More Than 25% Of America's Bees Are Missing

[NuclearWinter]

LOST BEES A MYSTERY TO SCIENTISTS


Washington
April 25, 2007


MORE than a quarter of America's 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost - tens of billions of bees, according to an estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.

A number of theories have been posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science fiction than science: people have blamed genetically modified crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission lines.

Diana Cox-Foster, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University, and Jeffrey Pettis, an entomologist from the US Department of Agriculture, are leading a team of researchers trying to find an explanation for "colony collapse disorder", the name given to the disappearing bee syndrome.

The scientists have been focusing on the most likely suspects: a virus, a fungus or a pesticide. Researchers have collected samples in several states and have begun doing bee autopsies and genetic analysis.

They have also been testing pesticides. The group of compounds they believe is most suspect is the neonicotinoids, commonly used to treat corn and other seeds against pests.


http://www.theage.com.au/news/world...180648274.html#

 

[NuclearWinter]

Bees, however, are capable of seeing ultraviolet light, which is invisible to humans. The bee is capable of navigating, even on a cloudy day, by cloud-penetrating ultraviolet light. Honey bees also use the sun as a reference point to communicate to other bees the angle of flight to be followed to arrive at newly discovered nectar-bearing flowers.

Bees are world-class navigators. Honeybees communicate direction and distance from the hive to nectar sources through a sophisticated dance "language". In 1973, Karl von Frisch received a Nobel Prize for deciphering this bee language, which consists of a circle dance and a tail wagging dance. It accurately tells other bees the angle from the sun and the distance to the nectar.

Bees use the sun as a compass. Even when the sun is obscured by clouds, bees can detect it's position from the light in brighter patches of the sky. Bees also can see ultraviolet designs in flowers like an airplane circling an airport sees the landing lights on a runway. Honeybees also have a built-in clock that appears to be synchronized with the secretion of nectar from flowers.

 

[NuclearWinter]

I think that the Bees are disappearing because they know that there are major changes in the Sun taking place. In fact, I believe that because of the coming Pole-Shift and changes with our magnetic field, that you will see many creatures suddenly "disappearing" for no apparent reason.

As we get closer and closer to the coming Pole-Shift, the Sun will begin to act stranger and stranger. Soon it will blow away our magnetic field and cause an enormous disaster on the Earth.

 

[actsnoblemartin]

(

 

[JeffWartman]

Who the fuck cares?

 

[no1tovote4]

Let's put this into perspective. The vast majority of the honey bees are not natural to this continent to begin with. They are European bees brought over here for honey and later used by farmers to pollinate.

Amazingly, the aboriginal natives were able to grow crops, had flowers, fish in streams and feed themselves all without the European bees. Almost all insects pollinate, not as effectively, but they do. The perceived doom can be released now with a big heavy sigh.

Chicken Little can return to the safety of the hen house.

 

[Annie]

I gotta say I'm sort of with jeff w here, but found the photos good:

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2007/04/media_bee_lying.html

bumbling the bee scare?

On Thursday (the day before yesterday), the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a scolding editorial written by self-styled "investigative journalist" Dave Lindorff who declared that not only are the honey bees "gone," but that so are all pollinators.

In a skeptical post, I noted that it was early in the season (there was snow last week), but that I'd seen other bees in my yard. Because there's been so much noise about the "vanished" honey bees, though, I just assumed that I wouldn't find any of them, so I didn't devote much time to looking.

Now I see that even I -- cynical skeptic that I am -- was being far too gullible!

Perhaps I should have realized that a guy who calls U.S. soldiers "baby killers" and cites fraudulent information to support a 9/11 black box conspiracy theory might not be the most reliable source about bees. But still, the editorial was in the Inquirer, and there have been plenty of stories about "no more bees," so I just sort of assumed....

So, while it probably shouldn't have, it took Glenn Reynolds' link to Mickey Kaus's report that his mother's garden was "absolutely buzzing" with bees to wake me up into events in my own backyard!

I kid you not!

Here's a closeup of a honey bee pollinating the hell out of a cherry blossom on the cherry tree right next to my driveway:
EHoneyBee3.jpg


The tree is literally abuzz with honey bees just like that one, and their rear legs are laden with yellow pollen.

The more I thought it over, though, the more I realized that a true no-bees-believer might just say I could have gotten that picture anywhere, and that it could have been taken at any time. Even if people are inclined to trust me, what's wrong with "trust but verify"?

It occurred to me that the best way to date the bees would be to show a verifiable newspaper near them. I still had the Inquirer editorial by Dave Lindorff sitting around, and it's only two days old. So, with great difficulty (taking care not to get stung), I managed to hold the Lindorff editorial next to one of the honey bees on my cherry tree.
2StrangeNoBees.jpg

Seen from that vantage point, the Lindorff piece could be said to be stung by self-Fisking.

Perhaps that's the natural beauty of reality-based honey bees.

