See other Science/Tech Articles
Title: What’s the buzz about all our missing bees?
Source:
GAZETTE UK
URL Source: http:// http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/2390300.print/
Published: Jul 25, 2008
Author: By Iris Clapp
Post Date: 2008-07-25 12:07:44 by HOUNDDAWG
Keywords: bees, pollenation
Views: 170
Comments: 13
Site Logo What’s the buzz about all our missing bees? 8:53am Friday 11th July 2008 The disappearing bees was a great Doctor Who storyline. With the universe teetering on the abyss - courtesy, naturally, of the Daleks - and the Doctor literally lost in space, he suddenly came to the conclusion that the bees had not been disappearing at all, but fleeing the Earth because they had sensed it was time to make a swift exit. Dig deep into the internet and similar stories abound; the bees are getting out before doomsday. That there are fewer domestic honeybees and their feral cousins, wild bees - bumblebees - worldwide is not in dispute. The reasons why, though, are much more prosaic. "It's the varroa mite," said Peter Inson. "It came into the UK, Australia and New Zealand about 15 years ago, probably on the bodies of live bees brought in illegally. The mite lives on the bees' body fluids and eventually kills them." The mite attacks all bees, both domestic and wild, and can decimate hives. While beekeepers can ensure their honeybees take anti-varroa drugs via a sugary paste, bumblebees are on their own. "But the mites are already developing a resistance," said Mr Inson, "so scientists are having to adapt the drugs. Still we have learnt a lot about how to cope with the problem facing domestic bees. Unfortunately, that is not helping the bumblebees. There are fewer feral colonies today than there were a decade ago." Mr Inson is a beekeeper (an apiarist) and a member of Colchester Beekeepers' Association. He has seven hives in the garden of his home at East Mersea. Each hive contains a single colony and the number of bees in the colony can be as high as 50,000 in the summer, when the bees are actively collecting pollen and making honey, to no more than 4,000 in the winter. Mr Inson doesn't just keep bees to sell honey. He is finding he is more and more in demand from local farmers who want his domestic bees to pollinate their crops because there are fewer bumblebees. The wild bee may be more attracted to crop flowers than the honeybee (honeybees prefer nectar-rich plants) but where needs must, the honeybee will rise to the occasion. "My bees have already pollinated bean plants," said Mr Inson, "and the farmer was so pleased he is thinking of planting borage and hiring my bees again." It isn't only the varroa mite which has reduced bumblebee numbers. Intensive farming and a cut in the number of insect-pollinated crops (more cereal crops, fewer bean crops) have also led to decline. Three of the UK bumblebee populations are already extinct and another nine are on the endangered species list. Brian Finnerty, spokesman for the East Anglia branch of the National Union of Farmers (NFU), said pollination by bees is worth £200 million a year to the agriculture and horticulture industries. A further decline in bumblebee numbers could have a serious economic impact on the farming industry, which is why the Department for Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) National Bee Unit is looking at ways to give the bumblebee a fighting chance. "They (bumblebees) play a very important role," said Mr Finnerty. "They are the best pollinators. That is why so much effort is going into trying to reverse their decline." Then there is the UK's intensive house-building programme, particularly in north Essex and the Thames Gateway (east and south-east London, parts of Kent and Essex - 120,000 new homes by 2016) which conservationists claim is "decimating" the bumblebees' habitat. Ben Darvill, of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, revealed four types of bumblebee, amongst the most endangered species in the UK, thrive on wild flowers in the Thames Gateway area. "We recognise they are rare and yet they (the Government) still seem determined to let developers build on these sites," said Mr Darvill. "Without bumblebees you are talking about reduced crop yields and sweeping changes to the countryside." Meanwhile, America has a more perplexing bee problem. Colonies there really are disappearing. There is even a name for it - collapsing colony disorder (CCD) - and it is getting worse. "There is no explanation for it as yet," said Mr Inson. "The bees just abandon their hives and vanish. There is no sign of disease, no sign of anything. "Oh, there have been theories. Climate change hasn't been dismissed, but the notion that electrical impulses from mobile phones were affecting the bees' navigation was quickly dismissed." Which makes it all very definitely more Doctor Who than Defra. WHY ARE BUMBLEBEES IMPORTANT? * Bumblebees work on plants with no nectar, so play a crucial role in the pollination of farm flowers and vegetables * The farming industry relies heavily on insect pollination. Few, if any, bean flowers, for example, would set pods unless they were pollinated by insects, particularly bumblebees, which the Department for Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) National Bee Unit says are the most efficient pollinators * Many apple, pear and plum trees rely on bumblebees for good harvests. BUMBLEBEES AT RISK Britain and Ireland have 25 native species of bumblebee. Five are currently listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan because of their rapid decline - bombus distinguendus (great yellow bumblebee), bombus humilis (carder bumblebee); bombus ruderatus (large garden bumblebee), bombus subterraneus (short-haired bumblebee) and bombus sylvarum (shrill carder bee).
