BEE AND INSECT DIE-OFF

Colony Collapse Disorder - Map of Affected US States, February 2007.

Excellent summary of what has been happening with the bee and the bird die-offs.

8/26/07 -
One likely cause of the bee die-off are pesticides, particularly a new class of powerful chemicals called neonicotinoids (or neonics), which are an artificial form of nicotine. "My theory ...is something has broken down their immune system. The only thing that's new is the increased usage of neonicotinoids. Three years ago, you started really seeing it. Now, it's everywhere. It's the pesticide of choice in this country - and yours too. You can't get away from the stuff." This link is fuelling controversy because neonics have become widespread, mostly through their frequent use in treating genetically engineered seeds. If neonics were to blame for CCD, it would make bees the first known species to become a casualty of the biotechnology era. Last March, the Sierra Club called on the U.S. government to fund emergency research into the neonic connection and, if GM crops are found to be responsible for CCD, to ban the plants. "You look at what's new exposure, and this is the new exposure. This is big. We're talking about the food supply." Findings of the world's largest-ever field trial of GM crops, done for the British government in 2003: The three-year study, which involved 4,000 visits to fields and the counting of 1.5 million insects and birds, found that powerful chemicals used in conjunction with GM crops were highly harmful to bees, butterflies, and birds. Fields of biotech canola and sugar beets had dramatically fewer bees than conventional farms. Studies have shown neonics degrade the immune systems of bees, making them more susceptible to disease. The working group singled out neonics, because CCD made its appearance shortly after the new chemical became widespread in genetically engineered crops in 2000 and 2001. "Something is going haywire." The truth may be made of many things. "We're probably looking at multiple factors that came together in the past season in a perfect storm."

This is not the first time in history that honey bees have disappeared at alarming rates. “There have been problems like this in America on and off since the 1890s.” A particularly nasty die-off lasted from 1963-1965, putting a significant number of bee-keepers out of business. Mass hive abandonment was formerly called Disappearing Disease. In those days, the tools for investigating and finding the cause of die-offs were nonexistent. Therefore, scientists simply recorded what happened and kept their fingers crossed, hoping it would all be over soon. But today, with all modern technological advances and innovations in research strategy, the fact that a cause hasn’t been identified is frustrating to bee-keepers and experts alike. “We can’t just say, hey it went away before, it’ll go away this time.” The importance of honey bees in America can hardly be over-emphasized. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion each year in added crop value. Specialty crops such as almonds and other nuts, as well as apples, rely entirely upon the services of the nonnative species. Luckily this year there were enough bees available to meet pollination demands. But if CCD continues, will there be enough bees next year?

CANADA - The bee business is being battered by mysterious deaths that result in low honey yields. After losing unusually large numbers of their bees to unexplained deaths, beekeepers across Alberta are facing honey harvests projected to be 20 to 30 per cent below average. Alberta Agriculture and Food is conducting a study into the causes of the high bee deaths, expected to be completed in about a month. Preliminary findings have ruled out starvation and colony collapse disorder, in which a hive's adult bees disappear inexplicably, leaving larvae and pupae to die. Possible causes include the long winter and an abundance of mites, bacteria and viruses. Several diseases have become immune to conventional chemical treatment, forcing beekeepers to rethink the way they medicate their hives.

U.S. - Officials say bees are not dying as fast as they were last year, but say this fall will be a critical test. Some beekeepers have lost 90 percent of their hive populations since last fall. Experts say the bees might be dying because of diseases brought to the U.S. from other countries, or because of stress placed on the bees by being moved from farm to farm. Because of the shortage of bees, local farmers say they are now paying more for beehives to pollinate their crops.

CALIFORNIA - Are the bees dying off because they're too busy? California bee farmers who let their hives take it easy find their colonies are thriving. Canada is slightly better positioned to resist CCD, because migratory beekeepers move bees shorter distances and fewer times per season.

INDIANA has been spared from the bee disorder so far. Reports of unusual colony deaths have surfaced in at least 22 states and Indiana initially was listed as affected, but that was later changed.

A virus has emerged as a strong suspect in the hunt for the mystery disease killing off North American honeybees. Genetic research showed that Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus turned up regularly in hives affected by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Over the last three years, between 50% and 90% of commercial bee colonies in the US have been affected by CCD. The honeybee decline can be traced back at least 20 years, and the introducton of the parasitic varroa mite is one of the principal causes. But in 2004, beekeepers began seeing and reporting a new and serious phenomenon, in which entire colonies would desert their hives, leaving behind their brood and stocks of food - a syndrome that was later labelled Colony Collapse Disorder. "This virus appears to be strongly associated with CCD, but whether it's the causative agent or just a very good marker (of the syndrome) is the next question we need to address." And if it is a cause, it might not be the only one. "I still believe that multiple factors are involved in CCD and what we need to do is look at combinations such as parasites, stress and nutrition (together with the virus)." IAPV was first identified in Israel, but the symptoms it produces in bees there are quite different. Whether this is down to a small genetic difference in the virus between continents, or whether IAPV is acting in concert with different environmental factors, is an open question. Also open is the question of how the virus arrived in the US. One finger of suspicion points to Australia, from where the US began importing honeybees in 2004 - the very year that CCD appeared in US hives. If IAPV does turn out to be a major factor causing CCD, there may be little that scientists or beekeepers can do about it. "We're unlikely to come up with a treatment for viruses in bees and so beekeepers are likely just to have to keep the other things that might affect CCD, such as mites, under control."

