Mystery killer silencing honeybees

[prepdeb]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

California - Visalia

David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing. In 24 states across America, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation's most profitable. "I have never seen anything like it," Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. "Box after box after box are just empty. There's nobody home." The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country. Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first U.S. national affliction. In a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold.

As researchers scramble to find answers to the syndrome they have decided to call "colony collapse disorder," growers are becoming openly nervous about the capability of the commercial bee industry to meet the growing demand for bees to pollinate dozens of crops, from almonds to avocados to kiwis. Along with recent stresses on the bees themselves, as well as on an industry increasingly under consolidation, some fear this disorder may force a breaking point for even large beekeepers. A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. "Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food," said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent. Beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the off-season to be normal. Beekeepers are the nomads of the agriculture world, working in obscurity in their white protective suits and frequently trekking around the country with their insects packed into 18-wheel trucks, looking for pollination work. Once the domain of hobbyists with a handful of backyard hives, beekeeping has become increasingly commercial and consolidated. Over the last two decades, the number of beehives, now estimated by the U.S. Agriculture Department to be 2.4 million, has dropped by a quarter and the number of beekeepers by half.

Pressure has been building on the bee industry. The cost of maintaining hives, also known as colonies, is rising, along with the strain on bees of being bred to pollinate rather than just make honey. And beekeepers are losing out to suburban sprawl in their quest for spots where bees can forage for nectar to stay healthy and strong during the pollination season. "There less beekeepers, less bees, yet more crops to pollinate," Browning said. "While this sounds sweet for the bee business, with so much added loss and expense due to disease, pests and higher equipment costs, profitability is actually falling." About 15 worried beekeepers convened in Florida this month to brainstorm with researchers on how to cope with the extensive bee losses. Investigators are collecting samples and exploring a range of theories for the colony collapses, including viruses, a fungus and poor bee nutrition. They are also studying a group of pesticides that were banned in some European countries, including France, to see if they are somehow affecting bees' innate ability to find their way back home.

It could just be that the bees are stressed out. Bees are being raised to survive a shorter off-season, to be ready to pollinate once the almond bloom begins in February. That has most likely lowered their immunity to viruses. Mites have also damaged bee colonies, and the insecticides used to try to kill mites are harming the ability of queen bees to spawn as many worker bees. The queens are living half as long as they did just a few years ago. Researchers are also concerned that the willingness of beekeepers to truck their colonies from coast to coast could be adding to bees' stress, helping to spread viruses and mites and otherwise accelerating whatever is afflicting them. Dennis van Engelsdorp, a bee specialist with the state of Pennsylvania who is part of the team studying the bee colony collapses, said the "strong immune suppression" investigators have observed "could be the AIDS of the bee industry," making bees more susceptible to other diseases that eventually kill them off. Growers have tried before to do without bees. In past decades, they have used everything from giant blowers to helicopters to mortar shells to try to spread pollen across the plants.

More recently, researchers have been trying to develop "self-compatible" almond trees that will require fewer bees. One company is even trying to commercialize a "blue orchard bee" that is stingless and works at colder temperatures than the honeybee. Beekeepers have endured two major mite infestations since the 1980s, which felled many hobbyist beekeepers, and three cases of unexplained disappearing disorders as far back as 1894. But those episodes were confined to small areas, van Engelsdorp said. Today, the industry is in a weaker position to deal with new stresses. A flood of imported honey from China and Argentina has depressed honey prices and put more pressure on beekeepers to take to the road in search of pollination contracts. Beekeepers are trucking tens of billions of bees around the country every year. California's almond crop, by far the biggest in the world, now draws more than half of the country's bee colonies in February. The crop has been both a boon to commercia l beekeeping and a burden, as pressure mounts for the industry to fill growing demand. Spread over 580,000 acres, or about 235,000 hectares, stretched across 300 miles, or 480 kilometers, of California's Central Valley, the crop is expected to grow to 680,000 acres by 2010.

Beekeepers now earn many times more by renting their bees out to pollinate crops than they do producing honey. Two years ago a shortage of bees for the California almond crop caused bee rental prices to jump, drawing beekeepers from the East Coast. This year, the price for a bee colony is about $135, up from $55 in 2004, said Joe Traynor, a bee broker in Bakersfield, California. A typical bee colony ranges from 15,000 to 30,000 bees. But beekeepers' costs are also on the rise. In the past decade, fuel, equipment and even bee boxes have doubled and tripled in price. The cost to control mites has also risen, along with the price of queen bees, which cost about $15 each, up from $10 three years ago. To give bees energy while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup carried in tanker-sized trucks costing $12,000 per load. Over all, Bradshaw figures, in recent years he has spent $145 a hive annually to keep his bees alive, for a profit of about $11 a hive, not including labor expenses. "A couple of farmers have asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'" Bradshaw said. "I ask myself the same thing. But it is a job I like. It is a lifestyle. I work with my dad every day. And now my son is starting to work with us."

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=10104&lang=eng

 

[Snowy Owl]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Species under threat: Honey, who shrunk the bee population?

