UNKNOWN DISEASE WIPING OUT BEE POPULATIONS

February 13th, 2007

Via: ABC News / Reuters:

A mysterious disease is killing off U.S. honeybees, threatening to disrupt pollination of a range of crops and costing beekeepers hundreds of thousands of dollars, industry experts said on Monday.

Beekeepers in 22 states have reported losses of up to 80 percent of their colonies in recent weeks, leaving many unable to rent the bees to farmers of crops such as almonds and, later in the year, apples and blueberries.

“It’s unusual in terms of the widespread distribution and severity,” said Jerry Bromenshenk, a professor at the University of Montana at Missoula and chief executive of Bee Alert Technology, a company monitoring the problem.

Dave Hackenberg, a Pennsylvania beekeeper who reported the so-called Colony Collapse Disorder to researchers at Pennsylvania State University in November, said he had lost about 2,000 hives, which can each contain around 50,000 bees during the summer months.

He estimated that he will lose as much as $350,000 after accounting for lost income and the cost of replacing bees.

Researchers from state and federal agriculture agencies have been frustrated in their search for a cause because affected hives are often empty except for the queen and a few bees.

The number of bees in a hive typically diminishes over a period of days to the point where there are very few or none left, Hackenberg said. There is no indication of where the bees have gone or what drove them away, he said.

“The rate of loss is startling,” said Jeff Pettis, a bee researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland.

Pettis said the bees may have been killed off by a combination of factors including parasitic mites and a lack of nectar in pollen. Scientists are also looking into whether there is a link with significant recent bee losses in some European countries, particularly Spain.

Bromenshenk of the University of Montana said the symptoms are similar to “Dwindling Disease” that affected the U.S. bee population during the 1960s. Some beekeepers have told him that they have been seeing the problem for up to two years but have not reported it to authorities.

10 Responses to “UNKNOWN DISEASE WIPING OUT BEE POPULATIONS”

  1. Mike says:

    Einstien said after the bee’s are gone people will have 4 years of life left, he understood
    Bee’s are responsible for the majority of pollination on the planet. saving the bee’s is
    way more urgent then global warming.
    For valentines day get your honey a hive of bee’s.
    Most US beekeepers use anti-biotics to keep the
    bee’s alive in the long run this weakens there immune system just like in people.
    Sigh! when will we learn.
    It’s all in our head’s. Peace , Mike

  2. George Kenney says:

    What a surprise…agrochemicals industry may have something to do with this slaughter.

    “Quand Les Abeilles Meurent”. . . (When Bees Die . . .), he describes how he was alerted to the problem of fipronil by a beekeeper whose hives had been devastated. As his shoes scrunched across a carpet of dead bees, De Villiers became increasingly angry with “the monstrous mating of the agrochemicals industry and the state”.

    http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/2004/Fipronil-Kills-Bees4mar04.htm

  3. mtlouie says:

    Just now reading a book on bees by Rudolph Steiner. Eighty-five years ago he said that the commercial practice of using drones to replace queens would have a devastating effect on all bees. He said within one hundred years bees would begin to die off. Pretty close. I love bees and have read about them for years. I use honey as a cure-all for everything. RAW honey. I haven’t had the flu in years and I credit honey. Anytime I feel like I’m coming down with something I take a big spoonful of raw honey. Upset stomach? Raw honey. Gone in minutes. Burns. There really isn’t anything raw honey can’t take care of.

    I think this is the point, that if humanity is to survive, we will need a complete transcendence. I’m looking forward to it.

