Bees are dying in mass numbers So we are in deep shit.

[undergroundpanther]

Something is killing the nation's honeybees.

Dave Hackenberg of central Pennsylvania had 3,000 hives and figures he has lost all but about 800 of them.

In labs at Pennsylvania State University, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and elsewhere in the nation, researchers have been stunned by the number of calls about the mysterious losses.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/16623837.htm

[tabatha]

1. Honeybees are non-native

and have displaced many native bees, reducing their numbers.

[Kali]

32. so are the majority of crops we use those "alien" bees to fertilze

[Lorien]

82. Not only have we lost most native bees, but most other pollinators

which is another example of why biodiversity is CRITICAL to OUR survival. Since most people only care about our species it's the only point that resonates with them. But all living things, imho, have intrinsic worth.

[Bonobo]

2. I've noticed this for years...

When I was a kid (I'm 40 now), our front lawn was so packed with bees going from clover to clover that you couldn't take one step without being on top of one.

Never see 'em anymore. A few bumblebees, that's all. Never honeybees. Never.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

5. yep, same here.

[Porcupine]

8. Clover? In a lawn?

Right there you've tagged an issue. Everybody has lawn service now so lawns are routinely sprayed with herbicide to keep the lawn service guys in business. No clover. No diversity of food sources, no bees.

[Bonobo]

11. Never thought about that...

Yeah, we had a huge lawn, but never used anything on it at all. Very happy bees. What you say makes perfect sense.

[havocmom]

25. And clover is SO good for a lawn. The grass near our clover really grows well

lush and green. No need to add chemical fertilizer, the clover fixes nitrogen and the bees love it.

[Porcupine]

39. mixed lawns do better than monocultures.

Other things that grow well in lawns are violets in shady lawns, yarrow and thyme in dry lawns and english daisies. You can't make daisy chains without daisies. I also think a few dandelions are ok in lawns for when wishes are needed.

[radfringe]

41. read an article a few years ago about the honeybee die-off

the part of the article that caught my eye was about one woman who had bee hives, her bees were doing fine while her neighbor's bees weren't

at that time the die-off was being attributed to some kind of bee-mite

a few years ago the woman planted lavender around the perimeter of the bee hive area, and it had the properties of repelling and killing the bee-mites.
One neighbor upon learning of this planted lavender and his bees stopped dying

[madokie]

44. check this out, we have a spot in our yard of clover where you can find all the four

and five, yes five leafed clover you want, well a bunch of them anyway. and yes hardly any bees in our clover for the last several years. One of our friends has a few hives or I should say had, the mites of a few years ago about pretty much wiped him out

[we can do it]

75. I Am Thinking of Doing Clover for My Whole Lawn, In Order To Attract Bees

I've been doing organic lawn and garden care for a few years now with better results. Screw the damn chemical companies, they ruin your soil and poison you, your kids and pets. Its not really more work doing things naturally either, just safer.

[Porcupine]

78. White clover for the lawn, rosemary for the bees

Bees really love a mature rosemary bush in flower. You can eat the rosemary flowers also in salads.

[we can do it]

83. OoH I Love Rosemary - I Am Trying To Overwinter Some In My Basement

So far so good. I've never had any last past december before. I have lots of stuff in my garden that bees love like monarda (bee balm), lavendar, snap dragons, rose of sharon, coreopsis.......

[raccoon]

55. Same here. I heard that mites had killed off most of the honeybees

sometimes in the past few decades. A few years ago, heard they were making a comeback and I started seeing a few here and there in flowers.

Maybe something else is killing them now.

[babylonsister]

3. Great and sobering find. Thanks. nt

[Bluebear]

4. Thank you, up

We have done done it. Another piece of the puzzle.

[sakabatou]

6. A lot of die-offs are happening

This is not good.

[EST]

7. This has been going on for about twenty years, now.

There is a fungus that infects their gut and the losses are very high.
I didn't have very many hives and lost them all at once. My dad lost a few hives a year through the eighties and by 1995, when he died, all his hives were gone.

The rise of this latest scourge was being attributed to global warming, even then.

We have about fifteen acres that we are leading back to prairie/alluvial soil wildness but it's not the same as it was fifty years ago.
As the Africanized bees keep evolving northward, the golden European hybrid that we are used to are dieing off. So far, no one has been successful at finding a treatment or breeding a resistant strain-probably impossible.

I was expecting to see the native north American black honeybee repopulating the area but so far, no dice.

[karlrschneider]

9. I'm no beeologist, so a question: do the Africanized bees pollinate plants

reliably? Or at all?

