Critical pollinators for some crops, and have been the focus of recent research because of high colony mortality rates. There is a White House response White House Aims to Save Bees | Al Jazeera America which can be read about at several different sources. I just picked one out of the hat (hajib?). There is one type of pesticide that seems pretty hard on bees, but they have many other problems, first among them Varroa mites. Also there was also a massive bee die-off in the 1890 (more or less) which confuses the issue. Set-aside habitats may help (and are always pleasing to true-blue tree huggers). Perhaps unlikely to happen, and perhaps not necessary. It is very fortunate for bees (I mean Apis melifera in particular) that ‘industrial production’ of new colonies is a mature technology. So you can have half the ‘working’ colonies die one year, pollinating stocks can be rebuilt the next. I am not pessimistic about their fate. Tone down the neoniconoids just a bit, and find a hyperparasite for Varroa, and agriculture is saved ! Every parasite has its hyper somewhere (this is what evolution is good at). Al Jaz also mentions Monarch butterflies, which are much more likely to be doomed. Save ‘em with 15 hectares in Mexico? Not realistic. That mountain cloud forest is a perfect target for just a dash of climate change. If the mountain goes up higher (do not know; have not been there), then plant more pine trees further uphill where they now don’t grow. That’s what is meant by ‘adaptation’.
Was hoping to attract your attention, forest Please share your personal experiences. Much more interesting to the PC crowd. I did tag along with a bee researcher here (he since moved to a different place). Problem was he was allergic to the venom. I saw his face swell WAY up. Thought we we going to have to intubate him in the field, which is not what you want medical amateurs to be doing. That man should definitely change careers. Also when have bee boxes are many in a 'camp' here, each is marked with a different playing card so they can find their home. Amazingly it appears to work.
I like that. I've heard one "smoking gun" culprit is a pesticide used on seeds; is that the one you're referring to?
Mendel, yes. However Colony Collapse Disorder occurs in areas where neoniconoids are not known to be used. If this were a simple problem Van Englesdorp would have nailed it years ago. I greatly respect his work on the topic though. USDA! USDA! I think he wrote an overview for general audience a few years back. Will look, but for the moment gotta work. A journal article needs 'anonymous review' so I have to change clothes.
Rarely do my colonies survive over-wintering. Maine is near the Northern most extreme limit to the honeybee survivable climate. The USDA setup 7 research sites a few years ago to study CCD. One of them is located just a few miles from my farm. The head researcher has given presentations to our bee club. Honeybees are under attack from many different vectors. We know that these various vectors, each do harm individually, but what we are seeing is the combined effect. since no one thing individually is 100% at fault, there is no lobbying that can be done to really fix the issue. The beekeeping community is changing. Across the board 'we' lose an average of 40% of our hives now every year. I have seen where big beekeepers have lost as many as 20,000 hives in two days. More people are shifting to queen rearing. As they do, we can re-populate all of our hives quickly regardless of the losses. Beekeepers as a whole could lose 80% of our hives every year, and we would still be able to re-population them every year. Pesticide over-use, GMOs, saturation of microwave radiation from cellphone towers, many things have been shown to effect our bees. In the past century, our diet has changed a great deal. Maybe it is time to consider shifting to foods that do not require pollination.
pbs did a great documentary on this a few years ago when there were a lot of questions, and few answers. we have a lot of bee keepers in our area, and bees for hire for the farmers. the best part was the enormous number of people available in china to pollinate with a stick and swab.
I saw some show, saying uniform crops might be a problem for the bees. They were suggesting to let an occasional swath go fallow, let natural variety overgrow.
I am concerned. 've been looking for honey bees the last 3 years (some earlier posts here). What I saw prior years was not too many honey bees, but a plethora of other bees on flowering Spring trees. This year I saw much reduced bee activity. I know we had a bad winter again, but we did last year too and the bees were good last year. DC Cherry Blossoms 2nd year in a row among the latest blooming date on record.
How have bumble bees been affected? I love honey, but these guys do the pollinating grunt work. Unfortunately, I had to kill two small colonies last year. One was in a small wood pile being moved. The perfect excuse not to do work, but the wife was worried about the dog getting stung. The second was underground, and they weren't pleased about me digging up a large tree stump. It got personal after the second stinging.
I've let some of the dandelions survive this year, intending to benefit bees, but I've seen none on them. The bumble bees love the California Lilac out back, though. We've had mason bees in the area too, but I haven't seen any yet this year. Maybe they'll like the sunflowers.....
Sunflower photo above I believe is one big Carpenter Bee and 5 smaller Bumble bees. We did see Carpenter Bees again this year, but Bumble bees I don't know if this is too early for them. They (Bumbles) just loved the sunflowers we had last summer.
Ironically one day after reading this post I came across a bee hive about a block from my house, but I don't know of any bee keepers (it's far enough away where I don't care enough to pay someone to see if it's worth relocating them).
I used to get severe reactions to bee stings. I've been stung several times on my left arm, causing major swelling. Another time on my shoulder, causing swelling from my armpit up along my neck. Believe me, I'm on the lookout for any potential problems, but they've still happened. I've discovered that vitamin C eliminates my overreaction to bee stings. It still hurts, but only localized redness and pain like normal people experience. On a trail marathon about a decade ago I got stung about half way. Emergency medical assistance was at least 2 hours away, which means that I had to carry my own treatment with me. I carried a slurry of DMSO gel mixed with powdered ascorbic acid. About a tablespoon of the DMSO, and what must have been 5 tablespoons of C. Mixed together making about a tablespoon of gel. Carried it in a pill size ziploc baggie. Applied the gel with a q-tip every few minutes, and continued on at a walking pace. I figured I'd drop out at the next aid station where my wife was waiting. When I got there, it hurt an ordinary amount, but nothing like my previous experience. After fiddling around at the aid station for 15 minutes or so, I decided I could probably handle another hour to the next one where I could drop out if necessary. Anyway, the expected swelling never occurred, and I finished the next 15 miles or so with just a distraction from my sore feet. These days I would carry both the gel and several packets of liposomal C. Probably take several grams of liposomal C before the start just in case. Amazing what enough vitamin C can do to control an allergic reaction.
Bisco, yes. There are several allergies (not just bee venom) that can cause rapid airway restriction, which is not something you want to have happen far from medical equipment and skills. You make me wonder about epipens vs. airport security. Looks like a manageable situation for TSA, but airlines in other countries may have different policies.