Across America, millions of honey bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die, leaving beekeepers facing ruin and US agriculture under threat. And to date, no one knows why. Michael McCarthy reports

Published: 01 March 2007

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2314202.ece​

It has echoes of a murder mystery in polite society. There could hardly be a more sedate and unruffled world than beekeeping, but the beekeepers of the United States have suddenly encountered affliction, calamity and death on a massive scale. And they have not got a clue why it is happening.

Across the country, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, honey bee colonies have started to die off, abruptly and decisively. Millions of bees are abandoning their hives and flying off to die (they cannot survive as a colony without the queen, who is always left behind).

Some beekeepers, especially those with big portable apiaries, or bee farms, which are used for large-scale pollination of fruit and vegetable crops, are facing commercial ruin - and there is a growing threat that America's agriculture may be struck a mortal blow by the loss of the pollinators. Yet scientists investigating the problem have no idea what is causing it.

The phenomenon is recent, dating back to autumn, when beekeepers along the east coast of the US started to notice the die-offs. It was given the name of fall dwindle disease, but now it has been renamed to reflect better its dramatic nature, and is known as colony collapse disorder.

It is swift in its effect. Over the course of a week the majority of the bees in an affected colony will flee the hive and disappear, going off to die elsewhere. The few remaining insects are then found to be enormously diseased - they have a "tremendous pathogen load", the scientists say. But why? No one yet knows.

The condition has been recorded in at least 24 states. It is having a major effect on the mobile apiaries which are transported across the US to pollinate large-scale crops, such as oranges in Florida or almonds in California. Some have lost up to 90 per cent of their bees.

A reliable estimate of the true extent of the problem will not be possible for another month or so, until winter comes to an end and the hibernating bee colonies in the northern American states wake up. But scientists are very worried, not least because, as there is no obvious cause for the disease as yet, there is no way of tackling it.

"We are extremely alarmed," said Diana Cox-Foster, the professor of Entomology at Penn States University and one of the leading members of a specially convened colony-collapse disorder working group.

"It is one of the most alarming insect diseases ever to hit the US and it has the potential to devastate the US beekeeping industry. In some ways it may be to the insect world what foot-and-mouth disease was to livestock in England."

Most of the pollination for more than 90 commercial crops grown throughout the United States is provided byApis mellifera, the honey bee, and the value from the pollination to agricultural output in the country is estimated at $14.6bn (?8bn) annually. Growers rent about 1.5 million colonies each year to pollinate crops - a colony usually being the group of bees in a hive.

California's almond crop, which is the biggest in the world, stretching over more than half a million acres over the state's central valley, now draws more than half of the mobile bee colonies in America at pollinating time - which is now. Some big commercial beekeeping operations which have been hit hard by the current disease have had to import millions of bees from Australia to enable the almond trees to be pollinated.

Some of these mobile apiaries have been losing 60 or 70 per cent of their insects, or even more. "A honey producer in Pennsylvania doing local pollination, Larry Curtis, has gone from 1,000 bee colonies to fewer than eight," said Professor Cox-Foster. The disease showed a completely new set of symptoms, "which does not seem to match anything in the literature", said the entomologist.

One was that the bees left the hive and flew away to die elsewhere, over about a week. Another was that the few bees left inside the hive were carrying "a tremendous number of pathogens" - virtually every known bee virus could be detected in the insects, she said, and some bees were carrying five or six viruses at a time, as well as fungal infections. Because of this it was assumed that the bees' immune systems were being suppressed in some way.

Professor Cox-Foster went on: "And another unusual symptom that we're are seeing, which makes this very different, is that normally when a bee colony gets weak and its numbers are decreasing, other neighbouring bees will come and steal the resources - they will take away the honey and the pollen.

"Other insects like to take advantage too, such as the wax moth or the hive beetle. But none of this is happening. These insects are not coming in.

"This suggests that there is something toxic in the colony itself which is repelling them."

The scientists involved in the working group were surveying the dead colonies but did not think the cause of the deaths was anything brought in by beekeepers, such as pesticides, she said.

Another of the researchers studying the collapses, Dennis van Engelsdorp, a bee specialist with the State of Pennsylvania, said it was still difficult to gauge their full extent. It was possible that the bees were fleeing the colonies because they sensed they themselves were diseased or affected in some way, he said. This behaviour has been recorded in other social insects, such as ants.

The introduction of the parasitic bee mite Varroa in 1987 and the invasion of the Africanised honey bee in 1990 have threatened honey bee colonies in the US and in other parts of the world, but although serious, they were easily comprehensible; colony collapse disorder is a deep mystery.

One theory is that the bees may be suffering from stress as beekeepers increasingly transport them around the country, the hives stacked on top of each other on the backs of trucks, to carry out pollination contracts in orchard after orchard, in different states.

Tens of billions of bees are now involved in this "migratory" pollination. An operator might go from pollinating oranges in Florida, to apples in Pennsylvania, to blueberries in Maine, then back to Massachusetts to pollinate cranberries.