Poster Comment: Apollonius, kemptville says... 6:33pm Wed 23 Jul 08 Glad to hear that BT Genetically Modified crops have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with Colony Collapse Disorder. Nope, couldn't be that at all. Move right along folks. Nothing to see here!!! mediamadman, Dallas says... 10:46pm Wed 23 Jul 08 Genetically modified crops IS the ONLY reason for the destruction of the bee colonies. No one wants to talk about it for fear of offending Monsanto. Please read about how Transgenic Pollen affects Monarch Butterflies in the following article: http://www.mindfully .org/GE/Transgenic-P ollen-Monarch20may99 .htm _ _______________________ Puppy sayz; My friend the genius who is also a beekeeper told me 15 years ago that bees were dying, and feral colonies were almost non existent. He told me then that we were reaching critical mass because of two other villains-the Jacobi Mite and the Tracheal mite. Einstein said that within a few years after the disappearance of the bees humans would also be extinct. And yet people still do not understand their importance, any more than folks understand how the loss of plankton will cause the collapse of the food chain. Now that oceans are warming and the cold upwelling of plankton is being disrupted, we may see a collapse of the food chain so sudden (but not unexpected, at least in scientific circles) that it resembles one of those "IT CAME FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE" Sci Fi horror films. And, if beekeepers lose the battle (feral colonies are practically extinct, with the possible exception of the slow migrating Africanized bees-"Oh Great!") then Darwin's "survival of the fittest" may mean that the only humans who survive are those that can eat other people and carrion without gagging.... I tried to explain the gravity of the situation to a co-worker a few years back, and his reply was, "I don't need vegetables. I can live on a big ol' steak for dinner every night!" When I tried to explain that beef are fed different types of hay and grains that must also be pollinated, well, it, just didn't compute. And, each additional attempt to sound the Chicken Little alarm has also failed. For some reason only the hardcore greenies seem to grasp the seriousness of the looming crisis, and their natural enemies keep churning out articles ridiculing them (on admittedly weak points) in order to dismiss ALL that they are trying to tell us. In biology there are Lazarus species, that is, critters that are believed to be extinct but are suddenly found to have survived. The Coelacanth, a prehistoric fish was re-discovered in Africa in 1938 is a Lazarus species, a reference to the Biblical chap who was risen from the dead. I'm afraid that if the unfavorable conditions that are devastating bees and plankton lead to declarations that they're extinct, that it's damned unlikely either will ever pop up and pleasantly surprise us in the grim, gray future that lies ahead. It's possible that The Ivory Billed Woodpecker has managed to survive undetected deep in some Arkansas and/or Louisiana swamps. But, I hold no hope for the "resurrection" of what was once the most populous bird in North America, the passenger pigeon. "Martha", thought to be the world's last passenger pigeon, died on September 1, 1914 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Both comments about the above story were written by skeptics who put no stock in the varroa mite as the culprit in the honeybee crisis. They want to believe that genetically modified "Frankenfoods" are decimating our little friends. Others point to cell towers/microwave radiation or pollution as the singular cause. They all believe that behind their preferred cause is a powerful lobby that pressures officialdom to hide their culpability. And, still others dismiss anything that scientists say and greenies repeat as gospel, from the "George Bush Skool of anti-Intelleckshualizm" wing of the party. The end result is, the world is fiddling as the ecology burns. If it's any comfort to you, our govt has taken steps to assure the survival of our govt. What they probably haven't told us is, underneath the Greenbrier Hotel (WVA) and Cheyenne Mountain complex (COLO) there are ample provisions for the govt types, their deliciously full figured personal secretaries (and if there's any more room) their wives and kids. They may even be keeping healthy, disease and parasite-free bee colonies for their survival. (And, sunlight reaches them through 12 inches of blast proof glass) In fact the only thing that our precious govt types have to stay frosty about is, the one danger they can't minimize in advance. That is, a possible mine shaft gap. "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day...."
