Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists

[China]

Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Go to work, come home.

Go to work, come home.

Go to work -- and vanish without a trace.

Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.

The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil.

Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks.

If the bees were dying of pesticide poisoning or freezing, their bodies would be expected to lie around the hive. And if they were absconding because of some threat -- which they have been known to do -- they wouldn't leave without the queen.

Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, according to Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.

"They're the heavy lifters of agriculture," Pettis said of honeybees. "And the reason they are is they're so mobile and we can rear them in large numbers and move them to a crop when it's blooming."

Honeybees are used to pollinate some of the tastiest parts of the American diet, Pettis said, including cherries, blueberries, apples, almonds, asparagus and macadamia nuts.

"It's not the staples," he said. "If you can imagine eating a bowl of oatmeal every day with no fruit on it, that's what it would be like" without honeybee pollination.

Pettis and other experts are gathering outside Washington for a two-day workshop starting on Monday to pool their knowledge and come up with a plan of action to combat what they call colony collapse disorder.

"What we're describing as colony collapse disorder is the rapid loss of adult worker bees from the colony over a very short period of time, at a time in the season when we wouldn't expect a rapid die-off of workers: late fall and early spring," Pettis said.

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[@DCGoldPants]

That is really weird.

[China]

Apparently it is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and is a major problem for agricultural production. One theory blames cell phones:

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

[@DCGoldPants]

Apparently it is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and is a major problem for agricultural production. One theory blames cell phones:

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

like Sonar and Whales?

[Zen-like Todd]

Clearly the honeybees are being punished by god as a result of their crass overindulgence of nectar.

[Zguy28]

I blame Global Warming.

:jk:

This is actually a pretty serious thing. More so than most people will tend to think. Bee's are an important link in the process.

[Skins24]

Mark Brunell's fault

[China]

Aye Aye Aye

[DCsportsfan53]

Clearly the honeybees are being punished by god as a result of their crass overindulgence of nectar.

That and all the homo-honeybees. God's wrath is no joke.

[McMetal]

My Dad and I were just talking about this yesterday.

One of the theories is microscopic mites that somehow disorient the swarm, causing them to become separated from the queen.

[CounterTrey]

Bill Maher on HBo was talking about this on his latest show....its pretty serious..without bees pollinating crops, crops dissapear. if the food chain dissapears then we do also in the long run.

So no bees also equals no humans...

[TradeTheBeal!]

Clearly the honeybees are being punished by god as a result of their crass overindulgence of nectar.

The master of Glib.

Glib - 1.readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so:

Edit: It's a rather serious matter. We need the bees!

[Walking Deadman]

This was mentioned on Coast to Coast AM a few months ago......a scientist/activist came on and thought it was a combination of herbacides, fungacides, insecticides along with genetically altered plants (designed to produce toxins to kill or have insect pests dislike them as food) that is retarding the bees when they are in larval form. So when they are adults, they go and leave their hive and can't find their way home, thus they die and the hives die out (very few bees in said hive). They guest basically said that the bees aren't affected when they are adults but when they are lavae.

I went outside the last few weeks and looked for bees/pollen and saw a great deal, so I'm not sure how true this is but it is something that should be looked out and studied. Pollenators (like bees) are crucial to our agriculture system.

[Zguy28]

I went outside the last few weeks and looked for bees/pollen and saw a great deal, so I'm not sure how true this is but it is something that should be looked out and studied. Pollenators (like bees) are crucial to our agriculture system.

I actually have noticed the opposite. When I was growing up, there were tons of bee's. You had to watch out for them, because they were constantly pollinating the clover on the ground. Now, where I live, no clover and no bees. Only the wasps and wood-boring bees.

[TradeTheBeal!]

I actually have noticed the opposite. When I was growing up, there were tons of bee's. You had to watch out for them, because they were constantly pollinating the clover on the ground. Now, where I live, no clover and no bees. Only the wasps and wood-boring bees.

I concur, they are few and far between.

[Predicto]

This is scary as crap. Bees are so vital to agriculture.

As far as I have heard, the cell phone theory is nonsense. Mites or a virus are the most likely cause. But we better figure it out fast, or you can basically kiss our fruit consumption goodbye.

[Warpath81]

i think the scientists need to come look under my gutters. tons of bees there.

[Kilmer17]

This is scary as crap. Bees are so vital to agriculture.

As far as I have heard, the cell phone theory is nonsense. Mites or a virus are the most likely cause. But we better figure it out fast, or you can basically kiss our fruit consumption goodbye.

I think that's the likely cause as well, however, I think it's a GOOD thing. It's natures way of ensuring that the strongest of the species survive to reproduce.

This article was front of our local rag today-

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS/704230347

We should start to be concerned when the species is unable to reporduce itself. As it stands, it's a natural cycle proving Darwin once again.

[CrabR]

I actually have noticed the opposite. When I was growing up, there were tons of bee's. You had to watch out for them, because they were constantly pollinating the clover on the ground. Now, where I live, no clover and no bees. Only the wasps and wood-boring bees.

Same here, i rarely see a honey bee

we used to catch them in jars and let them go one by one trying to find their hive

[Lowghost]

This is the first time in 5 years that my apple trees didn't produce any apples.

I don't know if it was due to the lack of honeybees or the weather.

[Predicto]

i think the scientists need to come look under my gutters. tons of bees there.

Those aren't honeybees. Those guys are yellowjackets or hornets, and are utterly useless to us.

[Predicto]

This is the first time in 5 years that my apple trees didn't produce any apples.

I don't know if it was due to the lack of honeybees or the weather.

That would likely be the bees. When weather is bad, the crop is stunted. When there are no bees, there are no fruit at all.

[Pete]

I knew a guy who had a bee business down here. He supplied his bees to orange groves only because it made for the best honey he claimed. His family had been doing it here for three generations. Orange Blosom Honey.

While I'm no bee lover, I know we need them. Too bad the friggin killer bees aren't dying off. We've had two confirmed attacks this past winter, and me being alergic to those little bastages, I'm very aware when outdoors.

[Zguy28]

I knew a guy who had a bee business down here. He supplied his bees to orange groves only because it made for the best honey he claimed. His family had been doing it here for three generations. Orange Blosom Honey.

While I'm no bee lover, I know we need them. Too bad the friggin killer bees aren't dying off. We've had two confirmed attacks this past winter, and me being alergic to those little bastages, I'm very aware when outdoors.

Yet another reason I refuse to ever move to Florida.

1. Too darn hot.

2. Fire Ants.

3. Killer Bees.

[Pete]

Yet another reason I refuse to ever move to Florida.

1. Too darn hot.

2. Fire Ants.

3. Killer Bees.

Ya know, the fire ants native to the US aren't all that bad unless you really get covered. It's the South American ones, Argentinan I think, that really tare you up. There a bit larger, and the bite is much worse.

As far as I know, killer bees have been found in many southern states farther and north then most realize.

The heat sucks............