The business is so big that pollination is replacing honey-making as the main money earner at the top end of the beekeeping market, not least because in recent years the US has been flooded with cheap honey imports, mainly from Argentina and China.

A typical bee colony, which might be anything from 15,000 to 30,000 bees, would be rented out to a fruit grower for about $135 - a price that is up from $55 only three years ago. To keep the bees' energy up while they are pollinating, beekeepers feed them protein supplements and syrup carried around in large tanks.

It is in these migratory colonies where the biggest losses have been seen. But the stress theory is as much speculation as anything else.

At the moment, the disappearance of America's bees is as big a mystery as the disappearance of London's sparrows.

 

[Niko]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Scientists ask: Where are all the bees?

A Dade City beekeeper sounds a nationwide alarm as colonies mysteriously disappear.

​

By DAN DEWITT
Published March 3, 2007
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"> <!--BSHSTARTBODY--> <!--top--> DADE CITY - To a veteran beekeeper like David Hackenberg, it was as astonishing as seeing water flow uphill.
Last October, he left 400 hives in a field in Ruskin to feed in Brazilian pepper tree blossoms. When he returned a month later, all but 36 of the colonies had been abandoned, right down to the part of the honeycomb filled with larvae and pupae - the future of the hives.
"I could tell the whole order of things had just gone haywire," said Hackenberg, 58, who has been keeping bees since he was 12.
Hackenberg, who spread the word to scientists and other beekeepers, is credited with sounding the alarm about what may be the most devastating honeybee die-off in U.S. history.
The crisis, marked by bees mysteriously vanishing from their hives, has been identified in 24 states in every part of the country, said Jerry Hayes, Florida's chief apiary inspector; about 35 percent of Florida's colonies have disappeared, he said, with the losses concentrated in the southern half of the state, where many beekeepers from the eastern United States spend the winter.
Unless scientists can find the cause of the die-off, and a solution, its long-term consequences may be as ominous as its name: Colony Collapse Disorder.
Not only are the livelihoods of beekeepers endangered, Hayes said, but so is the estimated one-third of the nation's food supply that depends upon honeybee pollination - apples, almonds, melons, blueberries and some varieties of citrus, including grapefruit.
"Honey is a byproduct of pollination," he said. "It's wonderful and it's great, but more importantly, without honeybees taking pollen from one flower to another, that plant has no reason to build a fruit or a nut."
Scientists alerted
Even so, beekeeping remains a small and underappreciated industry, Hackenberg said, "the ugly stepchild of agriculture."
That is why Hackenberg has been so important, Hayes said. He is well-connected, opinionated, funny and, for an interview on Thursday afternoon, dressed to stand out, wearing a multicolored hat advertising his business, Hackenberg Apiary, and a large, square belt-buckle engraved with images of bees and honeycomb.
A former president of the American Beekeeping Federation, he has been on the telephone constantly in recent weeks, talking to reporters across the country from his winter headquarters in a remote corner of northwestern Pasco County.
When he began telling fellow beekeepers of his vanishing hives last fall, some were skeptical, but others told him they had been losing large numbers of bees for more than a year.
By reporting this to agriculture officials, Hayes said, Hackenberg "was the one who got this whole thing started."
In response, farming experts from several states and universities have formed an emergency working group to study the disease.
So far, the scientists know only two things for sure, said Dennis vanEnglesdorp, Pennsylvania's state apiarist: The main symptom has been the mass abandonment of hives. And the variety of fungi, viruses and mites found in collapsing hives suggests a widespread failure of the bees' immune systems.
"It's a lot like AIDS," Hackenberg said.
The rest, at this point, is conjecture, according to the study group's preliminary report.
Bees are increasingly trucked long distances to take advantage of crops, such as almonds, that pay high pollination fees. This may strain their ability to recover from infections, the report says, and expose them to a wider range of diseases and toxic chemicals.
"They forage over a large area so they pick up a lot of junk," Hayes said. "I'm surprised there's a honey bee alive."
The "prime suspect" for the collapse, according to Hackenberg, is an increasingly popular class of pesticides called neonicotinoids that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified as highly toxic to honeybees.
Another possible culprit, vanEnglesdorp said, is a new strain of fungus that has appeared in many of the failing hives. But both he and Hayes warned it is far too early to settle on a single cause of the outbreak.
"The awkward and frustrating thing at this point is that we're all grasping at straws," Hayes said.
Colonies disappear
Beekeepers have reported several smaller but equally mysterious collapses in the past, vanEnglesdorp said. In the 1980s, invasive mites from South American all but wiped out the feral bee population and contributed to a steep decline in U.S. beekeeping. The number of hives in Florida has since dropped from a peak of 12,000 to about 1,000 currently, Hayes said, and the number of colonies from nearly 400,000 to 279,000.
That, at least, was the count before the current collapse, which cost Hackenberg about 2,000 of his 3,000 hives - and an estimated $350,000 in lost revenue and the expense of rebuilding his stock of colonies.
By "splitting" hives, taking bees from a healthy colony to a new box with a young queen, Hackenberg has already created 400 hives. He has deposited some of these into nearby orange groves, where they will improve the harvest, produce a premium grade of honey and use the nectar to build "good, strong, boiling-over beehives that we can take up North to pollinate apples."
So, he is confident his business will survive this year, he said. "But what's going to happen next year, if whatever is causing this is still out there? What's to say the problem is not going to get bigger?"
Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.



http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/03/Worldandnation/Scientists_ask__Where.shtml

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

This may also threaten the Washington State $$$$$$$ apple crop. I cannot find anything in the WA news, but will be traveling there in a few weeks, so I will talk to local orcharists.

