Disappearing Bees

Apr 15, 2007 6 Replies
J

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.



The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.



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F

"Johnny" wrote in news:1176642808.784690.237520 @n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

I just asked an entomologist about this. He said that there are a couple of things that might be happening: mites and/or wasting disease. Apparently a similar thing happened about thirty years ago which was due to wasting disease. He said that most of the bees in this country are of Italian origin and when brought here they displaced the natural pollinators that we had here. He seems unalarmed that the bees are disappearing and seems to think that other pollinators will replace the missing bees and/or we will engineer a better bee from this.

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B

Think long and hard about which pesticides you use, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest the compound found in Merit a common turfgrass pesticide (imidacloprid) may be a causative factor in colony collapse. If I am not mistaken this was banned in France after beekeepers there suffered tremendous losses.

Use the search terms "Gaucho bees" if you wish to read a bit more.

Here is a quote from one article that shows some of the economics of the situation. This url is the source.-

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The pesticide GAUCHO (containing the active substance Imidacloprid) is produced by the German BAYER-group. With an annual turnover of more than 500 million Euro this is the group=C2=B4s top selling agricultural agent. Critics assume that the high sales figures are the reason why the company is contesting a ban on its use.

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F

It's due to cell phones ;)

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don't know but look for the fruits and the nuts (politicians and media) to offer solutions. Don't tell Al Gore - he'll blame global warming.

Frank

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D

"FragileWarrior" > suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature

While I'm all for the native pollinators to kick in, Dr. Frankenstein and his cohorts should bow out on this one.

I saw alot of non-honeybees out here 2 years ago. A bit smaller than honeybees. They were attracted to anything with a bright color including my clothing. They loved the contents of the almost empty soda cans dropped by the people building my house. Lack of rain and flowers drove their hunger.

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A

"Johnny" expounded:

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MAAREC link has many more links to learn from.

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