bee question

[Rachael Simpson]

Where I live, we are surrounded by turkey and hog houses: literally - the closest "people" house is 1 mile away. The bees have all disappeared around here too. Now the powers that be at the turkey & hog houses have to put out fly bait for the flys. The last couple of years the flys have increased while the bees (of all varieties) have decreased. Could it be that the flys have become immune to the bait while the bees have become susceptible to it? Or might it all be stemming from where the county sprays for the 'skeeters'?

just my musings.........any opinions?

Rae

[George Shirley]

Most mosquito spraying, at least in my area, is done at night. Bees only fly during daylight hours. Unless the spray truck is blowing the mist directly on the bee hives or hollow trees it shouldn't affect the bees. I would bet more on colony collapse disease as opposed to either of the two you mention.

George

[HomerS]

The jury is still out, but the best bet is that all the cell phone towers are messing with the bees navigation and they just don't make it back home with food.

[Rachael Simpson]

no cell phone towers around here - you're lucky if you can get a signal at all

[Billy Rose]

Hi Rachael, electromagnetic fields might have something to do with it, as might poisons in the fly bait but it doesn't explain (to me anyway) why the bees left in the hive have multiple infections. It's like the bees have AIDS. Even predators of bees won't attack the unguarded hive.

I've tried to be more proactive this year by planting sweet alyssum to attract bees. Some people sat though that the bees will come if there are flowers for them so it may be a waste of time but they are kind of pretty, so what the heck.

Besides the odor, I've heard that these livestock concentration camps can foul the ground water with their effluent. Don't want to make you paranoid but you may want to look into it.

To you and yours,

- Billy

Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

[Rachael Simpson]

Oh trust me, I already know about the water! Some days our water smells soo bad. I use bottled water for the baby's milk formula and don't use the house water for drinking straight from the tap. All water gets boiled before I make tea or anything like that. Thankfully, we don't have to deal with the air odors much - just when the loaded trucks go by the house during the moving times and then the odor only lasts a few minutes. But the flies from the houses are another story. Everytime the door is opened, 50 or so more come in the house, or the truck, or the van..........oh well - you get the picture................it's sure not pretty with all the flies.

Back to you! Rae aka Rachael

[Lar]

Can't say I have ever seen bees attracted to the fly baits so don't think that would be a connection. Cycles of limited bee disappearance is nothing new. It has gone by a number of names such as spring dwindle, May disease, disappearing disease, autumn collapse and fall dwindle disease documented as far back as the late 1800's.

Lar

[HomerS]

Boiling is great for killing bacteria. However it does NOT help at all with all the heavy metals fouling our water supplies. You need something better and a filter alone is still dangerous.

Please get you a reverse osmosis system and only use that for drinking. You can pick one up on ebay for about $120 and it lasts for years.

[Rachael Simpson]

Will consider, but that kinda money is hard to some by these days...............

[cloud dreamer]

The cell phone idea was based on faulty evidence and has been thrown out as a cause to the problem.

..

[Dave]

Straight up, I don't know. Based on everything I've seen in the past 4 decades, I would venture a man-made problem that originates for something for his convenience. Something overlooked or ignored during testing of same. Dave

[Charlie]

And there we are. You've nailed it Dave.

And you can bet your a** that the true cause will not be revealed, even if known, because it will be as you say.

Care friend Charlie

[R M. Watkin]

Hi All, I do know that if you site a beehive under high voltage pylons they are not very happy, and tend to be bad tempered. hope this helps you.

Richard M. Watkin.

[Salmon Egg]

How do you know that?

Bill

-- Support the troops. Impeach Bush. Oh, I forgot about Cheney.

[Aluckyguess]

I have lots of bees. Southern Ca. must be where they are all going. They like the weather.

[R M. Watkin]

Because I used to keep bees.

Richard M. Watkin.

[Steve Newport]

Nah. When was the last time you checked varroa drop and how do you deal with it? - bet your problem lies there and nowhere else. It does with so many other people.

[Salmon Egg]

Did you have two hives: one under and one away from the power lines?

Bill

-- Support the troops. Impeach Bush. Oh, I forgot about Cheney.

[R M. Watkin]

Hi All,

No my hives were not under power lines, but I did know people who did have hives under power lines and they had trouble. So much so that they moved them in the end. Hope this helps you.

Richard M. Watkin.