.

 

[prepdeb]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

We have many fruit trees in our yard. Over the past week or so, some have been in full bloom as our weather has been in the 60s and 70s.

Most years, the trees would be nearly shivering with honeybees when they are in bloom, but this year I've only seen a handful of bees in the trees.

I've never seen so few bees in a blooming fruit tree before.

 

[Amish Country]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

I talked with an owner of a local apiary and was told that bees right now are hard to find for purchase. Two bee keepers he knew who moved their hives to help pollinate crops lost a significant number of hives due to the hive collapse.

 

[prepdeb]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

This really saddens me. Today my peach tree is in full bloom. I just took a walk outside and there were only two honeybees working the tree. I couldn't find any on either of the pear trees.

I imagine most crops will be affected by a shortage of honeybees.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Honeybee colony collapse also impact the meat and milk industries....

from http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/mussen/DontUnderEstim-02.pdf.....

..... Likewise, seed production of forage crops such as alfalfa, various clovers, trefoil, and vetch, requires many visits by foraging bees. Including the "indirect" value of honey bee pollination (meat, dairy products, vegetables, hay, etc.), honey bees are responsible for nearly half of California's agricultural production (cash receipts for farm marketing), which is currently valued above $30.0 billion. .........

Also from http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/02/thomas_gerber_m.html.....​

(I recommend reading the whole page, as many comments are written by experts in the field & include the impacts of GM crops on bees - yes!)​

Dear DK and Colleagues

Re: Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- Mysterious, Massive Death of Bees in the US -- Are bees the Canary in the mineshaft?​

Albert Einstein made the statement "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years left to live." He was speaking in regard to the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet. All part of a huge interconnected ecosystem, each element playing a role dependant on many other elements all working in concert creating the symphony of life. Should any part of the global body suffer, so does the whole body.​

Many people would be surprised to know that 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched, and that "bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain." The studies also revealed that the numbers of wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent. Which came first, the decline in wildflowers or the decline in pollinators, has yet to be determined. If bees continue to die off so would the crops they support and with that would ensue major economic disruption and possibly famine.​

In the US, bee keepers are experiencing unprecedented die offs of bees some losing as much as 80% of their colonies. Commercial beekeepers in 22 states have reported deaths of tens of thousands of honeybee colonies. So far the cause remains unexplained and somewhat mysterious. It is being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and is causing agricultural honeybees nationwide to abandon their hives and disappear and raising worries about crops that need bees for pollination. It's a kind of mass suicide in the bee world. "There have been cases where there have been these die-offs of bees before, but we have never seen it to this level," said Maryann Frazier, a Pennsylvania State University entomologist. "One operation after another is collapsing."​

Bees have done quite well for millions of years, in the last 60 years that began to change. In recent years, beekeepers have been losing 25 percent of their hives each winter. Thirty years ago, the rate was 5 percent to 10 percent, said Keith Tignor, the state apiarist for Virginia.​

The unusual phenomenon was first noticed by eastern beekeepers starting last fall. Researchers, including some connected with the Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences, have identified some of the possible contributors, but have not yet found a single cause. Initial studies on bee colonies experiencing the die-offs have revealed a large number of disease organisms, with most being "stress-related" diseases but without any one agent as the culprit. Climate chaos and extreme weather seem to be a major factor.​

It is hard to tell if wild honey bee populations have been affected by the CCD disorder because Varroa mites have "pretty much decimated the wild honey bee population over the past years," said Maryann Frazier of The Pennsylvania State University Department of Entomology. "This has become a highly significant, yet poorly understood problem that threatens the pollination industry and the production of commercial honey in the United States... Because the number of managed honeybee colonies is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, states such as Pennsylvania can ill afford these heavy losses."​

Dennis van Engelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture said "Every day, you hear of another operator, It's just causing so much death so quickly that it's startling."​

Lee Miller, director of the Beaver County extension office, said the deaths appear to be stress-related, but that stress could come from several sources. Dennis van Engelsdorp of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture said that initial studies found a large number of disease organisms present, with no one disease being identified as the culprit. And while studies and surveys have found a few common management factors among beekeepers with affected hives, no common environmental agents or chemicals have been identified.​

