News & Politics - vanishing honeybees

lightcousin · 05-01-2008, 05:57 PM

I've been reading from time to time that honeybees are dying off mysteriously. I've speculated that it could be because of something the Africanized bees carry but are immune to, which the European bees aren't.

vc318 · 05-01-2008, 07:57 PM

Yes, I've been hearing about this too. Isn't M. Night Shyamalan releasing a movie about this?

**sunnykerr** · 05-05-2008, 07:39 PM

I've heard about this, too.

It's all very vague. I mean, they keep talking about it and showing impressive statistics to back it up. And, apparently, once the bees go, it's like three before we all die... but I don't understand where that leap happens.

If anyone has any information, though, that would be nice.

*Ledi* · 05-07-2008, 02:24 AM

I am by no means a fan of bees, but this is scary:

Quote:

Survey shows US honey bee deaths increased over last year

By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press WriterTue May 6, 10:57 PM ET

A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year.

Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.

As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

"For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said. "That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."

The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the country's approximately 2.44 million commercially managed bee hives. The data is being prepared for submission to a journal.

About 29 percent of the deaths were due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn't.

"What's frightening about CCD is that it's not predictable or understood," vanEngelsdorp said.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania's Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced that the state would pour an additional $20,400 into research at Pennsylvania State University looking for the causes of CCD. This raises emergency funds dedicated to investigating the disease to $86,000.

The issue also has attracted federal grants and funding from companies that depend on honey bees, including ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs.

Because the berries, fruits and nuts that give about 28 of Haagen-Daazs' varieties flavor depend on honey bees for pollination, the company is donating up to $250,000 to CCD and sustainable pollination research at Penn State and the University of California, Davis.

From here.

**sunnykerr** · 05-07-2008, 06:13 PM

It is scary... but it lacks context, to me.

What I mean, is, a 32-percent loss is dramatic. But that assumes that bee populations don't oscillate much year to year. As an example, a 32-percent loss would be less dramatic if it came, say, after two or three years of steady bee-population increase.

I just think back to a couple of years ago, when we were supposed to be getting the invasion of these killer "Africanized" (whatever the heck that means) bees. They said populations were migrating, increasing, overrunning the others...

And we were fine.

migamoo · 05-07-2008, 07:03 PM

Bees do help agriculture along, so I can understand them vanishing in huge numbers not being good. But they've only been counting for two years. There's not really that much data to look at.

**sunnykerr** · 05-08-2008, 03:04 PM

That's pretty much where I am, too.

I come from the country, and one that had/has an actual honey industry. Not huge, but a one. And my tiny little village had a bunch of farms, so I know that bees are important. I believe it. That part of this whole thing, I don't need to be convinced about.

But I also studied journalism. Which, if nothing else, taught me that it doesn't take much to drum up a really scary story. And it's important to look at all the data when you do write a story... to, you know, present things in their proper context.

So the fact that all we have here is a naked figure, with no context, and no real data to back it up... As much as I do not want bees to vanish... it makes me a smidgeon skeptical. That's all.


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