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: HOUNDDAWG (#0)
Beekeepers are pointing the finger at a Bayer CropScience pesticide marketed under the name Poncho, but government tests aren't conclusive In Germany's bucolic Baden-Württemburg region, there is a curious silence this week. All up and down the Rhine river, farm fields usually buzzing with bees are quiet. Beginning late last week, helpless beekeepers could only watch as their hives were hit by an unprecedented die-off. Many say one of Germany's biggest chemical companies is to blame. In some parts of the region, hundreds of bees per hive have been dying each day. "It's an absolute bee emergency," Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeeper's Association, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Fifty to 60 percent of the bees have died on average, and some beekeepers have lost all their hives." The crisis hit its peak last weekend. Beekeepers from Germany's Baden- Württemburg reported hives full of thousands of dead bees. The worst-hit region, according to state officials, was along the upper Rhine river between the towns of Rastatt and Lorrach. The Rhine valley is one of Germany's prime agricultural regions. Regional officials spent the week testing bees, pollen, honey and plant materials to look for the die-off's causes. The Julius Kühn Institute in Braunschweig, a federal research institute dealing with agricultural issues, set up a special hotline for beekeepers to send in dead bees for analysis. Blaming the Pesticides But on Friday, Baden-Württemburg Agriculture Minister Peter Hauk said scientists still weren't sure what was behind the disaster. "As long as the causes are still unclear, we must consider all the possible ways we can reduce the risks for the bees," Hauk said. Hauk encouraged beekeepers to move their hives outside the affected area to prevent further damage. Meanwhile, Germany's beekeepers were pointing fingers at one of Germany's largest companies, blaming a popular, recently-introduced pesticide called clothianidin for the recent die-off. Produced by Monheim-based Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of German chemical giant Bayer AG, clothianidin is sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho. It's designed to attack the nervous systems of insects "like nerve gas," says Hederer. The chemical was used last year to fight an outbreak of corn rootworm, and its success against the pest led to a much wider application this spring up and down the Rhine. But clothianidin is not a particularly selective poison. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency's fact sheet on the pesticide, "clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees." Seeds are treated with the clothianidin in advance or sprayed with it while in the field, and the insecticide can blow onto other crops as well. The chemical is often sprayed on corn fields during the spring planting to create a sort of protective film on cornfields. Beekeepers say it's no coincidence that the bee die-off began at the beginning of May, right when corn planting started. "It's the pesticides' fault, one hundred percent," Baden Beekeeper Association chairman Ekkehard Hülsmann told the Bädische Zeitung newspaper. The circumstantial evidence is piling up. Beekeepers and agricultural officials in Italy, France and Holland all noticed similar phenomena in their fields when planting began a few weeks ago. French beekeepers recently protested the use of clothianidin in the Alsace region, just across the Rhine from Baden- Württemburg. Hederer said German officials have been ignoring the damage pesticides do to bee populations for years. "The people who work in government agencies are all in the pockets of manufacturers," he said. Beekeepers are fed up, he says: "We've decided that keeping bees is more important than keeping our mouths shut." The Canary in the Coal Mine Nonetheless, government officials say the early results aren't conclusive. "The bees that were tested showed a buildup of [clothianidin] … but in such small amounts that the scientists couldn't say it was definitely the cause," the Baden-Württemburg Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Friday. "The expert commission will continue its urgent investigation." Hauk said the ministry was developing new guidelines for farmers using clothianidin to reduce the amount bees were exposed to. As intensive agriculture becomes more and more common in Germany, the country's insects are beginning to suffer. Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, bees are a prime indicator of the environment's health. The consequences could be dire—bees pollinate 80 percent of German crops, from apples to rapeseed. A total bee collapse could cost German farmers billions of euro. The latest die-off is hitting a bee population already battered by a particularly long, wet and cold winter. Infestations of bee parasites like the varroa mite have also taken a heavy toll on bees in the past few years. Germany's bees are still in better shape than those in the United States, where the mysterious "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD, has devastated the American beekeeping industry. "Bees in the US—with its huge farms—get a lot more attention than Germany, with its little fields the size of handkerchiefs," Hederer says. "It's sad, but true: There always has to be a huge catastrophe before people start to use their brains."