University of California Davis entomologist Eric Mussen specializes in bees. He thinks the answer lies in last summer's lack of wild flowers, nationwide. Janet Katz, a beekeeper in Chester, NJ, says the weather is having a major impact, "The weather last season was not cooperative," she said. "Over the course of the season it was too wet, too dry, too hot and too cold, all at the wrong times." Bees store honey every autumn -- a hive needs 60 pounds to survive the winter -- but with this year's warm weather, they ate a lot, and beekeepers had to supplement with sugar syrup.​

Florida apiarists say citrus growers are compounding the problem by spraying pesticides to kill off a dangerous pest that menaces fruit trees, wiping out bees at the same time. While a combination of problems is putting the bee population in peril, it's the phenomenon of the animals suddenly deserting their hives, never to return, that has observers most baffled.​

"There have been cases where there have been these die-offs of bees before, but we have never seen it to this level," said Maryann Frazier, a Pennsylvania State University entomologist. "One operation after another is collapsing."​

At stake is the work the honeybees do, pollinating more than USD 15 billion worth of US crops, including Pennsylvania's apple harvest, the fourth-largest in the nation, worth USD 45 million, and New Jersey's cranberries and blueberries.​

While a few crops, such as corn and wheat, are pollinated by the wind, bees help pollinate more than 90 commercially grown field crops, citrus and other fruit crops, vegetables and nut crops. Without these insects, crop yields would fall dramatically and some tangerines and pecans would cease to exist. Agronomists estimate Americans owe one in three bites of food to bees."​

All of the following are dependant on bees, apples, pears, tangerines, peaches, soybeans, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, carrots, broccoli and avocados. And do we realise bees pollinate almonds? California has the biggest almond groves in the world, supplying 80 percent of the nuts on the market; they currently have to import millions of bees to pollinate the groves.​

There are several unusual things about the phenomena and one common factor that cannot be attributed to be the direct cause but may be an "aggravating other conditions" factor and that is temperature fluctuations.​

- No single cause drought chemicals/pesticides, mites, bacteria, a fungus or virus seems to be common to all the events or even indicated as a cause in any single event. Extreme weather and temperature fluctuations seem to play a major role stressing the bees and weakening their immune systems.​

- There are no bee bodies; they simply all disappear, all adult bees are simply gone, sometimes leaving a queen and a few young hatched workers. This is unheard of, since normally a bee colony will do almost anything to protect its queen.​

- The hive is left intact, with capped cells of honey and bee bread.​

- Another unusual factor is that bees sensing a dying colony nearby aren't going in right away and killing the other bees and robbing the hive of honey, like they usually do for example when the bees have died of parasites or disease.​

- Researchers have also noted few signs of damage from wax moths and small hive beetles taking advantage of dead colonies.​

According to David Tarpy, a bee specialist at NC State, "Bees die all the time, although this year seems to be worse than normal." The difference now is that none of the "usual suspects" are to blame, Tarpy said. "That's what makes it problematic." Also, unlike when bees are killed by some other causes (disease, mites), there are no dead bees littering the bottom of a hive. The bees are simply gone, he said, or perhaps a queen and a few younger bees remain, but the adults have disappeared.​

Reports of the situation began to come in over the fall and winter, but scientists don't yet have an answer. It might be a disease, a pest or an environmental factor or even a combination of effects making bees vulnerable to an existing problem. Now, the bees have sealed themselves inside the hives to stay warm, and the keepers can't open the structures until spring. Neither entomologists nor growers can say what will happen when the 2007 growing season for most of the country's crops starts. As a result, some people are really worried.​

Diana Cox-Foster, a professor of entomology at Penn State University, has been working on the problem for months now. She says the die-off is unprecedented, and she's made some dramatic discoveries. For example, the normally resilient bees she dissected showed traces of not one or two diseases, but nearly every disease known to affect them over the past century. They had all the diseases at once, a sign their immune systems have been compromised. "The bees are immuno-compromised, being stressed somehow," she said. Some could be related to the severe weather swings we've seen over the past few years. But many questions remain unanswered.​

She and the other scientists working on the CSI-style case don't think this is just a cyclical thing. It's uncommon, unusual, and frightening to everyone associated with the often-overlooked industry. No one is sure just how bad it will be when the hives are opened in late march.​

Where does milk come from? "The bees pollinate the alfalfa, which feeds the cows, which give the milk. Honeybees are one of the main links in our world. They really need to be nurtured." Jerry Hayes of the Florida Department of Agriculture worries the bee is the canary in the mine shaft, "telling us something is happening that will have ramifications for us down the road. "I think the bees are so stressed, they are saying, 'I give up,'" said Hayes, Since the mid-1980s, parasitic mites have been devastating the honey bee population across the country, including the South-eastern US. In North Carolina, the number of kept beehives in the state has dropped by 44 percent, and about 95 percent of wild bees have been wiped out, according to North Carolina State entomologist David Tarpy.​

A series of hurricanes in 2004, including Katrina in 2005, destroyed thousands of honey bee colonies, decimating the vital Gulf Coast bee industry. Many of the pollinators for other parts of the country traditionally came from these beekeepers. The economic impact of these storms, especially Katrina is yet to be determined.​