 

[Shattered]

Gee. I hears somewhere that our cell phones were killing all the bees.

There doesn't seem to be a shortage in my back yard, however.

 

[mattskramer]

Could the alleged and debated global warming have anything to do with it?
On the one hand, the price of natural honey might go up.
On the other hand, there might be fewer bee stings.

 

[no1tovote4]

Could the alleged and debated global warming have anything to do with it?
On the one hand, the price of natural honey might go up.
On the other hand, there might be fewer bee stings.

Honey is a product we are unable to synthesize.

And no, global warming has been ruled out on this one. Currently they have tried to blame it on cell phones. Which I find actually laughable. There would have been a clear and obvious pattern of losses that would have made it clear that cell phones were causing such a thing to happen.

A horticulturalist and beekeeper that I know has informed me that while he lost 25% of his bees, it was due to a virus that was found in a necropsy. That is anecdotal, but it is far more likely than the sudden effect of cell phones.

 

[NuclearWinter]

Could the alleged and debated global warming have anything to do with it?
On the one hand, the price of natural honey might go up.
On the other hand, there might be fewer bee stings.

lol. That was funny.

I was considering the possibility that they probably didn't die but that they are probably having navigation problems and I am betting it is related to the Sun.

Or...they chose to move elsewhere because animals can sense when they need to leave for whatever reason WAY before Humans begin to realize it.

Perhaps since Bees happen to be some of the most sensitive creatures to the Sun on our Earth it would make sense that if the Sun was having problems and that if America was due to feel major effects from the coming Pole-Shift that the Bees would sense that first along with a few other critters as well.

And if it turns out that they are finding the dead bodies of Bees all over the place, of these "billions of billions" of Bees that are supposed to have "disappeared" (which gives hint that they don't know if they died or not or where they went), than even in that case I would suspect a relation between them and the Sun's changes. And also with the Earth's magnetic field. Of which I am sure they are highly in tune with as well.

 

[actsnoblemartin]

who the fuck cares?

if we lose one animal?, it effects all the animals

 

[bush lover]

We will get our food and credit from China. Mexico will also send us food. We buy food with dollars, and only we have dollars. We already import half of our food. So what if its' two-thirds or even more? Irrelevant.

 

[actsnoblemartin]

I apologize for what im about to say. But what you just said with all due respect, that was one of the dumbest things ive ever heard. We need all animals. Bees, Turtles, Dogs, Cats. We have a food chain for a reason.

 

[mattskramer]

who the fuck cares?

if we lose one animal?, it effects all the animals

?? If we lose the housefly or cockroach, how will humans be harmed?

 

[waltky]

Granny says it's a Catch-22 situation - if ya ban the pesticides, the worms an' bugs gonna eat up alla crops - but if ya don't the bees is gonna die off an' not pollinate the crops - so whadaya want - worms an' bugs or bees?...

Ban pesticides linked to bee deaths, say MPs
4 April 2013 - The government should suspend the use of a number of pesticides linked to the deaths of bees, a committee of MPs has said.

Members of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee are calling for a moratorium on the use of sprays containing neonicotinoids. The UK has refused to back an EU ban on these chemicals saying their impact on bees is unclear. But MPs say this is an "extraordinarily complacent" approach. Wild species such as honey bees are said by researchers to be responsible for pollinating around one-third of the world's crop production.

Stinging criticism

In their report, MPs say that two-thirds of these species have suffered population declines in the UK. They argue that a "growing body of peer-reviewed research" points the finger at a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids. "We believe the weight of scientific evidence now warrants precautionary action," said the committee's chairwoman, Labour MP Joan Walley. "So we are calling for a moratorium on pesticides linked to bee decline to be introduced by 1 January next year." Following on from research published in January by the European Food Safety Authority that suggested these chemicals posed an "unacceptable" threat to bees, the European Commission proposed that neonicotinoid sprays be restricted to crops not attractive to pollinators.

Bee numbers have declined significantly in many countries with no clear explanation as to why

There are already some restrictions in place in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. But the idea of a two-year ban did not attract enough support after the UK and Germany both abstained. Joan Walley says the UK government's approach to the issue is "extraordinarily complacent". "If farmers had to pollinate fruit and vegetables without the help of insects it would costs hundreds of millions of pounds and we would all be stung by rising food prices," she added. But the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that a ban is not justified at present.

Defra's chief scientist Dr Ian Boyd admitted the research was "very finely balanced". "Neonicotinoids will kill bees, let me be absolutely clear about that. It is what numbers do they kill and whether it affects populations - the question is whether banning them in any way would be proportional and at the moment the balance of evidence suggests it wouldn't be," he said. There have been a number of studies showing that the chemicals, made by Bayer and Syngenta, do have negative impacts on both honey and bumblebees. One study suggested that neonicotinoids affected the abilities of hives to produce queen bees. More recent research indicated that the pesticides damaged their brains.