7/26/07 -
The reported bee die-offs this past winter may reflect an unfortunate combination of familiar problems, such as poor weather, drought, and tiny mites. "If it was a new pathogen, a new parasite, we would have found it by now. We're six months into this. There are a lot of very intelligent people in the research community looking at this. And nothing is sticking out. There's no sore thumb that says, 'Hey, I'm the guilty party.'" Meanwhile at Washington State University, a reputable bee scientist is running fresh experiments to see if pesticide buildup in honeycombs is behind the mysterious collapse of some bee colonies.

CANADA - An Asian parasite that's been blamed for bee deaths in Europe has been found in Canadian hives.

Overuse of insecticides by desperate beekeepers may be knocking out massive numbers of bees in the attempt to curb mites.

OHIO - Problems with colony collapse disorder (CCD) still loom large in much of the world, but the buzz in central Ohio is that the bees have had a good late spring and early summer. Many Ohio beekeepers suffered massive losses at the beginning of the season from a winter kill caused by an excessively rainy summer and fall last year; a warm start to winter; and a severe, late cold snap in early April of this year. Despite concerns to the contrary, CCD has not been indicated in any of the local losses, although beekeepers will be keeping a wary eye out for any potential problems that might arise.

7/24/07 -
U.S. researchers have been able to quickly debunk one claim for the demise of commercial bee colonies this past year, cell phones. The culprit is more likely improper nutrition, say researchers. Specifically, unfavorable weather, too dry in the fall and too warm in the winter, kept plants from growing back in the east and in the Midwest. That meant no pollen for bees to feed on in winter and spring. "When spring came and they started to fly day after day, the colonies began to collapse." The solution: a nutritional supplement, developed jointly by USDA researchers and SAFE R & D. The supplement is a brown paste that the bees seem to love. The man who helped create it says it's made of proteins and sugar. "What we're finding is by supporting the bees' nutrition, we can help mitigate the effects of the diseases and the mites by giving them good nutrition." Researchers also believe the supplement will help bees overcome stress they experience from moving place to place, pollinating everything from almonds to zucchini.

7/20/07 -
A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years. The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae. Researchers have analyzed thousands of samples from stricken hives in many countries. "We started in 2000 with the hypothesis that it was pesticides, but soon ruled it out." Pesticide traces were present only in a tiny proportion of samples and bee colonies were also dying in areas many miles from cultivated land. They then ruled out the varroa mite, which is easy to see and which was not present in most of the affected hives. For a long time they thought a parasite called nosema apis, common in wet weather, was killing the bees. "We saw the spores, but the symptoms were very different and it was happening in dry weather too." Then they decided to sequence the parasite's DNA and discovered it was an Asian variant, nosema ceranae. Asian honeybees are less vulnerable to it, but it can kill European bees in a matter of days in laboratory conditions. "Nosema ceranae is far more dangerous and lives in heat and cold. A hive can become infected in two months and the whole colony can collapse in six to 18 months." "We've no doubt at all it's nosema ceranae and we think 50 percent of Spanish hives are infected." Spain, with 2.3 million hives, is home to a quarter of the European Union's bees. The team has also identified this parasite in bees from Austria, Slovenia and other parts of Eastern Europe and assume it has invaded from Asia over a number of years. Now it seems to have crossed the Atlantic and is present in Canada and Argentina. The Spanish researchers have not tested samples from the United States, where bees have also gone missing. Treatment for nosema ceranae is effective and cheap - 1 euro ($1.40) a hive twice a year - but beekeepers first have to be convinced the parasite is the problem. Another theory points a finger at mobile phone aerials, but the team notes bees use the angle of the sun to navigate and not electromagnetic frequencies. Other elements, such as drought or misapplied treatments, may play a part in lowering bees' resistance, but they are convinced the Asian parasite is the chief assassin.

6/10/07 -
The latest information on colony collapse disorder, including a list of frequently asked questions, is available at the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium Web site.

PENNSYLVANIA - Unusual weather, more than the still-mysterious condition called colony collapse disorder, appears to be the main culprit behind honeybee deaths this winter, according to several apiarists in Western Pennsylvania. A warm January tricked many queens into laying larger numbers of eggs. When February arrived, bringing with it weeks of below-freezing temperatures, the adult bees faced the challenge of keeping a bigger-than-normal "brood nest" at a toasty 95 degrees. The bees do that by flexing their wing muscles to generate body heat that keeps the center of the hive warm. One bee-keeper took apart one of his dead colonies, taking out the wooden frames on which the bees build their honeycombs. Once the adult bees had eaten the honey from the combs nearest the "brood nest," they couldn't move to the next frame because they would have left the eggs, larva and pupa exposed to the cold. "They starved to death even though there was more food just an inch away." The presence of so many dead bees in his hives was one pretty definitive sign that he was not seeing colony collapse, he said. "These are nothing like the conditions migratory beekeepers are facing." Migratory beekeepers are those who transport their hives from location to location so their bees can pollinate farm crops and orchards. It is those traveling colonies that appear to have been most heavily affected by colony collapse. In late February, however, some nonmigratory beekeepers in the Mid-Atlantic states and in the Pacific Northeast began reporting colony losses. "The bees seemed to be under a lot of stress last fall. That made them nasty. When you took the top off a colony, they would go for you."