[Warpy]

13. Yes, they do. They also make honey

and it's quite tasty, if you can find it. The problem is they pretty much have to kill the hive to get it out.

We've had a couple of swarms here in NM. They're mean little suckers.

[The Straight Story]

16. Maybe if you dressed up like that bee guy from the simpsons you

could sneak in and get some honey :)

[Warpy]

56. That wouldn't work

The color black enrages them, for some reason, and causes them to swarm.

Individually, they're no worse than other aggressive varieties of honeybee. It's the tendency to swarm over a victim and kill with multiple stings that sets them apart.

(other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?)

[karlrschneider]

22. I think there have been some here in Oklahoma but I've never seen any

that I know of, at least. Personally, I've always liked bees, never been stung by one and it makes me sad they seem to have it so tough. And I like honey too.

[madokie]

45. We used to get our honey from a local Man but he has since moved away

I read that it is good for ones allergy's to eat honey from the area where one lives, I can't vouch for it but I try to keep that in mind anyway. we have lots of clover in our big yard and lots of flowering things and I haven't seen many bees to speak of in several years now, lots of hummers though

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. You are putting it mildly

agressive, mean, they will kill you oh so "lovingly" with stings

[rosesaylavee]

15. You don't want them around.

They are very agressive.

[karlrschneider]

23. So I'm told. Maybe some smart person will invent a bee-prozak

one of these days. ;-)

[EST]

49. Yes, they do.

The problem with them is that they are aggressive in the extreme and tend to be unpredictable. There have been quite a number of human, domesticated and wild creature deaths due to their aggressiveness.

[Odin2005]

66. Yes, killer bees are just another race of honey bee.

IIRC they are starting to interbreed with European honey bees and thus become less aggressive.

[Hekate]

10. Many orchards are dependent on beekeepers for pollination; it's serious

I remember reading that the European honeybee was just about perfect for the purpose, whereas native insects simply are not available in the same numbers (i.e. not suitable for keeping in hives).

The Africanized hybrid is unsuitable for hives and just plain nasty-tempered.

So much of what we've done to the insect ecology reminds me of The Sorcerer's Apprentice: all those unintended consequences.

Hekate

[alfredo]

31. Native bees don't travel great distances like the European bee.

So they are not as suitable for agri business.

After the Euros brought the honey bee, the natives called the bees "the white man's fly."

[EST]

50. Humans are certainly not famous for their ability to manage

habitat nor keep asses out of a crack, eh?

[Mojorabbit]

19. This is my first year of beekeeping

I only have one hive but I still don't know what I am doing. Reading up on it. I love to sit by the hive and watch them come and go.

[EST]

51. They can be a source of immense satisfaction as well as a

positive contribution to a healthy environment. I have worked with bees since I could barely walk.

The best advice I could give, with the unpredictable weather we are creating, would be to make sure to have a feeder readily available for them until spring. The wild swings in temperature and absence of natural food sources puts a tremendous stress on them.

Good luck! I'm sure you will have a lot of joy in your enterprise.

[Mojorabbit]

63. Thanks!

I learn best by watching so even with the reading I am doing I feel a bit lost. I am looking around for someone to come out and give me one on one instruction. They already swarmed once and I was not able to find them to capture them and put them in a new hive so I feel pretty inadequate.

[bvar22]

58. Our first season too!

:hi:
We received our two hives and equipment last week! We are putting the hives together and reading up on the art of beekeeping.

In October, we moved to 8 acres in rural Arkansas Ouchita Mountains. We are surrounded on three sides by National Forrest, and a long way from sources of pollution. We are working on a large French Intensive produce garden, chicken house, and goat pens. We should have a dozen fruit trees delivered in March.

I'm a little worried about the African Bee invasion. It is moving north, but (so far) there are no local reports of African Bees yet.

Good Luck!

[Mojorabbit]

62. I have 4 chickens

and you will enjoy them. Whenever I want a good laugh I let them out and watch them. They always crack me up. I am also planting a small orchard.

[anitar1]

36. I remember the last die-off a few years ago.

During the late Spring and Summer, we had bumble bees working away. But we had no fruit that year and very little the following year. I am wondering how the GM crops are affecting the insect world. After all it has a pesticide strain in it to kill off insects, courtesy of Monsanto.It is outlawed in Europe.

[badgerpup]

46. I found something on mason bees...

:bounce:
they're good pollinaters, aren't real sting-happy...but they don't make honey.

