The subject of this post is quite off topic for this blog. But it causes me enough concern that I want to write about it anyway.
It's been reported that significant numbers of commercial bee colonies have literally disappeared. The hives are intact, they contain honey, but the majority of the bees have left and gone elsewhere, presumed dead.
I first read about it in an article on the ABC News website titled Spring Mystery: Where Are All the Bees? It states that "Beekeepers estimate that 600,000, about 25 percent of the colonies, have been affected by the mysterious disappearance". The number of states affected is listed as 27.
I've known that bees have suffered serious losses over past years due to mites. But this is different and seems to be larger in scale.
Last night, I searched for more information (links to follow). I could find no specific, proven cause of the problem, as it seems there is a lack of funding to find out. The majority of the articles believe it to be related to pesticides and cite forensic evidence where the remaining bees found in the hive are bearing an excessive number of viruses and fungi. They believe these are present because the bees' immune system has collapsed and such a thing could be caused by pesticides. No predators appeared to have caused the losses.
I'm not trying to be alarmist. Just writing this up because it scares me, much of our food depends upon bees, and I'd like other people to know about this problem.
Following are some of the articles that talk about the bee disappearances. I really don't know how to verify this information, so I'm treating it with a grain of salt.
- Where have the bees gone? Here's why you should care - March 31, 2007
- USDA faltering on bee epidemic, House panel says - March 30, 2007 - Mentions that it could be caused by a disease that comes from bees imported from Australia or from "a new generation of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, now being widely used for insect control". A scientist, Diana Cox-Foster, of Pennsylvania State University, was also quoted as saying that the problem has not yet been seen among Africanized honey bees (i.e., killer bees).
- Bee Crisis Hearings Yesterday - March 30, 2007
- Update on Bee Disappearance - March 26, 2007
- Honey Bee Disappearances: Could Pesticides Play a Role? - March 16, 2007, this article includes a map of the affected states. It cites 3 cases where beekeepers experienced a high percentage loss of hives. For example, one beekeeper lost 80% of his hives, another 60%, and another 96%.
- Creating a buzz about massive, mystery bee disappearance - March 6, 2007, one source in the article believes it is parasites that cause the problem.
- Species Under Threat: Honey, who shrunk the bee population? - March 1, 2007, this article mentions that dead queen bees are left behind in the hives. It says that predators are not taking advantage of the deserted colonies, pointing to something toxic in the colony that is repelling the predators.
- Part 1: Earth Life Threads - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees - February 23, 2007 - Mentions that Spain and Poland have experienced serious losses, but not France and Italy. Suggests the latter countries may have not experienced losses due to their bans on certain pesticides.
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Sean Winstead
Tags: bees, life