NEW YORK - the state, the second-largest producer of apples in the country, has about 700 commercial orchards, including seven in the Lower Hudson Valley, with more than 7 million trees. The president of the New York Apple Association, issued a statement three weeks ago recognizing the "anxiety that there will not be enough bees to pollinate the crop" this year. Prices for bees have doubled in the past 10 years, and he has noticed that the trucked-in migratory bees seem weaker, creating a "lower hum than usual" among the blossoms. One keeper suspected something was wrong in January, when he noticed his bees weren't leaving their hives on the unseasonably warm days. He found four of the colonies dead inside their boxes - probably from mites, he said - but four others apparently succumbed to Colony Collapse Disorder. "The hives are full of honey and there was a queen and a few bees in there, but the rest disappeared," he said, noting that no other bees have gone near the fully stocked hive, either. Some keepers think entomologists should focus on migratory beekeepers in the efforts to curb the crisis. They say the booming business of trucking bees up and down the country every few weeks to pollinate crops has confused and weakened the insects, making them susceptible to problems they spread to nonmigratory colonies. Even without Colony Collapse Disorder, which has not yet had a significant impact on the Lower Hudson Valley, beekeepers still battle resistant mites and bacteria, as well as cheap honey flowing from China and other countries. After years of warning that commercial beekeeping practices would decimate the world's honeybee population, one man has decided to leave Rockland County in July to open a 330-acre honeybee sanctuary in southern Illinois. He said his natural methods have kept winter colony losses to a 15 percent average over 10 years, compared with the 40 percent reported by commercial beekeepers. He opposes the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, along with taking too much honey from the hives. "The bees have been terribly exploited, trucked around, all their honey taken. It's not surprising that their immune system is breaking down rapidly," he said. "We are in serious trouble. The bee is not a being that should be commercialized."

OHIO - statewide, the honeybee die-off rate was 72 percent — and touched every county. Ohio's honeybee losses had more to do with harsh winter weather than colony collapse disorder, which has been in the news nationally and occurs when adult bees abandon the hive for unknown reasons. The CCD disorder primarily has plagued honeybee colonies trucked from Florida to California for large-scale pollination of fruit and vegetable crops. Hobby beekeepers weren't hit as hard. But the large winter die-off and increasing environmental stress still has beekeepers, fruit farmers and people who study bees worried. There's a 96- to 100-hour window when fruit blossoms are open and capable of being pollinated. "When you're growing acres and acres of fruit, you can't depend on wild pollinators. We need honeybees to pollinate the fruit on time." Colony Collapse Disorder first came to the attention of beekeepers last year, but a state beekeeping specialist said similar disorders have been described as far back as 1915. State apiarists estimate that only 5 to 6 percent of Ohio's 72 percent die-off this winter was due to colony collapse.

KENTUCKY - Last year was one of the worst years for bees ever. Bees died by the thousands during the winter, and production is down. But a longtime bee-keeper doesn’t attribute the loss to the mysterious malady that’s afflicting beekeepers across the nation. He attributes them to weather, a one-two punch of too much rain and too much heat. His theory is that last year, heavy rain washed nectar from the blooms, depriving the bees of their food supply. And the enervating heat of summer left the bees in a torpid state. Bees are like people in at least one respect. “When it’s hot, they stay in the hive and don’t work.” So the bees didn’t make enough honey for the winter. As a result they starved to death. His losses differ from those reported nationally in that the bees died in the hive. Colony collapse disorder, where the bees mostly abandon the hives, doesn’t seem to have hit Kentucky.

MINNESOTA - whatever it was that was causing bees to die has seemingly come and gone. Honey production last year in Minnesota from producers with five or more colonies was up 13 percent from the year before. However, nationwide honey production declined from 2005 by 11 percent to 155 million pounds. "We just don't have as many beekeepers anymore because of the bee health problems and just because it's harder to make a profit from it." The Agriculture Department estimates there are 139,600 to 212,000 beekeepers nationwide. Most are hobbyists with fewer than 25 hives, and about 4 percent are part-timers who keep more than 25 but less than 300 hives. Those who have reported the heaviest losses associated with CCD are large commercial migratory beekeepers, some of whom have lost 50 percent to 90 percent of their colonies. Surviving colonies are often so weak that they cannot pollinate or produce honey. "There's definitely a big difference in the concern level of a hobby beekeeper and a commercial beekeeper." There are about 1,600 commercial beekeeping operations in the United States that produce about 60 percent of the nation's honey.

BBC video about the American bee die-off.

CANADA - Stung by a winter that wiped out much of their beehive stock, Niagara beekeepers say they are slowly returning to normal levels. Many beekeepers last month reported significant losses in their bee populations. The mysterious deaths were initially blamed on colony collapse disorder, an unexplained phenomenon that killed off thousands of bees in the United States. Experts now say the cause appears to be unsettled winter weather that likely confused the dormant insects. "December was mild and it tricked a lot of bees into thinking it was spring, so they began brood rearing. When the cold spell hit in mid-January and February, it did a lot of the bee colonies in." Meanwhile, research in the U.S. suggests a virus or fungus may be responsible for the deaths south of the border. Some American beekeepers lost more than 90 per cent of their bee stocks. Decreases in bee populations have also been recorded across Europe and parts of Asia.

