Continuing Bee Collapse

A pretty good argument was laid out a year or so ago that a particular pesticide was the likely culprit.  By now that should have been clarified statistically.  Otherwise, what this continues to show is that we have no good ideas.

It is a good idea to rethink the role of pesticides.  We have developed a large arsenal and actually we keep developing new product.  It is way more appropriate to license pesticide usage on the basis of minimal residual effect.  I suspect that this is now possible.

It will certainly be resisted by the manufacturers who certainly do not want limitations on their marketing.  Yet the community wants it.  The general application of a specific agent across a biological region should also suppress refugia.  Such methods can be specifically tested on bees.

I do not believe that pest control was meant to include blanket suppression because this also suppresses the natural control agents.  Yet a wide variety of such agents must suppress any number of other species.

I think it is time to establish test ranges to learn more about what we are doing than continuing to rely on targeted testing as to simple efficiency.

After I wrote this short item on the subject of the plausibility of the pesticide theory, I was introduced to another important possibility.  It is the effect of microwave towers on bee populations.  The apparent cycle eliminates populations interacting with a given tower over about three years.  It also impacts wild bee populations.

I am inclined to listen simply because these insects rely on homing systems that surely take advantage of our old friend magnetite.  Microwaves will react and disturb such a system and it makes total sense for the insects to become lost or otherwise disoriented.

During the time period noted, microwave towers have gone up everywhere.  Bee keepers need to position hives as far away from those towers as possible.

Scientists stumped

by Staff Writers

Washington (AFP) March 29, 2010

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Scientists_stumped_as_bee_population_declines_further_999.html

The decline in the US bee population, first observed in 2006, is continuing, a phenomenon that still baffles researchers and beekeepers.

Data from the US Department of Agriculture show a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, following a 36 percent decline in 2008 and a 32 percent fall in 2007.

This affects not only honey production but around 15 billion dollars worth of crops that depend on bees for pollination.

Scientists call the phenomenon "colony collapse disorder" that has led to the disappearance of millions of adult bees and beehives and occurred elsewhere in the world including in Europe.

Researchers have looked at viruses, parasites, insecticides, malnutrition and other environmental factors but have been unable to pinpoint a specific cause for the population decline.

The rough winter in many parts of the United States will likely accentuate the problem, says Jeff Pettis, lead researcher at Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland.

Winter figures will be published in April. But preliminary estimates already indicate losses of 30 to 50 percent, said David Mendes, president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

"There are a lot of beekeepers who are in trouble" he said.

"Under normal condition you have 10 percent winter losses.. this year there are 30, 40 to 50 percent losses."

He said the phenomenon probably results from a combination of factors but that the increased use of pesticides appears to be a major cause.

"I don't put my bees in Florida because the last couple of years there has been tremendous increase in pesticide use in the orange crop to fight a disease," he said.

"It's a bacterium and the only way to control this disease is to use pesticide... a few years ago they did not use any pesticide at all."

He said that pesticide use "has changed dramatically" and has made beekeeping "more challenging."

Research conducted in 23 US states and Canada and published in the Public Library of Science journal found 121 different pesticides in 887 samples of bees, wax, pollen and other elements of hives, lending credence to the notion of pesticides as a key problem.

Pettis said the finding of pesticide residue is "troubling."

"It might not be the only factor but it's a contributing factor," he said.

The best thing to help bees, he said its "to try to limit habitat destruction," leaving more natural areas in agriculture and in cities such so honey bees can have "a diverse natural environment."

Ironically, he said the problem stems from expansion of agriculture to feed the world. But in destroying bee populations, that can hurt crop production.

"The world population growth is in a sense the reason for pollinators' decline," he said.

"Because we need to produce more and more food to feed the world and we grow crops in larger fields. A growing world means growing more food and to do that we need pollinators. And the fact that the world is continuing to grow is the driving force behind the habitat destruction."