But Defra argues that these studies were mainly conducted in the laboratory and do not accurately reflect field conditions. It has published its own work showing that in the field, these chemicals had little effect on bee health, although Defra acknowledge sthe study lacks statistical power. They are also calling on the European Commission to agree to a major new field study that would settle the debate. "That will allow informed decision-making, rather than rushing into a knee-jerk ban based on inconclusive studies," said a Defra spokesman.

Open data

 

[LoudMcCloud]

With the increase of chemicals and and GMOs, butterflies are disappearing too. GMO crops are designed to kill insects. GMOs are being planted more and more.

But that would be a conspiracy theory and I wouldnt want to say the government is a bunch of liars.

 

[waltky]

Disappearing bees may be caused by multiple human influences...

Insect Pollinators Face Interlocking Threats
April 26, 2013 - The global decline of honey bees and other pollinating insects is caused by multiple, largely human-induced effects, according to a new study.

Over the past decade, scientists have been reporting steady and mysterious declines in the populations of so-called pollinator insects. These include the honeybees, wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies and moths that help pollinate three-quarters of the world’s food crops, services worth $200 billion annually to the global economy. The new report is the first to pull together years of research on pollinator species decline. Forty scientists from six countries worked on the project organized by the Insect Pollinators Initiative of the United Kingdom (IPI).

While no single factor is responsible for the population decline, the analysis finds intensive land use, climate change and the spread of alien species and disease, are among the major threats to pollinating insects. "What we are beginning to see is that it’s likely that there’s a combination of these effects that are driving the declines in these insects and in some cases they may be combining in subtle ways that exacerbate the overall negative effect,” said Adam Vanbergen, an ecologist with the Britain-based Centre for Ecology and Hydrology who served as the science coordinator on the IPI-led review.

Vanbergen says more research must be done on this complex interplay, across a vast scale, from genetics to worldwide ecosystems. “We need to launch a whole suite of studies looking at subtle interactions between, say, land use change and its impacts on the resources that insects rely on, and how that can effect interactions with disease organisms or with exposure to pesticides that would be one example,” he said.

The ecologist says there is also a need to carefully document how climate change affects the insects’ ability to adapt to a warmer world. “There is evidence now accumulating that impacts from these different pressures hits insects at different levels of biological organization," Vanbergen said. "So you have some pressures that will be damaging, for example, the brain function of individual insects and you have other pressures that will be perhaps affecting the ability of species to move in landscapes or indeed their range across continents.”

MORE

 

[waltky]

Honeybee losses double in the UK...

Honey bee losses double in a year due to poor winter
12 June 2013 > This winter's losses of honey bee colonies were the worst since records began six years ago, according to a survey carried out by the British Beekeepers Association.

It says more than a third of hives did not survive the cold, wet conditions. All regions of England saw dramatic declines with the numbers lost more than double the previous 12 months. This year's poor winter, following on from a disastrous summer, is said to be the main reason for the losses. British beekeepers have been surveyed at the end of March for the last six years. They are asked to compare the number of colonies that are still alive compared to the numbers they had back in October.

Finding pollen and nectar has been extremely difficult for bees

With overall losses at 33.8%, this year's figures are the worst yet recorded. The hardest hit region was the South West where over half of the hives were lost. "It is desperate; it is a huge loss of bees," Devon beekeeper Glyn Davies told BBC News. "The weather last summer and this winter, the two combined meant there was virtually a whole year when bees were confined and stressed just because of the environmental conditions."

Queens affected

The bad weather meant that honey bees were unable to get out and forage. There was a scarcity of pollen and nectar throughout the season. Some beekeepers believe that the increased number of infections and disease that bees are subject to may have made them weaker and unable to cope with the colder conditions. "We are in a different era; quite frankly the bees haven't got the resistance and reserves that they once did because of various illnesses and viruses," said Mr Davies, who himself lost around a quarter of his 25 colonies.

The weather also posed problems for newly emerged queen bees - "virgin queens". The growth of colonies depends on these bees being able to mate properly so they can lay fertilised eggs. But the poor weather hampered these activities as well. If the weather is changeable, a queen may not execute her mating flight properly, Tim Lovett from the British Beekeepers Association told BBC News. "If she doesn't get properly mated she can only lay drones, and if she is doing that, that's the death knell for the hive." A colony that has only drones and no workers will not survive.

More BBC News - Honey bee losses double in a year due to poor winter

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I think that the Bees are disappearing because they know that there are major changes in the Sun taking place. In fact, I believe that because of the coming Pole-Shift and changes with our magnetic field, that you will see many creatures suddenly "disappearing" for no apparent reason.

As we get closer and closer to the coming Pole-Shift, the Sun will begin to act stranger and stranger. Soon it will blow away our magnetic field and cause an enormous disaster on the Earth.

That would explain how we got Obama

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