5/20/07 -
Melamine? - Federal scientists are researching whether the same industrial chemicals blamed for sickening and killing thousands of pets are responsible for decimating the honeybee population. No link has been found, but researchers at the Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory and the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine are testing commercial bee feed for melamine-related compounds and doing feed tests on honeybees. Beekeepers generally need to provide supplemental feed to bees at certain times of the year. One of those times could have been last fall, shortly before the honeybees began dying off. Investigators do not believe honeybees in the United States are dying for the same reason as populations in Europe and Latin America but do not know if the bee problem is related to honeybee die-offs in 2004, the 1970s or the 1890s.

5/14/07 -
Colony Collapse Disorder has wiped out an estimated 25% of the 2 million-plus commercial honeybee hives in the U.S. "The thing that really scares me about this is that we have no idea what this is. We're all nervous. Hopefully, somebody will figure this out.” Even without a widespread CCD die-off locally, farmers and beekeepers are starting to see a ripple effect. Beekeepers are having a hard time finding enough bees to fill their orders, while farmers are paying high prices for bee hives to pollinate their orchards. The CCD die-off hasn't been nearly as pronounced in Michigan as in Florida and in Pennsylvania, where beekeepers reporting CCD cased lost more than 70 percent of their hives. "I think Michigan is one of the best-off states.” A large majority of CCD die-offs are being found in migratory honeybees — colonies moved by operators to different areas around the country where they're needed by farmers and growers.

Bee pollination is increasingly a highly concentrated industry. Rather than a dispersed system of local hives, a few commercial operators now haul tens of billions of bees from coast to coast in 18-wheelers .... First, the bees themselves have been bred into single-purpose superpollinators, rather than bees with multiple functions (make honey, feed the queen, maintain the hives, and extend the species). The industrial bees have lost the diversity and natural traits of wild bees. Second, constant trucking puts stress on the bees, suppressing their immune systems and making them vulnerable to viruses, mites, and diseases. As part of their forced migration, the bees are fed a limited diet of high fructose corn syrup – about as healthy as humans trying to live on Cokes. It appears that the industry is trading long-term colony health for short term bucks. In suburbia, the destruction of natural habitats with sprawl, and the increased and indiscriminate use of lethal and maiming pesticides in order to have that "perfect lawn" may also be the cause of colony collapse.

CANADA - Twenty-seven U.S. states have been affected by the bee die-off, reporting losses of up to 90 per cent, and the ailment seems to be moving north. New Brunswick has lost about 85 per cent of its bee colonies. Ontario beekeepers have lost about one-third, and Quebec 40 per cent so far. "There have been some heavy losses in some areas of Canada but they haven't been attributed to CCD because there are a lot of other possible causes for why these bees would die." Some blame pesticide or a new parasite, others climate change. There is even one theory that cellphone radiation is responsible. It's not just a few dead bees in a colony. The whole colony dies off, and it can happen in just a week.

UTAH - The recent buzz about bees is striking many Utah beekeepers and bee experts as bizarre, given the relative health of their colonies this year. There are about 250 beekeepers registered in Utah who oversee a total of about 30,000 colonies. So far local beekeepers seem to be holding up just fine. "I haven't seen any colony collapse locally. Some of the bigger beekeepers are reporting that their losses this year are less than last year. I know that the national studies (on CCD) do include Utah (as an impacted state). But personally I don't know the source of that. I'm not seeing it." The top suspected causes of the die-off are a parasite, an unknown virus, some kind of bacteria, pesticides or a one-two combination of the top four, with one weakening the honeybee and the second killing it. A quick experiment with some of the devastated hives makes pesticides seem less likely. In the recent experiment, scientists irradiated some hard-hit hives and reintroduced new bee colonies. More bees thrived in the irradiated hives than in the non-irradiated ones, pointing toward some kind of disease or parasite that was killed by radiation. The parasite hypothesis has history and some new findings to give it a boost. A mite practically wiped out the wild honeybee in the United States in the 1990s. And another new one-celled parasitic fungus was found last week in a tiny sample of dead bees. The parasite nosema ceranae may be a factor, but it cannot be the sole cause. The fungus has been seen before, sometimes in colonies that were healthy. "There are many, many opinions about what it (Colony Collapse Disorder) might be, and whether or not it's really even one thing. Maybe it's a pathogen, maybe it's something about the way the bees are being handled that's increasing stress levels and making them more susceptible to opportunistic pathogens, maybe it's some effects of pesticides, maybe it's too much in-breeding. Nobody is really sure exactly what it is, so it's hard to know also whether or not things are going to get worse, or better. Because we really don't know what's going on." "The way we grow agriculture is not amenable to natural pollination. These days, a lot of beekeepers don't even harvest honey. They drive around with their truckload of bees, renting pollinators." The California almond crop alone may bring in more for beekeepers than the honey industry.

GEORGIA - the colony collapse phenomenon resembles many of the ways bees have always died but for one notable exception: The empty hive is shunned by other bees and insect scavengers. "I was very much a skeptic about this thing when I first heard of it." Skepticism vanished when he obtained honeycomb from a collapsed hive and put it in an area heavily populated with bees and bee parasites, including wax moths. "Nothing would go near it. Ordinarily, other bees would be robbing that honey; moths would be all over it. But nothing."