"Replacing the Gulf Coast bee colonies, although highly important, is not enough. It is obvious that the huge losses suffered during the past 16 years must be dealt with to provide security for our future honey bee-dependent food supplies. It will take a well-defined series of coordinated efforts by all components of the beekeeping industry and the involvement of local, state and federal governmental entities to solve this potentially disastrous situation," says John Roberts, a beekeeper and President of Nature Technics Corporation.​

There has been a sixty-year decline in pollinators. The honeybees and native bees may live in far more harmony than cats and dogs, but the modern world has not been in harmony with them. The last 60 years have been rough on all pollinators. In the 1940s there were over five million managed colonies of honeybees in the United States. Today there are just over two million, and their numbers are declining, both in North America and worldwide.​

The entire world now faces a decline of native pollinators. Over 100 species of birds and more than 80 mammals that pollinate are considered threatened or extinct by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), a network that includes scientists, experts, government agencies and non-governmental organizations from around the world. Each country has its own tale to tell. In southern India, nearly all of the native bees died in the 1990s when they became infected with an imported virus. In Iraq, smoke from the burning oil wells during the Gulf War decimated most of the country's bee colonies.​

In summary plants and animals remote in the scale of nature are bound together by a web of complex relations resulting from dependencies we have yet to fully understand. Every creature seems to play a role even, parasites serve a purpose. We are just beginning to understand the beneficial symbiotic relationship between the human body and certain bacteria. We are dependant on many other species and any failure of one part of the ecosystem can create a domino effect causing disruption throughout the entire chain of life. All plants and animals are vulnerable to climate chaos which seem to be having a major impact. Whether or not we are responsible for climate chaos is not as important an issue as to how humanity will adapt. It could also be that our methods centred on mass production and factory farming are in conflict with nature, as we can see in the case of avian flu, we may be creating a world of pestilence having forgotten that we are part of nature and there is a natural order, balance and harmony that needs to be maintained in the dance of life. Like any species in nature that gets out of hand, nature has a way to keep it in check, and humankind may be the next species in line for severe adjustment or even step-by-step eradication.​

All the best​

Richard Thomas Gerbe​

​

 

[ruthbeme]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Thank you AlaskaDenise for posting this article. This could have devastating effect on all of us.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

If there is any truth to the theory that lack of wildflowers contributes to fewer bees, perhaps we can all plant wildflowers to increase the bee population.

.

 

[Amish Country]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

As to the disappearing wild flowers? Could this be a which came first problem? Kind of like the chicken or the egg? Could it be we do not have as many wild flowers because we do not have as many bees to pollinate them so they can produce seed to make more wild flowers?

 

[Blue]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

That is what I was thinking.

 

[Susie]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Is this is a purely American problem or is it worldwide?

I've seen the story reported here in the UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6400179.stm

but no mention of problems here or in Europe. Maybe it's because it's still cold here and bees won't be out and about? how soon will it have an effect on crops?

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Is this is a purely American problem or is it worldwide?
.........

From post #28 above.....

Many people would be surprised to know that 90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out. Recent studies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have shown that bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched, and that "bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain."

The last 60 years have been rough on all pollinators. In the 1940s there were over five million managed colonies of honeybees in the United States. Today there are just over two million, and their numbers are declining, both in North America and worldwide.

The entire world now faces a decline of native pollinators. Over 100 species of birds and more than 80 mammals that pollinate are considered threatened or extinct .........In southern India, nearly all of the native bees died in the 1990s when they became infected with an imported virus. In Iraq, smoke from the burning oil wells during the Gulf War decimated most of the country's bee colonies.

.​

 

[Susie]

Re: Crop-helping honeybees dying mystery deaths

Re: Crop-helping honeybees dying mystery deaths

Cannot get the link to work. Is there another or Sharpe could you PM me the article or about what it reminded you of?

Mass Butterfly Die-Off
In Hainan, China
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com
7-1-5
http://rense.com/general66/hain.htm
On the East Line Highway going toward Qionghai? I am assuming that this is the same area hard hit by H5N1.

Sponsored in part by Elsevier, publisher of The International Journal of Infectious Diseases

From Dan Silver Souce: Hainan SEZ News and Xinhua (Translated by submitter Dan Silver; edited)

Thousands of butterflies die on the East Line Highway in Hainan Tens of thousands of beautiful butterflies have died and been scattered along the East Line Highway. This was personally seen by the reporters Liu Wei and Li Zhi yesterday morning [29 Jun 2005]. The cause of death of the butterflies has yet to be authoritatively explained.

On 29 Jun 2005 at 11:00 a.m., the reporters drove along the East Line Highway towards Qionghai. From kilometer 8, the colorful dead butterflies were scattered along the road and began to attract attention. At first, the reporters believed that the butterflies had hit car windshields and died. But further down the road, there were more dead butterflies. By kilometer 12 the dead butterflies could already be described as numerous. At kilometer 12, the reporters got out of the car for a closer inspection. Every one or 2 meters along the shoulder of the road there were one or 2 dead butterflies. In some places they were relatively more concentrated, and some off-road sites had about 10 butterflies, most of which were dead, while a few were fluttering weakly and then died. The butterflies were of various sizes, some beautifully colored. The reporters discovered several dead butterflies in the grass past the guard rail. With each passing car, dead butterflies were carried by the wind and then dropped back down. As the reporters continued along the road there were numerous dead butterflies which did not thin out until kilometer 23. After kilometer 24 they were essentially not seen.