The article I found was in my Gardens Alive! catalogue that I received last week, but the 'straws' that have the larvae aren't listed on the website for some reason...:shrug:

http://www.gardensalive.com/default.asp

This is a good company...I've bought stuff from them and haven't been disappointed. :thumbsup:

[pecwae]

47. I'm giving Mason bees another try this year.

I bought some canned bees from Territorial Seed www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/search.cfm last year, but only a few actually got out of the liner. The rest were killed by wasps. Do you have tips on how to keep out the wasps?

I just bought a ton of gardening items from Gardens Alive; all organic.

[The Straight Story]

12. My dad has lost hives two years in a row to vampire mites

Moved the hives to my sister's house and they are doing better.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0328-01.htm

Published on Monday, March 28, 2005 by the Palm Beach Post
Bee Killer Imperils Crops
A tiny parasite, colloquially known as a 'vampire mite,' is devastating honeybees. That worries experts because honeybee-pollinated crops are valued at more than $15 billion a year.
by Susan Salisbury


More than $15 billion in U.S. crops rides each year on the tiny legs of an insect.

The honeybee is the major carrier of pollen for seeded fruits and just about anything that grows on a vine. Everything, in other words, from apples to zucchini.

"If honeybees ceased to exist, two-thirds of the citrus, all of the watermelons, the blueberries, strawberries, pecans and beans would disappear," said Jerry Hayes, apiary inspection chief with the state's Division of Plant Industry.

But now it's the bee itself that is disappearing.

Under attack from a Southeast Asian parasite, vast numbers of the creatures are dying off, worried industry experts say. More than 50 percent of the bees in California, critical to the success of the Golden State's almond crop, have died during the past six months. Frantic growers there have sent out the call around the world, including Florida, for hives.

[ancient_nomad]

14. We live in Lancaster County, PA and...

Last summer my husband and I talked about how we didn't see any bees the entire summer and how weird that was. Without the bees there will be no pollination of the crops. Thanks for posting this.

[kittykitty]

27. Franklin County, PA-bees wiped out back in the late 90's. It was a disease, I think. Orchards had

to import swarms. Then the swarms were removed by the beekeeper. I think it is better now, as we can buy local honey.

[AngryAmish]

17. From what I've heard - the Africanized bees are the hope

This is so far outside my realm of expertise so my comments may be complete nonsense - that said, I have heard that beekeepers are trying to breed the meanness out of the Africanized bees because they are such good producers.

I have no idea if they are resistant to the fungus et al. that are killing bees.

[TygrBright]

21. Orchardists are going to carpenter bees...

...which are not as efficient but much tougher and non-aggressive. Don't know if they're native or not. I had them back in MD, they were fun to watch, never looked as though they should be able to fly at all. Aerodynamically, it looked impossible.

I did have to replace a couple of fence rails when they got too 'lived-in' but it was a cheap price to pay for all those hard-working pollinators.

Carpenter bees don't produce honey, though.

worriedly,
Bright

[karlrschneider]

24. I didn't know they did pollination...I've killed thousands of them

(swatting with an old tennis racket) because they wreck the rafters in our horse barn. Damn...now I have a dilemma.

[girl gone mad]

30. I don't know if it's an option for you, but..

you could paint your barn. I think a very dark stan would work, too. They look for wood grain and they can't recognize it when the wood is painted so they'll move on.

I've also heard there are organic treatments that you can spray on the wood to deter them. I'm going to look into this since painting isn't an option for me.

[karlrschneider]

33. I can do the painting, it's worth a try. I feel really bad killing them,

they try so hard to be intimidating...they will hover right in front of my face and make a lot of
agressive-type moves, daring me to hit them which isn't easy to do and it's really their only
defense since they don't have stingers...

Thanks for the tip.
ks

[pecwae]

48. I finally had to use a hard varnish

on the fascia (pine) part of my log cabin to keep them away. They were very numerous in the Cherokee National Forest of TN. I could see the little hills of sawdust left from their drilling on the roof. They stayed totally away from the red cedar part of my cabin.

[girl gone mad]

28. I've got a lot of carpenter bees on my property.

AFAIK, they are native to this region (Texas). The males are very agressive, but completely harmless as they lack a stinger. The females are shy, but will attack when provoked and they can give a painful sting.

The females drill their nests into wood. They can do quite a bit of damage to homes and other wooden structures. I had to kill one last year because I couldn't dissuade her from drilling into a support beam on my front porch. Sadly, I also had to kill her mate. It was just too late in the mating season for him to move on and he would attack us anytime we came and went. Even though they are harmless, they are still quite intimidating due to their size.

