by SWALKER 24 Replies latest social current
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." ~Albert Einstein
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,473166,00.html
Swalker
Does anyone have an idea what is causing this? I guess we can always blame it on GW!
Swalker
I have heard about the bee population getting smaller, causing a loss in crops in California, and they said nobody really knows yet, I supose there are some speculations though.
That is worrying. I had heard of a illness that had been killing bees in the UK for a few years. Certainly a lot more needs to be spent on researching this. Though I doubt we would all die if the bees died, since there are so many other insects around, we would definitely be short of plant life pretty quickly.
I hope someone coughs up the cash for researching this soon!
I have been hearing about it occasionally on the news but didn't really understand the enormity of the situation before reading the article. Here is a few key notes made in the article:
"Mysterious events in recent months have suddenly made Einstein's apocalyptic vision seem all the more topical. For unknown reasons, bee populations throughout Germany are disappearing -- something that is so far only harming beekeepers. But the situation is different in the United States, where bees are dying in such dramatic numbers that the economic consequences could soon be dire. No one knows what is causing the bees to perish, but some experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor.
Felix Kriechbaum, an official with a regional beekeepers' association in Bavaria, recently reported a decline of almost 12 percent in local bee populations. When "bee populations disappear without a trace," says Kriechbaum, it is difficult to investigate the causes, because "most bees don't die in the beehive." There are many diseases that can cause bees to lose their sense of orientation so they can no longer find their way back to their hives."
"Since last November, the US has seen a decline in bee populations so dramatic that it eclipses all previous incidences of mass mortality. Beekeepers on the east coast of the United States complain that they have lost more than 70 percent of their stock since late last year, while the west coast has seen a decline of up to 60 percent.
In an article in its business section in late February, the New York Times calculated the damage US agriculture would suffer if bees died out. Experts at Cornell University in upstate New York have estimated the value bees generate -- by pollinating fruit and vegetable plants, almond trees and animal feed like clover -- at more than $14 billion."
Swalker
First off, what you are referring to is varroa (and tracheal) mite infestation of european honeybees. There are numerous programs underway to breed a mite-resistant strain, here's one program:
http://griffes.tripod.com/HIP1.html
However, in the big picture, keep three things in mind:
1- European honeybees (the type we see in the Americas) used for commercial honey production are non-native to the Americas. Plant life floursihed here long before their introduction, and will continue without them. Why?
2- Native bees such as bumblebees, as well as some wasps, hornets, moths, butterflies, and flies, all pollinate as well.
3- Many crops are primarily polinated by wind, not insects (corn, wheat, rice, other grains and grasses).
So, again, much like Global Warming, hysteria sells, and that's what media outlets are all about.
BA- Amatuer horticulturist.
It's the Chemtrails that are causing this, AND global warming.
Warlock
Warlock...LOL!
BA...did you even read the article??? It's my understanding that it isn't mites. I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong!
Swalker
The drought in the northern-tier states left pitiful honey stocks to keep the bees strong over the winter, and the varroa is back in force. In addition, a mystery malady, dubbed “Colony Collapse Disorder,” is sweeping through the apiaries, leaving many hives almost completely devoid of adult bees, which appear to abandon their hives and disappear. Apiculturists are looking at a number of potential culprits, from bad weather to bad corn syrup to genetically modified corn to pesticides to miticides, and many suspect the problem is compounded by the presence of the varroa mite, which weakens colonies so that invading pathogens pack a particularly destructive punch. (Scientists suspect the 2005 die-off was exacerbated by a viral event.) http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=16891&gclid=CJHOxYrrvYsCFR9FQAodtE3tcg
Sounds like a complex problem.
Twenty years ago, when a beeyard failed, bad beekeeping practices could most likely be blamed for the collapse. Today, the problem lies with the precarious, single-cropped, single-minded state of modern agriculture. It is too unvaried, too big, and too much is being asked of the bees that service it. “Modern agriculture is pushed harder than it ever used to be,” said Miller. And it is being kept aloft by ever more fragile wings. The bee is the smallest visible link in the chain, and its illness is illustrative.
This annual bee migration isn’t just a curiosity; it’s the glue that holds much of modern agriculture together. Without the bees’ pollination services, California’s almond trees — the state’s top export crop — would produce 40 pounds of almonds per acre; with the bees, they can generate 2,400 pounds. Honeybees provide the same service for more than 100 other crops, from lettuce to cranberries to oranges to canola, up and down the West Coast.
Interesting.
~Merry
SWalker,
Yes, I read the article. In the first few paragraphs it states:
The problem, says Haefeker, has a number of causes, one being the varroa mite, introduced from Asia, and another is the widespread practice in agriculture of spraying wildflowers with herbicides and practicing monoculture. Another possible cause, according to Haefeker, is the controversial and growing use of genetic engineering in agriculture.
The mite problem is the differentiating factor, for the most part. Herbicides have been used for decades without widely observed honeybee mortality, and monoculture may contribute to the problem as well, as only a few improved hybrids continue to dominate commercial agriculture. Yet monoculture is not a likely cause, because most of the America's acreage is not used for agriculture, so there are still more non-improved wild starins of most plants growing in the wild, that are available for honeybees.
The major culprit still seems to be the mites- I know two honey farmers in my neck of the woods who have found mite controls, or the lack thereof, to be the primary cause of hive success or mortality.
BA
