8 May 2008
Honeybees
Posted by Terrie Soberg under: Emergency Preparation; Health; What's News .
Honeybees are responsible for pollinating crops. A loss such as this may be very devastating to our food supply.
A Third of Honey Bee Hives Lost in 2007
Byline By JULIANA BARBASSA
SAN FRANCISCO (May 6) – A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation’s commercially managed hives lost since last year.
Last year’s survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.
As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it’s clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group. (CCD is a new threat, but bees continue to struggle with older ones too, like the parasitic varroa mite. One of the mites is visible above, resting on the bee’s back. The mites, which were first noticed in the United States in 1987, feed on adult bees, pupae and larvae, shortening their lifespans. Notice the mite on the back of the bee below.)
This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren’t enough numbers to show a trend, but clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
“For two years in a row, we’ve sustained a substantial loss,” he said. “That’s an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm.”
The survey included 327 operators who account for 19 percent of the country’s approximately 2.44 million commercially managed bee hives. The data is being prepared for submission to a journal.
About 29 percent of the deaths were due to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that causes adult bees to abandon their hives. Beekeepers who saw CCD in their hives were much more likely to have major losses than those who didn’t.
“What’s frightening about CCD is that it’s not predictable or understood,” vanEngelsdorp said.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff announced that the state would pour an additional $20,400 into research at Pennsylvania State University looking for the causes of CCD. This raises emergency funds dedicated to investigating the disease to $86,000.
The issue also has attracted federal grants and funding from companies that depend on honey bees, including ice-cream maker Haagen-Dazs.
Because the berries, fruits and nuts that give about 28 of Haagen-Daazs’ varieties flavor depend on honey bees for pollination, the company is donating up to $250,000 to CCD and sustainable pollination research at Penn State and the University of California, Davis.
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6 Comments so far...
jobob911 Says:
8 May 2008 at 11:10 am.
There might not be enough honey bees to pollinate the almond groves next year, so there is discussion about bringing in the killer bees from Mexico to do the job. The killer bees might breed with the honey bees and that would be a disaster.
The Realist Says:
8 May 2008 at 11:34 am.
jobob, I heard about that. The killer bees would wipe out other bees and we would be left with that menace. It seems like a very stupid thing to do but then again, what are farmers going to do? This is a real problem.
Saddened Says:
8 May 2008 at 11:40 am.
It is weird how this was such big news last year and it is worse this year and there is hardly any news about it at all.
Benjamin Says:
8 May 2008 at 1:27 pm.
The saying goes, “as bees go, so go the crops and others plants on the planet”. This will cause a chain reaction that effects everything on the planet so hope and pray that the bees get well.
Pickles Says:
8 May 2008 at 2:10 pm.
I love honey bees. I grew up working in my family garden and it always gave me a peaceful feeling hearing the bees humming in the rose bushes and vegetables. I don’t see them as much lately.
T. Fan Says:
8 May 2008 at 6:18 pm.
I’ve been following this. It’s true there isn’t much in the press this year but you can find info if you search. I feel bad for the beekeepers. Many are losing all their hives. The reason this doesn’t scare me to death is because I trust in the Lord. Otherwise I would be completely freaked out by what this means. If you don’t want to be scared and you don’t have a lot of faith then don’t look into this.
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