BEES - in the past year, 24 U.S. States have reported Honey Bee disappearances. Government and science authorities are calling it "Colony Collapse Disorder." Beekeepers have reported losses ranging from 60% to 100% of their bee colonies. A third of the food supply in the United States - and actually the world - is directly related to the honey bee: Fruits, vegetables, nuts. Then, there is probably another 30% of what we consume that honey bees are indirectly responsible for. Take the milk we drink. The cows have to have hay. They need to eat clover and alfalfa to produce milk. This isn't just an isolated incident in the United States. Canada has reported similar problems, along with Spain, Poland, and Brazil. In Taiwan, about 10 million bees have gone AWOL in the last 2 months. Part of the mystery is that beekeepers aren't finding millions of dead bees in the hives and on the ground; they are flying away from the hive and not returning. Experts have no real idea what causes CCD. Alleged causes range from harmful pesticides and increased solar radiation through ozone thinning, to falling queen fertility and use of unauthorized bee treatments. German researchers recently suggested mobile phone radiation may interfere with bees' "navigation systems", resulting in an inability to find their way back to the hive. A recently published report is blaming 'Varroa mites", which have piercing and sucking mouthparts and feed on the blood of honey bee adults, larvae and pupae.

Colony Collapse Disorder is said to follow a unique pattern with several strange characteristics. Bees seem to desert their hive or forget to return home from their foraging runs. The hive population dwindles and then collapses once there are too few bees to maintain it. Typically, no dead bee carcasses lie in or around the afflicted hive, although the queen and a few attendants may remain. The defect, whatever it is, afflicts the adult bee. Larvae continue to develop normally, even as a hive is in the midst of collapse. Stricken colonies may appear normal, as seen from the outside, but when beekeepers look inside the hive box, they find a small number of mature bees caring for a large number of younger and developing bees that remain. Normally, only the oldest bees go out foraging for nectar and pollen, while younger workers act as nurse bees caring for the larvae and cleaning the comb. A healthy hive in mid-summer has between 40,000 and 80,000 bees. Perhaps the most ominous thing about CCD, and one of its most distinguishing characteristics, is that bees and other animals living nearby refrain from raiding the honey and pollen stored away in the dead hive. In previously observed cases of hive collapse (and it is certainly not a rare occurrence) these energy stores are quickly stolen. But with CCD the invasion of hive pests such as the wax moth and small hive beetle is noticeably delayed. Among the possible culprits behind CCD are: a fungus, a virus, a bacterium, a pesticide (or combination of pesticides), GMO crops bearing pesticide genes, erratic weather, or even cell phone radiation. Nearly all beekeepers use a variety of chemical and pesticide treatments on their hive boxes out of sheer necessity. A pantheon of mites, fungi and microbes prey on bees. Info at this link says that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that big commercial operations coax into a larger than normal body size. “We’ve been pushing them too hard. And we’re starving them out by feeding them artificially and moving them great distances.” The pollination of the American almond crop, which occurs in February and March, is the largest managed pollination event in the world, requiring more than one third of all the managed honey bees in the United States. Massive numbers of hives are transported for this and other key pollinations, including apples and blueberries. (Has links to over 30 other bee / insect articles)

Scientists looking into the dramatic decline of the honeybee population in the United States say they are baffled by the developments. But they told the U.S. Congress in March that the drop is threatening the production of a significant portion of the U.S. food supply that relies on honeybee pollination.. "These outbreaks of unexplained colony collapse pose a threat to the pollination industry, the production of commercial honey, and the production of at least 30 percent of our nation's crops. Furthermore, with pests and diseases of bees increasing over the last few decades, we have reached critical point for the bee industries." The United States is not alone in honeybee loss. Canada and parts of Europe are also experiencing unexplained honeybee death, but they do not know if it is part of the same phenomenon. "I know it is a growing problem. This is a global issue and being recognized as a problem."

Crops that could survive the loss of bees -
COCOA - Don't worry, your chocolate isn't going anywhere. Cocoa, derived from the Cacao plant, pollinates from small insects.
COFFEE - In most instances where pollination of coffee was studied, the honeybee was the most important - however, Africanized 'killer' bees can also do the job, and in some cases do it better. There is an Arabic coffee bean that self pollinates.
CORN - Corn does not require bees for pollination, however, corn prices may inadvertently increase because of the lack of other foods available.
SOYBEAN - Prepare yourself for meals of Tofu. Soybeans self-pollinate.
SUGAR - doesn't rely on the honey bee.
ORANGE JUICE - Navel oranges don't need bees, but a lot of other orange varieties do need bees to pollinate their fruit. The problem is, OJ futures have already had a huge run-up in the last year because of the late frost that killed the greater part of crops.
The ballot is still out on whether or not the disappearing honey bees will actually cause a global impact or not. More data will come in the summertime when farmers report their yields (or lack thereof). There is also a huge debate on whether other pollinators can take the place of honey bees.

BEES - In 2005, for the first time in 85 years, the United States was forced to import honeybees in order to meet its pollination demands. The past year in America, at least 22 states have reported honey bee disappearances. "If honeybees numbers continued to decline at the rates documented from 1989 to 1996, managed honeybees ... will cease to exist in the United States by 2035." "We believe that some form of stress may be suppressing immune systems of bees, ultimately contributing to CCD." The main four types of stresses identified were migratory stresses, mites, pathogens and pesticides.

MARYLAND - BEES - Washington County is number one in the state for orchard production, so while the disappearing of the bees may not cause a big problem yet, experts say it could pose a major issue for crops in the future. "Washington County is very interested in the health of honey bees as far as pollinating apples, and peaches and so on. We don't see trees without apples, but we're seeing decline in the yield, so that is a concern." Nationwide “honey bee populations have been declining from viruses and tracheal mites. In other words, infesting colonies.” It's called “Colony Collapse Disorder” and it's cropping up all over the country. Scientists don't know where the parasites come from, but they believe humans have helped them become so widespread by moving the hives all over the country.

