interested to hear what you think (as far as theories go?)
As for raping this planet.. I am only sorry that my children's children will have to pay for something I have not really contributed in... although it would be hypocritical to say that I do not partake of 21st Century living in some areas... it was impossible to avoid when I lived in the middle of nowhere, and even more so now that I have had to return to Suburbia. The local government restricts independant living at every turn they can.
Such is life...for as long as it can last... that is probably when we will all know terror as mother earth re-establishes her 'balance,' as she will.
Lilla ...
Would you consider publishing this with an American pub? There are a few major players that pay for good freelance work like this.
If so, Check out:
www.emagazine.com
www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife
www.nrdc.com
www.sierraclub.org
Go get 'em!
LaurenD
Enviro Warrior
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Lovely to see you and ... WOW ... thanks for the compliment!
I freelance now for a couple magazines, but am always looking for new stomping grounds to peddle my words of truth. Many run of the mill publications don't want my words of truth ... thanks a million for the leads Lauren, I will check them all out in the next few days ...
*hugs*
Lilla ...
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Sorry for being absent for quite a while, I've been sucked into Limbo of Work I suppose... hahaha...
This is a really good post. Even though I know many out there doesn't care much of it, but I personally believe that your contributions will not go to waste, at least, I will definitely encourage future generations to read them.
You now reminded me of Al Gore, for what he has been contributing about Global Warming in An Inconvinient Truth.
Have a blessed week ahead
Jessicca
Enviro Warrior
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...and thank you for your kind words of appreciation.
I have been a little tied up and finding orble hard to keep up with lately, and apologise for not visiting you. I will be there soon, I promise, but now I must go and attend to my Dream Interpretations, as the animals from T to U are getting restless *lol* ... the day is already wearing on... ho hum, so much to do, so little time to do it...
I am glad you enjoyed this information.
*hugs* to you...
Lilla ...
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Very interesting post. My uncle was a beekeeper whose livelihood depended on honey production and cross pollination. He passed away in the 1980s and his son sold off the hives due to CCD. Wow...I forwarded this post to my cousin and my parents and we have been discussing it VIA email. Thanks for spurring me to reach out to my family about something neutral! ;0)
Mis
Enviro Warrior
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This is such wonderful news... How wonderful to be able to offer you a means to build a bridge... *clapping hands with glee*
Meanwhile, I hope they find the cause soon, personally, I think that GM foods cannot be a good thing and perhaps make the bees weaker and the bugs more virulent?
Who knows?
I'll let you know if I hear more from the world of bees though....
Always a pleasure
Lilla ...
After Internet investigations the causes of the bee dying are so far unsettled, however several factors in interaction become assumed. A clearly decreased disease susceptibility was already determined opposite mites. The cause portable radio waves was discussed, taken however due to observed bee dying in areas without portable radio masts to the discussion out.
With attached in-scanned book sides from the book „Earthquakes and Animals “of Motoji Ikeya, World Scientific 2004 I would like to raise the discussion whether not nevertheless electromagnetic waves, from where they also come will, at least as a cause for clearly intensified disease susceptibility.
Perhaps there are also still further source of EM-waves, which could be considered, as e.g. from the military range or of remote sensing satellites beyond the portable radio load.
As you can infer from the book sides, bees and insects react generally already 10 days before before earthquakes, and the larger animals only days later. A direct connection of body size and form is accepted in relation to the resonance resulting from it in relation to the EM-waves and exact measured values for the observed abnormal behavior by bees in relation to EM-waves is pointed out.
Therefore I assume the fact that insects, particularly bees perhaps really with long-term disease of the immune system on a changed and intensified load by means of special EM-waves reacts and/or reacted. I ask to think here more about this and to start further considerations and/or research. I am pleased at any time this concerning on answer and remain
You can see the above mentioned pages about bee behaviour research against EM-waves on my webpage Really Long Link
Enviro Warrior
An Extra Ordinary Life
Dream Herald
A really interesting angle, em-pulses, indeed!
I was just looking into satellite radiation as interference of whales...why not bees... however it may put them off course, agreed, but would it kill them?
One possible explanation could be that the bees end up too far of course to get back to the hive to eat. As I understand it they don't use the pollen they collect as a food source. They get that at the hive. If they are being lured 'off field' by em-pulses, then perhaps it makes sense.
I remember talking to a professor who said that if you should see a bee set down, exhausted and dying with not enough energy to go on. Spit on your finger and create a circle around the bee with your saliva, there is generally enough sugar in it for the bee to revive and continue.
I will look into the em-wave theory Anon.
thanks for the new thought, I enjoyed your site, too.
Lilla ...
Here's hoping that bees adapt and evolve to whatever is killing them as they have obviously done so in the past.
If it is a seasonal problem then hopefully nature will take care of the weak and let the strong prosper and breed to create a more robust bee.
Enviro Warrior
An Extra Ordinary Life
Dream Herald
I hope so too, because its the end of all crops if they dont.
It wasnt until I researched and wrote this post that I myself realised how closely all life is connected on this planet. I mean I had a clue, but had over looked a few things, like bees, too.
Thanks for stopping by.
Lilla ...