Excellent complement. This thread could be a virtual clearinghouse on this topic. Thank you.
Thanks for posting this DAWG.
An abstract syntax tree grows in Brooklyn. Nice post. Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
"Mein Fuhrer!!!! I can freeze-dry apricots!!!!" Thank you.
I was really glad to see wild honeybees in my yard this summer.
We have a plum tree that was well tended by bees and consequently we had a bumper crop of plums this year. The tree is only about 3 years old and we were giving plums away. Heaven help us when the tree is full size.
Are you sure they aren't from a nearby beekeeper? Bees will travel quite a distance to find product for the mothership.
In the east rotting plums on the ground attract wasps and yellow jackets.
I don't know. I told them I was glad to see them, but they didn't answer.
When I was no more than 5 yrs old I entered an abandoned house that had perhaps a million or more bees in it, with combs and honey hanging on most of the kitchen walls and even on the front room ceiling. I stood there as bees flew past me coming and going, and the hum was incredible. They sensed that I wasn't a threat (which is why I'm alive today) and I intuitively knew that they wouldn't harm me. I had to squeeze through a hole in the boarded up front door so there was no hasty retreat, but even so I wasn't frightened. I learned that the colony was destroyed when the house was demo'ed. Who knew that we may come to regret all of the bees who've been killed because humans considered them nuisances? Somehow I did even then.
I'm with you. I like bees. Yellow jackets are another matter.
German Beehives Hit by Mass Die-Off
#2. To: angle (#1)
#3. To: HOUNDDAWG, *Agriculture-Environment* (#0)
"You have delusions of adequacy."
#4. To: HOUNDDAWG (#0)
#5. To: HOUNDDAWG (#0)
If it's any comfort to you, our govt has taken steps to assure the survival of our govt. What they probably haven't told us is, underneath the Greenbrier Hotel (WVA) and Cheyenne Mountain complex (COLO) there are ample provisions for the govt types, their deliciously full figured personal secretaries (and if there's any more room) their wives and kids. They may even be keeping healthy, disease and parasite-free bee colonies for their survival. (And, sunlight reaches them through 12 inches of blast proof glass) In fact the only thing that our precious govt types have to stay frosty about is, the one danger they can't minimize in advance. That is, a possible mine shaft gap.
“The best and first guarantor of our neutrality and our independent existence is the defensive will of the people…and the proverbial marksmanship of the Swiss shooter. Each soldier a good marksman! Each shot a hit!” Schweizerische Schutzenseitunt (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#6. To: Tauzero, farmfriend (#4)
#7. To: HOUNDDAWG (#0)
I've already said too much.
#8. To: MUDDOG, HOUNDDAWG (#7)
I was really glad to see wild honeybees in my yard this summer.
"You have delusions of adequacy."
#9. To: MUDDOG (#7)
I was really glad to see wild honeybees in my yard this summer.
#10. To: farmfriend (#8)
We have a plum tree that was well tended by bees and consequently we had a bumper crop of plums this year. The tree is only about 3 years old and we were giving plums away. Heaven help us when the tree is full size.
#11. To: HOUNDDAWG (#10)
Are you sure they aren't from a nearby beekeeper?
I've already said too much.
#12. To: MUDDOG (#11)
#13. To: HOUNDDAWG (#12)
I've already said too much.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest