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Save The Honey Bees From Colony Collapse Disorder |
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Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a real phenomenon. It has the potential to dramatically impact food and honey production, but it's more complex than some of the reports make it out to be. First, CCD has primarily affected domestic, commercial honeybees - those that are raised exclusively for producing honey and pollinating crops. It seems to affect bees from hives that are moved from place to place in order to pollinate crops. Commercial honeybees make up a tiny portion of the overall bee population. Other types of bees, including Africanized honeybees, do not seem to be affected. |
 | Bees pollinate up to one third of our food plants, and in recent months, bee colonies have been mysteriously collapsing. Up to 70% of bees on the East coast have disappeared, and about 50% in other parts of the country. The problem, called Colony Collapse Disorder, already has hit beekeepers in 24 states, part of Canada, and several European countries. Many bees seem to disappear, with few to no bodies of dead bees found near the hives. The remaining bees, meanwhile, show mysterious symptoms. |
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Honey bees are important pollinators for both flowers and agricultural crops.
Beekeepers first sounded the alarm about disappearing bees in 2006. Seemingly healthy bees were simply abandoning their hives en masse, never to return. Researchers call the mass disappearance Colony Collapse Disorder, and they estimate that nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the country have vanished. Why are the bees leaving? Scientists studying the disorder believe a combination of factors could be making bees sick, including pesticide exposure, invasive parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply and a new virus that targets bees' immune systems. More research is essential to determine the exact cause of the bees' distress. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture has allotted $20 million over the next five years for research, that amount pales in comparison with the potential loss of $15 billion worth of crops that bees pollinate every year. And the USDA has so far failed to aggressively seek out a solution. If we don’t act now to save the honey bee, it might be too late. And no honey bees will mean no more of your favorite fruits and vegetables. It was earlier this year, during spring that news agencies first began reporting about a worrisome phenomenon about beekeepers going to their hives and discovering that their bees had vanished. Sometimes, all that remained were the queen bee and a few hatchling bees. The puzzling thing was that the beekeepers did not find any evidence of the usual predators of bees, such as wasps and animals that like honey. Neither did they find any trace of large numbers of dead bees nor any sign of bee diseases such as foulbrood or chalkbrood, which the developing larvae of bees usually fall prey to, nor was there any evidence of any of the mite species that attack fully grown or developing bees. Hence, on the basis of this evidence, it was surmised that the bees couldn’t have died of any sickness or predator attack. Plus, many of the beekeepers also reported that other bees, animals and moths stayed away from the newly abandoned nests, at least for the initial few days. From past experience, this phenomenon has been known to happen when bees have died of chemical contamination or disease. A hint of the problem first arose five months ago in Florida where beekeepers said they found whole hives abandoned by adult bees who left behind food and bee larvae, the young that develop inside the hive. The problem now has a name -- Colony Collapse Disorder -- but no explanation. It concerns one type of bee, the European honeybee, or apis mellifera. Bumblebees and any of the 1,500 other species of bee found in the United States are not in danger, but neither are they a replacement for the honeybee. Any treatment for Colony Collapse Disorder is confounded by its many possible causes: pathogens; deadly mites; lack of genetic diversity in the bees; widespread pesticide use and even urban sprawl that spreads homes and streets across wild fields of clover, alfalfa and flowers, all sources of bee food. It may simply be a combination of all of these things. Could Bees be Disappearing due to Pesticides and Genetically Modified Food? Many think that the growing use of chemical herbicides and pesticides, which are ingested by bees when they make their daily pollination forays, are to blame greatly. Beehives that are kept for commercial purposes are also fumigated regularly with chemicals to get rid of harmful mites. Genetically modified crops, which could be producing pollen with poor nutritional value, is another suspect thought to be responsible for bees disappearing. Perhaps a combination of both, pollen from genetically modified crops and chemicals, may have tipped the balance leading to the collapse of bee populations. This theory is lent credence by the fact that organically raised bees, which are not subjected to genetically modified crops and chemicals, are not undergoing the Colony Collapse Disorder that the other bees are experiencing. Could Bees be Disappearing due to pathogens like fungi, viruses and mites? Scientists are also wondering whether global warming could be accelerating the growth rates of pathogens like fungi, viruses and mites, which are known to adversely affect bee colonies. The unusual fluctuations in weather patterns, which are also thought to be caused by global warming, could also be affecting bee populations, which are used to more consistent patterns of weather. First discovered in the United States in 1987, the mite weakens the bee's immune system. It kills off most bee colonies within a year or two after invading. Beekeepers use pesticides to control the mites, but Spivak has studied ways to breed honeybees that are resistant to it. The problem is severe, but it hasn't affected the marketplace yet. Although there are a number of disappearing bee theories like these, scientists are still searching for the cause. Even though there was no consensus amongst leading bee biologists when they gathered together to discuss the mystery recently, most were of the opinion that it could be a combination of factors that could be the reason. Hence, the next time you spot a busy bee buzzing about its business, stop and marvel at this little creature, thanking it for the marvelous task it accomplishes – for, if the trend of them disappearing continues, you may not see them around any more . . . |
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Will global warming be a greater threat to Honey Bee existence? Life in all forms will be affected by global warming. A few adaptive animals, insects, and plants will be at an evolutionary advantage and will prosper. But that is not the question to be anwered. The question is "How will global warming exascerbate existing theats to the honey bee?. The magnetic poles are in the process of reversing! The magnetic poles are in the process of reversing as they do from time to time. The bees use the magnetic field lines as the means to navigate so they are getting lost as to where the hive is after foraging. Away from the safety of the hive they die quickly and become food for all kinds of scavengers. The short term effects might be a disaster, but the bees have survived through past pole flips, so I imagine that they will eventually work things out. Prior to the poles flipping, the magnetic field lines get much weaker. we can still observe the fields with our compasses, but the fields might be just weak enough for the bees to get lost. Some scientists have been looking to see if the same problem is affecting certain marine animals. We are not there yet ... but this will a problem for future societies to deal with. A pesticide called imidacloprid may be causing colony collapse Information on a pesticide called imidacloprid suggests that this product may be causing colony collapse. The Bayer Corporation claims it is used to kill termites and ants (other social insects like bees), and causes a range of effects in termites. They stop feeding and are unable to maintain their colony. A second effect, exclusive to Premise, is called Premise plus Nature. This product makes termites susceptible to infection by naturally occurring organisms. Either way, the termites die. Weaken the colony of bees with lethal and sublethal effects and surely disease will set. It is crass to use this effect to advertise a product, and then use it to blame beekeepers' problems on diseases. |
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