The reporters asked 2 patrolling highway management personnel the cause of the butterfly deaths. They said they had never before encountered this kind of situation and that it might have been caused by excessive heat.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/chinanews/2005-06/30/content_4541706.htm

ProMED-mail
promed@promedmail.org

Hainan is well known for its butterflies, and has been called the Butterfly Kingdom. There are 609 species of butterflies on the island, which represents about half the butterfly species of China. The Jianfengling rainforest has one of the world's biggest concentrations of butterflies and is sometimes known as the Butterfly Valley.

I have no idea what caused the death of these butterflies, what species they were, or whether the dead butterflies comprised more than one species. However, butterflies often migrate in large numbers and when they cross busy highways many are killed, as I have seen in northern Nigeria. It is well known that extreme weather conditions can cause mortality of adult butterflies, as has been recorded in the Monarch butterfly (_Danaus plexippus_). Butterflies do become infected with various pathogens, but death occurs in the larval stages. Possibly more information will be forthcoming on the species of butterflies dying in Hainan and the causes of such mortality. - Mod.MS ......ms/pg/lm

Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
Go with God and in Good Health

 

[Susie]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Collapse_Disorder

and Colony Collapse Disorder Working Group

http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pressReleases/ColonyCollapseDisorderWG.html

and from the UK DEFRA

http://beebase.csl.gov.uk/public/News/news.cfm?all=y

March 2007 - Colony Collapse disorder
Defra, the Welsh Assembly and the CSL are well aware of the serious colony loss affecting many beekeepers in the USA. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD, previously known as Fall Dwindle Disease and by other names) is of increasing concern in the USA, where reports of the disorder have been made from at least 24 states.

It appears to be affecting commercial migratory beekeepers in particular. Signs of CCD appear to be the total collapse of bee colonies, with a complete absence of bees or only a few remaining in the hive. These are not unlike the signs of colony demise associated with heavy varroa infestation sometimes seen in the UK. Bee scientists in the USA are working to find the cause, but while factors such as poor nutrition, disease levels, stress from long distance transport of colonies for pollination of crops, and antibiotic use all seem common features, no specific cause has yet been isolated. Other factors such as pesticide use and toxins found in some plant pollens are being considered, as well as the feeding of High Fructose Corn Syrup and beekeepers’ ability to detect and identify pest and disease problems.

Because of their vital pollination function, the loss of bees in the USA is raising serious concerns about the impact on agricultural and horticultural production, potentially leading once again to the requirement to import package bees from outside the USA, e.g. from Australia, for the pollination of California almonds.

For more details of the disorder and the results of the investigations as and when they are produced please see the direct link from BeeBase to the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (MAAREC) website

http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pressReleases/ColonyCollapseDisorderWG.html

Situation in Europe Colony collapse is not unknown in Europe; recent examples in Spain and Portugal seem likely to have been caused by Nosema ceranae, a spore-forming protozoan parasite that invades the digestive tracts of bees. Beekeepers do expect that a few colonies will have died in their apiaries over the winter for a number of reasons such as impact of the Varroa mite, lack of food or management practices such as mistimed treatments, but the percentage of colonies affected is usually low.

Action by CSL’s National Bee Unit The National Bee Unit (NBU) is monitoring the situation closely and is keeping in contact with scientists in the USA. Although it is very early in the year, with most colonies just becoming active and the inspection season just beginning, some beekeepers have reported colony losses to the NBU. These are not thought to be above the normal winter mortality expected. Any cases of significantly high losses will be investigated in depth by the NBU/CSL scientists and the bee inspectors.

Beekeepers who have concerns about unusually high colony losses in their apiaries should contact their local inspector. Scientists and inspectors at the National Bee Unit are monitoring the situation and are in contact with experts in the USA and in Europe to learn about the latest results of the research into the possible causes of the Disorder and how it might be prevented here. The NBU is a member of various working groups in Europe investigating colony losses.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD align=left>[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF]<NOBR>3/23/2007 6:00:00 AM</NOBR> [/FONT]</TD><TD align=right>[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF][/FONT]</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD align=left colSpan=2><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=5 cellPadding=0 width=200 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD align=left width=200>

</TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD align=left width=200>[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF]Growers in the Northwest who rely on honeybees to pollinate their crops have little to worry about this spring, beekeepers say. - Bob Krauter/Capital Press[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF]NW bees looking good going into spring[/FONT]
[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF]Little if any rental price increases seen[/FONT]

[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF]John Schmitz[/FONT]
[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF]Freelance Writer[/FONT]

[FONT=ARIAL, SANS SERIF]Despite the cavalcade of media attention given to the wholesale collapse of honeybee hives in certain parts of the country, it appears that Pacific Northwest growers who rely on honeybees to pollinate their crops don't have much to worry about this year.

