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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDead bees......
t's summer: a great time to sit outside and watch the bees bumble around in our pollinator-friendly gardens. But, unfortunately, things aren't very rosy for our tiny friends.
Bees are facing a crisis created, at least in part, by neonicotinoids, or neonics. The pesticides are in wide use across the agricultural industry and some landscaping settings. If bees disappear, it would be terrible for biodiversity, as well as our diets, because most of the food we eat relies on pollinators.
That's why a coalition of organizations launched the Keep Hives Alive Tour. One of the group's most important stops was Capitol Hill, where they brought along an unpleasant wake-up call for Congress: a truck filled with dead bees.
from Truth-out.org
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Purveyor
(29,876 posts)near drought conditions here so that is to be taken into consideration.
bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)This mostly describes the US bee industry adapting successfully to the CCD problem. Which is good news, especially for agriculture. It doesn't really address what is happening with wild bees, which is harder to calculate. One advantage wild bees have is that they are less dependent on agricultural lands and so less exposed to pesticides. One problem is they are very hard to count, and most of the studies I've seen admit their methods are fragmentary and results are uncertain.
One indirect way to study wild bee population health is to look at the productivity of a few crops which rely upon them for pollination, rather than commercial bees, such as Wild Cherries and Plums, Macadamia groves, etc. In spite of less than ideal weather in many areas the last few years, there is no indication of a decline.
forest444
(5,902 posts)Society will need to remain vigilant though; who knows what "miracle" pesticide or fungicide Monsatan will come up with next.
Thank you for sharing this!
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Usually have seen hundreds by now.
Serious decline. Birds and butterflies, too, are seldom seen anymore. Moths at night used to flood the lights. Now just a few, and those mainly small ones.
It's like the whole world has been Chernobolized.... yep.
NutmegYankee
(16,201 posts)The Common eastern bumblebee is all over my black eyed Susan and catmint and I have more song birds than ever before at my bird feeders. The anise hyssop and butterfly bushes have butterflies constantly. I even saw a few hummingbirds in my longer flute shaped flowers.
And due to the drought, there has been a flood of gypsy moths.
840high
(17,196 posts)we had birds, bees, butterflies galore. Very rare nowadays. Also I used to enjoying walking in the evening under our big trees - the whoosh of bats was so cool. No bats left.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)The whole animal kingdom is in decline. Has been for years. Ecologists are calling it the 6th great extinction. Only this time it seems faster than ever.
1986 was, to the best of my knowledge, the beginning of the end.
840high
(17,196 posts)Did I miss something?
There is one disease that has decimated many bat populations. It is called white-nose, because their noses turn white.
I think the larger key is the overall decline in the bugs that bats, and many birds, feast on.
840high
(17,196 posts)
sorefeet
(1,241 posts)I had lots of bees. My house is surrounded on four sides with GMO corn. When they planted and the corn popped up the bees disappeared. He sprayed once with roundup. Zero bees. This is the third year in a row that he planted GMO corn and the third year with no bees. Seems kind of fishy to me. If he chops this for silage, the bees will come back after the corn is gone and before winter starts. Seen it last year.