PENNSYLVANIA - In a few months the bee die-off could impact Pennsylvania's $45 million apple industry, the country's fourth largest, along with crops such as strawberries, cucumbers, pumpkins and cranberries. Without bees, some fruits and vegetables simply will not grow. "It sounds like it's more widespread than we thought. It's a very serious situation. Some of the numbers are just horrifying." "We called it Colony Collapse Disorder because calling it a disease may be misleading until we know the cause. We are pretty sure, but not certain, that it is a contagious disease." The situation could worsen as the weather warms. "Beekeepers in cold climates do not look at their colonies in the winter.Many are likely to be surprised when they look in the spring.”

"We have seen a lot of things happen in 40 years, but this is the epitome of it all." One beekeeper who traveled with two truckloads of bees to California to help pollinate almond trees found nearly all of his bees dead upon arrival. Normally, a weakened bee colony would be immediately overrun by bees from other colonies or by pests going after the hive's honey. That's not the case with the stricken colonies, which might not be touched for at least two weeks. "That is a real abnormality." An analysis of dissected bees turned up an alarmingly high number of foreign fungi, bacteria and other organisms and weakened immune systems.

FLORIDA - In a matter of weeks, one bee keeper lost just over 2,000 of his 3,000 hives. The yard of his small honey farm near Tampa Bay, is littered with empty boxes… "It may be that the honeybee has become the victim of these insecticides that are meant for other pests. If we don't figure this out real quick, it's going to wipe out our food supply." In the old days, crops would be pollinated by bees living in the woods around the fertile fields, but housing developers have gobbled up much of the natural habitat. "The squash crops that we grow have a male and female bloom, and the bee has to visit...to make it pollinate and produce. We're going to have a hard time finding rental bees to aid in this pollination and if it's as critical as it looks like it will be, I probably won't even plant anything this spring." Tales abound of beekeepers who have already given up after a calamitous few months trying to pollinate the huge almond crop in California. Some bankrupt beekeepers do not have the money to get themselves home, let alone their equipment.

More on the bee die-off - Scientists are reporting a dramatic loss of honeybee colonies. Some beekeepers say they're losing 20 percent of their bees, others say half, some say 80 percent. They open the hives to find the bees dead, or gone. When the bees get sick, they'll instinctively leave the hive to try and protect the others. More and more bees are doing just that, and no one is sure why. The die-off is UNPRECEDENTED. The normally resilient bees dissected showed traces of not one or two diseases, but nearly every disease known to affect them over the past century. They had ALL the diseases at once, a sign their immune systems have been compromised. "We are seeing something very similar in terms of bee AIDS here. The bees are immuno-compromised, being stressed somehow." Some of the stress could be related to travel, since the bees are being trucked or flown across the country every spring to pollinate different crops. Some could be related to the severe weather swings we've seen over the past few years. But many questions remain unanswered. Scientists working on the case don't think this is just a cyclical thing. It's UNCOMMON, UNUSUAL, and frightening to everyone associated with the industry. Bees are partially responsible for one out of every three bites of food the average American eats. Without the bees, crops such as almonds are misshapen, discolored, or unhealthy. The yield would be drastically reduced, less attractive, and more expensive. And this is a scenario that could play out later this year. You may see higher prices, and/or less fresh fruit and vegetables on the shelves.

The situation is different in the United States than in most countries, here bees are dying in such dramatic numbers that the economic consequences could soon be dire. No one knows what is causing the bees to perish, but some experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor.

TAIWAN - 4/26/07 - Around 10 million bees have gone awol in the last two months, with farmers in three regions reporting heavy losses. One beekeeper on the northeast coast said that six million insects had vanished "for no reason", while another in the south said "80 of his 200 bee boxes had been emptied". While the exact reason for the exodus is unknown, experts say "volatile weather" may be to blame. The temperature recently swung from 20°C to 30°C over a few days, and this may have done for the bees. "You can see climate change really clearly these days in Taiwan." The impact of the bees' absence has yet to be felt, although it could have a serious effect on pollination.

April 2007 - For many entomologists, the bee crisis is a wake-up call. By relying on a single species for pollination, US agriculture has put itself in a precarious position, they say. A resilient agricultural system requires diverse pollinators. This speaks to a larger conservation issue. Some evidence indicates a decline in the estimated 4,500 potential alternate pollinators – native species of butterflies, wasps. and other bees. The blame for that sits squarely on human activity – habitat loss, pesticide use, and imported disease – but much of this could be offset by different land-use practices… The stress on honeybees grew as native and wild pollinators diminished and farmers came to rely more on honeybees. We've put "all of our pollination eggs in the honeybee basket."