[karlrschneider]

34. I thought both sexes were stingerless. Maybe not...see my post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=144719&mesg_id=145037

Every spring (mid to late April generally) there are hundreds eating the rafters on our deck and the
horse barn. They do a LOT of damage...I don't like to harm them but we aren't going to allow that kind of destruction. They sure are tough little (well, maybe not so little) buggers, though.

[girl gone mad]

42. The females can sting..

but they are very shy and usually too busy working to be bothered. I think you have to be asking for it to get stung by one.

The males are more aggressive, but ironically they can't actually sting. They hover outside of the nest site while the female is at work. I've seen them chase away cats, dogs, birds and people. Any person or animal that's ever been stung by an insect will be frightened enough of a giant bee coming after them.

Luckily, carpenter bees do not form colonies, so even though the females can sting, they are not a threat like yellow jacket wasps and honeybees. I've read that the damage they do is only superficial, and I've also read that it can be extensive. I ignore them unless they are drilling into our support beams. I think they are a lot of fun to have around.

[karlrschneider]

60. Maybe the ones around here aren't exactly the same critter...

They look somewhat like a bumblebee but the back part is shiny not fuzzy. The ones that drill into
the wood are plenty agressive (they put on a pretty good show of 'attacking' but never actually
touch whoever they're bluffing, at least none ever did touch me), I can't tell any difference
between males & females. People around here call them 'wood bees', whatever they are, they're
very destructive - we've had to replace a lot of rafter beams in the barn to keep the roof from
caving in. I'll try painting them (the rafters, not the bees) :D

[TygrBright]

72. Yeah, those are carpenter bees...

...and one thing that might help is to put some carpenter bee houses out for them in an area away from the house and near where you want them pollinating (the veg garden, the wildflower area, whatever.) They will use the houses and when there are several of them nesting in an area its unlikely you'll get too many more.

They like older wood that is starting to soften/rot a bit, so if you have some old fenceposts or something like that put it where you want them and they'll likely leave newer wood alone. I used to have a bunch of 'em nesting in a post-and-rails fence that ran right down the middle of one of my biggest borders. Early in the season they'd do the aggressive behavior displays whenever I came out to mess in the border (frequently!) but they seemed to get used to me rootling around there and just went about their business eventually.

Best thing for protecting old wood you don't want nests in is a coat of stain or thin primer or even a light poly varnish.

I used to kind of like 'em but they can be a nuisance. Of course, so can honeybees if they nest too close to places where people hang out a lot.

philosophically,
Bright

[karlrschneider]

74. Hey that's a great idea. I can use some of the old boards and make a little

hut for them out by the garden! Actually, I _LIKE_ to watch their acrobatics (and the pollination is a plus), so maybe that will keep them from chewing up the rafters in the barn. I'll try the stain/primer too...in the barn that is. Good tip, thanks. :D

[The Doctor.]

18. Hmm... So it's the Birds AND the Bees now...

Disturbing.

[rosesaylavee]

20. Coincidentally just got back from my

beekeeping class where we were talking about mites and viruses. Honey bees just don't have the clover and fields to forage in like they used to a couple decades ago. However, whatever the article is talking about sounds like something new for beekeepers to worry about.

I am starting two hives this spring for my first year. I hope the little gals get to live long enough to do their thing.

[BlooInBloo]

26. end days! END DAYS! (snarfle)

Wonder what the next "proof" of our imminent destruction will be.

[JacksonWest]

54. It's hard to get a good cup of coffee sometimes. That's enough for me.

[dysfunctional press]

29. i thought it was some kind of mite or other parasite that was killing them-

i sem to remember seeing something about this several months back or so...

[KT2000]

35. When insects, animals

and plants have die-offs from parasites and mites, fungal infections and infestations, the species is likely experiencing compromised immune systems. This can occur from exposure to chemicals that are sprayed on vast areas.
It happens to people too.

[dysfunctional press]

61. not necessarily....

they could be falling prey to parasites from other parts of the globe, for which they have no natural immunity or defenses...kinda sorta like when we gave native americans blankets contaminated with smallpox.

[upi402]

37. declining for years

anecdotally, I've witnessed it. I've heard farmers complain of it. And heard/read reports of it. Honey bees.