And unlike California almond growers who paid up to $200 a hive for bees this winter, growers in this corner of the country again will pay far less than that for the little pollen spreaders.

"We're not being affected commercially by the disappearing bee syndrome," said Spokane beekeeper Jerry Tate, president of the Washington State Beekeepers Association. "Washington and Oregon, at least from what I'm hearing, are looking pretty positive."

Fresh back from a state meeting in the Wenatchee area, Tate said he had a pretty good handle on the state of the industry east of the Cascades and that things "look pretty good. (Beekeepers) have recovered from any losses they had from early summer and were able to get into their sets in almonds."

Tate, who runs about 150 hives, said there should be enough bees to handle pollinations in Washington this spring. "The availability of bees is looking really good," he said.

As for prices, "Most of the people (at the meeting) were saying it would be fairly close to what last year's prices were," he said. "In the Wenatchee/Yakima area, they're not expecting any kind of significant price increases at all."

Tate said in the Spokane area last year hives were renting for around $35 for all crops. "Most of our crop here is tree fruits," he said.

"Just from me talking to beekeepers who have talked with other beekeepers, I would say there's not going to be a bee shortage in Oregon," said Portland-area beekeeper Torey Johnson, who took 300 colonies to California for the almond pollinations.

He added, however, that nothing is set in stone. "I never say for sure when you're dealing with bees anymore," he said. "But I don't hear of anybody crashing."

Johnson said a lot of the Oregon beekeepers he came across in California were "real happy" and not all that concerned about colony collapse disorder. He added that Washington bees he saw in California looked good, too.

"It was a really good winter (for me). This is a year I can probably say I didn't have any mite kill," Johnson said.

Johnson said he's using several of the new miticides and having good success with a new product from Dadant & Sons called Apiguard. "On top of that, mite loads were lower last year," he said.

Johnson and other Northwest beekeepers won't be getting anywhere near the price for their bees in Oregon and Washington that they did in almond orchards.

Whereas he got anywhere from $138 to $140 a hive in California, he'll be under contract this year from $35 to $40 a hive in cherries and apples, he said.

"The bees here (in Oregon) look pretty darn good this year compared to the last couple of years," said Johnson's mother, Sheryl, owner of Ruhl Bee Supply in Gladstone, Ore.

Johnson said although her packaged bee sales were about the same this year, she has been selling more packaged bees than usual to small, start-up beekeepers.

"I see more and more people who are wanting to help the environment and to start in bees. I've had customers come in and take the beekeeping class because they want to help; they know there's a shortage of (feral) bees."

Johnson said varroa mites could be weakening bees to the point where they're more susceptible to other pests and diseases.

Tate, who sells a lot of packaged bees to small beekeepers, said although commercial beekeepers in Spokane came through the winter okay, "hobbyists in this area took a big hit this fall. They've been registering significant winter losses, right around 50 percent or more."

He knew of only one commercial beekeeper with those kinds of losses. "In general, our commercials guys have been registering normal losses of right around 20 percent," he said.

Tate said that in his area, operations that had a poor honey crop last year "seem to be hit the hardest by collapsing hives."

Sheryl Johnson said she has noticed that varroa mite problems seem to be the worst every two to three years.

"Tracheal mites seem to be more of a problem for commercial beekeepers because of the stress (on bees)," she said. "There are a lot of things that affect commercial beekeepers that may not affect smaller beekeepers as much."

One of those stresses, she said, is moving bees from crop to crop.
[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=785&ArticleID=31303&TM=81925.72

 

[Jody]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

If there is any truth to the theory that lack of wildflowers contributes to fewer bees, perhaps we can all plant wildflowers to increase the bee population.

.

I have no idea what it is about my house, but I have hives of wild bees and hornets hanging everywhere. The house is brick, but so are the neighbors' and they don't have this problem.

I have hives in my lawn furniture, and hives on the window sill and hives on the eaves.

I have thought of spraying, but I just don't have the heart to cover my house in insecticide. The neighbor's dog was badly stung last summer when my neighbor disturbed a hive in her fence post.

Ideas are gladly welcomed.

 

[Amish Country]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

I have hives of wild bees and hornets hanging everywhere.

Ideas are gladly welcomed.

Hi Jody
If the bees are feral honey bees and you actually want to part with them you might want to call a local bee keeper and ask if he or she will take them for free. Another option would be to contact a local agricultural college or school in your area and see if they would be interested in taking them for free. If all else fails and you are in the US you can contact your County US Department of Agriculture Extension Agent and see what they have to say about helping you control the bee hives, wasps and hornets.

I would check to see that who ever comes for them is adequately covered by insurance. You have to be careful in this day and age.
Good luck

 

[Vibrant62]

Re: Mystery killer silencing honeybees

Reading Niko's post here http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19744 I wonder if there is a link between Bt GMOs or other GMOs. I wonder if there is any correlation between the die offs of the insect life and areas where there are GMO crops?