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CANADA - A wet fall, a long winter and an influx of invasive species are the usual suspects investigators have rounded up in search for clues to a malady crippling honeybee populations in southern Ontario and other parts of Canada. But so far Canadian apiarists aren't sure whether the hive losses in this country are connected with those in the United States and Europe, where a mystery illness is causing honeybee colonies to leave their hives and never return. Beekeepers from 24 U.S. states have reported losses of up to 90 per cent of their hives from the mystery ailment — called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD — that investigators say is UNLIKE ANYTHING THEY HAVE ENCOUNTERED BEFORE. Leaving the hive to die is not uncommon for honeybees. But with CCD, pollen and honey are abundant in the hives and yet other bees are staying far away, suggesting something else is at work. It's a different situation in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, where there has been little pollen found in the abandoned hives. A wet fall may have led to a decrease in pollen and nectar production, which in turn led hives to produce a smaller brood. The smaller hives likely put greater stress on older, adult bees more susceptible to disease, and an unusually long winter added to the stress when the bees clustered over the winter. Another possibility is that there are some chemicals that may be causing bees to forget their way home. A German study this week offered another, less conventional, culprit: radiation from cellphones and cellphone towers. Honeybees play a role in pollinating a number of Canadian fruits, vegetables and crops, particularly cucumbers, melons, blueberries and cranberries and canola.

SPAIN, PORTUGAL - BEES - honey bees have been disappearing in huge numbers in Spain and Poland. Adding to the European mystery is that Spain has very large commercial beekeeper operations with at least 3 million colonies of honey bees, similar to the United States. But Poland’s 400,000 hives are largely raised on individual farms where smaller bee colonies are separated from each other. If the answer were disease, you would not expect Poland’s separated hives to be plagued by large numbers of honey bee disappearances as in Spain and the United States. The two European countries with the largest honey bee populations are France and Italy. It might be significant that those two countries banned certain pesticides in recent years when beekeepers there became convinced that systemic pesticides were killing off honey bees. And so far, neither France nor Italy has yet reported the collapse of honey bee hives.

EUROPE - Now in Spain, hundreds of thousands of colonies have been lost and beekeepers in northern Croatia estimated that five million bees had died in just 48 hours. In Poland, the Swietokrzyskie beekeeper association has estimated that up to 40 per cent of bees were wiped out last year. Greece, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal have also reported heavy losses. "Bees are vital to bio diversity. There are 130,000 plants for example for which bees are essential to pollination, from melons to pumpkins, raspberries and all kind of fruit trees - as well as animal fodder - like clover. Bees are more important than poultry in terms of human nutrition. Bees from one hive can visit a million flowers within a 400 square kilometre area in just one day. Bees are not only working for our welfare, they are also perfect indicators of the state of the environment. We should take note."

BRITAIN - MOTHS - Research suggests that two-thirds of the nation's larger moth species have declined over the past four decades. "Moths represent the hidden wealth of wildlife on all our doorsteps. We must reverse these declines. If we don't, the outlook is grim. The consequences for Britain's wildlife would be too dire to contemplate. Without moths, plants would not be pollinated and our garden birds would go hungry." Last year, a study suggested that moth populations in the UK were in rapid decline. However, it was not able to pinpoint the reason behind the insects' demise but suggested that the main suspects were habitat destruction, pesticides, pollution and climate change.

INDIA - Last year, mango trees in Andhra Pradesh flowered three months early because of the rising heat. A few years ago, bees in the Himalayas were impacted by similar erratic flowering patterns, leading to a big drop in the honey supply. Weather has impacted not just birds, ladybirds, butterflies across the country and soon mammals will be next."

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The public does not recognize the magnitude of the threat that these mysterious events present but we should be more than alarmed. Scientists have been observing how one species after another is disappearing from our planet but never before has one with such a direct bearing on food production been threatened. Extinction of a species doesn't just affect the group that disappears - it tends to alter much more. Bees do make excellent biological geiger counters. They are especially valuable perennial mobile biomonitors of the local environment. Thus, with their wide foraging range and collecting activities, they are natural monitoring agents for investigating the ebb and flow of floral resources and toxic substances within the environment.

March 2007 - The bee tragedy, noticeably starting as many as six years ago, has suddenly escalated since October 2006. What was noticed six years ago was the steady disappearance in numbers of our natural pollinators — those insects, birds, and bats that cause our flowers to become fruits. Since October 2006, a massive disappearance of honeybees on an unprecedented scale has occurred. Not only is a bee not to be found, but also the beebread, honey, and wax, usually scavenged by other insects, are left untouched. Colonies in 24 states including New York, California, and most of the southern states, plus Spain and Poland are afflicted. "Are honeybees the canary in the coal mine? What are honeybees trying to tell us that we humans should be paying more attention to?"