[DarkTirade]

40. I wonder how well they're doing here in Florida...

we may not have much in the way of clover for them, but we do have lots of orange trees. :)

[MadHound]

43. I have an orchard, and while this hasn't been a problem for me,

I lot of the bigger operations are running into some severe problems. I don't rely on honeybees, instead I've let the surrounding area go pretty much native, and have lots of native bees and other pollinators doing the job for me. But a lot of orchardists will clear out vast swaths of forest and field and then wonder why they have to have bees shipped in to pollinate their crops. Sure, there is the risk that with a forest nearby you're going to get deer coming out and eating your fruit or damaging your trees, but you also get a fair amount of benefit from the other creatures of the forest. Enough that it offsets what you lose to deer.

[hatrack]

52. This is disturbing . . .

I'll have two hives this spring which won't be moving anywhere once in place, if that helps. I hope this winter weather back east might knock this back some, assuming it's susceptible to cold.

Other than that, what the hell is this thing anyway? "Colony collapse disorder"?

My paranoid half has to wonder if this isn't some wonderful additional benefit of global trade, like varroa mites, small hive beetle, emerald ash borers, zebra mussels, gypsy moths, fire ants, water hyacinths, Burmese pythons, beech scale disease, sudden oak death . . .

[Mojorabbit]

64. or to put my tinfoil on

genetically modified plants....Seems I read awhile back that they were killing butterflies...

[Odin2005]

67. Nope, parasites.

the honeybee die offs in the last few years have been the result of various parasitic mites.

[hatrack]

73. This is different, according to the article, though perhaps associated with parasitization

EDIT

The most recent mite problem - the varroa mite - compromises a bee's immune system, so a virus might be the new culprit, Frazier said. Or it could be a new fungal pathogen.

Frazier said researchers also were looking at a new group of pesticides that might impair the bees' ability to orient to their hives. So maybe they are dying only because they cannot find their way back home.

EDIT

[JacksonWest]

53. Thank God. I hate bees.

[justiceischeap]

59. Down with the Bees!

I'm allergic, so this is good news for me. :)

[BeHereNow]

81. You hate bees? How about food?

Everything is part of the chain of life.
Bees pollinate.
Do you really not understand the connection and
implications?

BHN

[Done]

57. First the birds, then the bees...

Anyone see a connection here.

:scared:

[truebrit71]

65. Yeah, if we're not too careful there'll be no more nookie!!!

...how else you gonna 'splain it to the young uns?

[notadmblnd]

68. In my opinion... it's wasps

I had a huge nest in my lilac bushes last summer. They were black. I can't remember the name for them, but they were very aggressive. The beekeeper that came to take care of it got stung a couple times and he had his protective gear on. If I'm not mistaken they are detrimental to the bees because they eat the larva and destroy their hives. Those yellow and black stripped wasps have just about taken over in my area. Season before last, I spent a lot of time destroying wasps and my cherry tree about tripled in fruit.

[Annces]

69. Bees don't tolerate any kind of toxin

They die before getting home to their hive, according to Italian article.

(A bee does not survive contact with toxic substances and dies before it even reaches the hive. Pure honey, in fact, is nature's real wonder product," said Panella, distressed that the shocking mortality rate has not yet shaken the authorities and the public out of their complacency.)

This is an article from 2002
http://www.mieliditalia.it/herald.htm

[file83]

77. So perhaps, the bees are a sort of indicator species...

...a sign that the level of chemicals in the environment is beginning to reach a level that is deadly. They are the first species to go?

That would have interesting ramifications.

[Mugu]

70. The last few years have been tough for the bees,

but last year I had a big increase in hornets. Most notable were these guys--Bald Faced Hornets. They’re not very aggressive until there is a large number of them and they become more irritable. They really like rotting pears and appear to get intoxicated.

Regards, Mugu

[earth mom]

71. I was stung by a swarm of bees as a child...

and was terrified of bees for years. But once I discovered a love for gardening I have become quite fond of bees and have 2 old paintings with bees in them. I've even thought of becoming a beekeeper myself since I'm worried about the bee population having already heard some dire reports but haven't quite been able to bring myself to do it. Better for me to love the bees from afar since carpenter bees still send me running-lol!

That said, this report is really worrisome because it's obvious that pesticides are a huge part of the problem and IMO should be completely banned. :(

[file83]

76. My first guess before reading the article was: PESTICIDES

And sure enough, after reading the article, the pesticides keeps coming up as a strong possibility.

Makes sense - big agro business (aka CORPORATIONS) are the culprits in YET ANOTHER environmental disaster.

Go figure.

[Parche]

79. BEES

What about the mysterious Boo bees????????

[demrabble]

80. Some Should Call Gloria Gaynor

"You're My Honeybee. Come on an sting me."