  4. Eileen says:

    I’m no Einstein, but it’s really ODD (STOOPID) that beekeepers are using antibiotics on BEES! But I suppose if I were I were a bee-keeper I’d be trying anything to save my bees at the rate they are a dyin’. But honey, the by-product of pollination – that thang that the bees do – IS an antibiotic. So using an antibiotic on an antibiotic producing species of critter seems so nonsensical to me. Methinks they should be giving them PROBIOTICS and yogurt to feed on. Makes sense to me! Here in PA our bee population IS declining. I think the decline has everything to do (at least where I live) with increased pollution from the use of coal in power plants; increased road traffic with larger vehicles that spew more crap than ever; clear cutting of vacant lots for the wood; mowing of weeds along roadways; and the increased determination to rid the planet of that horrifying CREATURE, the DANDELION! Use the telly to make sure people get the message that its BAD to have a lawn with weeds (read – that effing DANDELION). Suckers for commercial perfection run out and buy pesticides. I actually KNOW PEOPLE WHO HAVE ANNOUNCED PROUDLY that they’ve put several 50 pound bags of “weed and feed” on their freakin’ lawn. Okay (not). These same individuals then complain that they have to cut their “grass” every other day (what don’t you get about growth hormones?), with a lawn mower that spews out more crap than an ATV or 4 wheeler. But HONEY! our lawn doesn’t have any WEEDS! AARGH! Here’s another one: ever wonder why the guy from the pesticide place wears rubber boots, and then puts up SIGNS ?? I swear to all of them, GET A FREAKIN GOAT!! I’d love to start a “rent a goat ( or sheep) business” just to stop people from being so WEIRD about their lawns. Meanwhile, back at the homestead (where we ACTUALLY EAT spring dandelion greens) about six years ago we used honey to heal a VERY LARGE bedsore on my mother’s coccyx. This was a “present” from an extended stay in hospital after Mom had a hemorrhagic (bleed)stroke on her brain stem. For any chance to heal – the hospital had to take the skin off her bottom (debreed). What remained was a large teacup sized wound that the Intensive Care nurse solemnly told me, “this will never heal.” (To the Nurse’s credit I never thought Mom would live long enough to worry about it). I think in recent years, and to the taxpayer and patient’s credit, Medicare will not pay a hospital for ANYTHING if the patient arrives in hospital without bedsores, but leaves with one (this amounts to literally billions). Anyways, I know I’ll never find the research links from six years ago, but we used honey on that wound after trying the saline and aquafor, and the bedsore healed just fine. I could go on and on about honey. It is the only food that never spoils. I buy a jar of local honey every time I go a health food store and have some money to spare.
    Here’s something to read:
    http://www.physorg.com/news73233240.html
    I don’t know about the 4 year thing, but Einstein said that? Sheesh. I’ve had lots of other pollinators take up the slack where the bees have left off – small wasps ( they love the chives), but this is by far the most depressing thing I’ve read on this website. Let alone anywhere. Just when I think the smart people will find the rest of us a way out of Dodge.

  5. wolfpigeon says:

    You’ve convinced me enough to keep some bees

  6. LOUISE ROSSBERG says:

    I AM ONE OF THOSE BEEKEEPERS THAT HAVE LOST 90% OF MY BUSINESS. I AM JUST SICK AND HAVE NO MONEY TO REPLACE ANY OF MY BEES. THEY ARE COMING IN FROM AUSTRALIA AT $115.00 FOR A 4 POUND PACKAGE. I WAS HOPING A RICH PERSON WOULD SEE THIS AND HELP ME OUT, I’M STILL WAITING. THE ALMOND BOARD HERE IN CALIFORNIA SEES NOM PROBLEM. THAT IS WHY THEY ARE SHIPPING ABOUT 50,000 PKG IN TO HELP COVER THE LOSS. PEOPLE OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE WHAT IS GOOINNG ON

  7. George Kenney says:

    MERCURY could be one of the leading causes of Bee death.

    “Power plants are the largest unregulated source of mercury emissions, releasing 48 tons of mercury into the air annually in the United States alone.”

    http://www.healthtruthrevealed.com/full-page.php?id=1527016703&&page=article

    Kevin, how are the mercury concentrations in NZ?

  8. larry says:

    monsanto.

  9. Common sense says:

    Sure, in einstiens time we needed bees, but everyone should realize this is NOT A BIG DEAL. In fact this is a blessing in disguise. Bees sting people. I got stung once. It sucks.
    Yeah, I know they “pollinate” n stuff, but we have other things that can do that now, like robot bees. Robot bees are twice as efficient, and don’t sting people. Any beekeeper NOT keeping robot bees is a traitor, and is just holding back proccess!

  10. kurrier says:

    This is a big problem; for human life at least. May the problem be caused by climate change or some outbreak – our existence will cease, yet the earth will recover over time; it always has. A quick replacement for honey bees is almost impossible. Though, maybe some robotic bees could do the trick for a bit. At least until scientists realize those bees omit a frequency that interrupt the growth or reproduction of the plants.

    I would test any water that the bees may interact with.

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