Mystery of the vanishing bees - In 24 states across America, beekeepers have gone through shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation's most profitable. "I have never seen anything like it. Box after box after box are just empty. There's nobody home." The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country. Beekeepers have fought regional bee crises before, but this is the first U.S. national affliction. In a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold. As researchers scramble to find answers to the syndrome they have decided to call "colony collapse disorder," growers are becoming openly nervous about the capability of the commercial bee industry to meet the growing demand for bees to pollinate dozens of crops, from almonds to avocados to kiwis. Along with recent stresses on the bees themselves, as well as on an industry increasingly under consolidation, some fear this disorder may force a breaking point for even large beekeepers. A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. "Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food." The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent. Beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the off-season to be normal. Beekeepers are the nomads of the agriculture world, working in obscurity in their white protective suits and frequently trekking around the country with their insects packed into 18-wheel trucks, looking for pollination work. Once the domain of hobbyists with a handful of backyard hives, beekeeping has become increasingly commercial and consolidated. Over the last two decades, the number of beehives, now estimated by the U.S. Agriculture Department to be 2.4 million, has dropped by a quarter and the number of beekeepers by half. Pressure has been building on the bee industry. The cost of maintaining hives, also known as colonies, is rising, along with the strain on bees of being bred to pollinate rather than just make honey. And beekeepers are losing out to suburban sprawl in their quest for spots where bees can forage for nectar to stay healthy and strong during the pollination season. "There less beekeepers, less bees, yet more crops to pollinate," Browning said. "While this sounds sweet for the bee business, with so much added loss and expense due to disease, pests and higher equipment costs, profitability is actually falling." About 15 worried beekeepers convened in Florida this month to brainstorm with researchers on how to cope with the extensive bee losses. Investigators are collecting samples and exploring a range of theories for the colony collapses, including viruses, a fungus and poor bee nutrition. They are also studying a group of pesticides that were banned in some European countries, including France, to see if they are somehow affecting bees' innate ability to find their way back home. It could just be that the bees are stressed out. Bees are being raised to survive a shorter off-season, to be ready to pollinate once the almond bloom begins in February. That has most likely lowered their immunity to viruses. Mites have also damaged bee colonies, and the insecticides used to try to kill mites are harming the ability of queen bees to spawn as many worker bees. The queens are living half as long as they did just a few years ago. Researchers are also concerned that the willingness of beekeepers to truck their colonies from coast to coast could be adding to bees' stress, helping to spread viruses and mites and otherwise accelerating whatever is afflicting them. Dennis van Engelsdorp, a bee specialist with the state of Pennsylvania who is part of the team studying the bee colony collapses, said the "strong immune suppression" investigators have observed "could be the AIDS of the bee industry," making bees more susceptible to other diseases that eventually kill them off. Growers have tried before to do without bees. In past decades, they have used everything from giant blowers to helicopters to mortar shells to try to spread pollen across the plants. More recently, researchers have been trying to develop "self-compatible" almond trees that will require fewer bees. One company is even trying to commercialize a "blue orchard bee" that is stingless and works at colder temperatures than the honeybee. Beekeepers have endured two major mite infestations since the 1980s, which felled many hobbyist beekeepers, and three cases of unexplained disappearing disorders as far back as 1894. But those episodes were confined to small areas, van Engelsdorp said. Today, the industry is in a weaker position to deal with new stresses. A flood of imported honey from China and Argentina has depressed honey prices and put more pressure on beekeepers to take to the road in search of pollination contracts. Beekeepers are trucking tens of billions of bees around the country every year. California's almond crop, by far the biggest in the world, now draws more than half of the country's bee colonies in February. The crop has been both a boon to commercial beekeeping and a burden, as pressure mounts for the industry to fill growing demand. Spread over 580,000 acres, or about 235,000 hectares, stretched across 300 miles, or 480 kilometers, of California's Central Valley, the crop is expected to grow to 680,000 acres by 2010. Beekeepers now earn many times more by renting their bees out to pollinate crops than they do producing honey. Two years ago a shortage of bees for the California almond crop caused bee rental prices to jump, drawing beekeepers from the East Coast. This year, the price for a bee colony is about $135, up from $55 in 2004. A typical bee colony ranges from 15,000 to 30,000 bees. But beekeepers' costs are also on the rise. In the past decade, fuel, equipment and even bee boxes have doubled and tripled in price. The cost to control mites has also risen, along with the price of queen bees, which cost about $15 each, up from $10 three years ago. To give bees energy while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup carried in tanker-sized trucks costing $12,000 per load. Half the country's bees are in Calfornia, helping pollinate huge crops, especially almonds. But there's trouble this year as California beeS "Disappeared. There's nothing there. There's no bees on the ground anywhere. There's just a completely empty hive." Scientists fear that everything from viruses and mites to fungi and pesticides could be to blame for the mysterious "colony collapse disorder," with bees dying off by the hundreds of thousands. "since we live in a global economy with instant travel of stuff, we have all the diseases from all over the world in the United States."

The French experience with pesticides and bees - This seems to fit with the fungus (really a microsporidian protozoan) theory - the bee immune system is compromised and they became prey to a range of problems. "Mystery Disease? Sounds a lot like poison to me. The real mystery is why we are sitting by like timid dummies while the big corporations spin this one. Cell phones? Really? I am a beekeeper in Central Massachusetts who read about Colony Collapse in February. Something in one of the reports reminded me of a description of how termites are said to be killed by a new class of pesticides known as neonicitinoids. I went to my local farmers' coop, picked up labels from the various insecticide bottles and Googled the ingredients with 'honeybees,' 'sublethal' and 'organic.' A product called 'Merit' containing the neuro-toxin 'Imidacloprid' came up as a soil treatment for fruit trees. Other products with other cute names were being advertised for use on turf to kill grubs (also earthworms.) The labels promise that all sorts of insects, including adult japanese beetles will be controlled for 12 months (read systemic.) Visit your local Walmart and garden center and you will find it on all the shelves. They sell more of it every year according to the Bayer Corporation. You remember Bayer, right? They gave us aspirin and other less pleasant products in WW I and WW II. More recently, BayerCropScience has given us the gift of genetically modified rice. You may have read about it. 'Merit' 'Gaucho' 'BayerAdvanced' 'Admire,' 'Gaucho,' 'Genesis,' 'Platinum,' 'Provado,' 'Leverage,' 'Actara' are catchy little trade names for Imidacloprid, a systemic insecticide that was banned in France after beekeepers staged an angry protest in Paris. Bayer CropScience paid many millions to the french beekeepers and voluntarily withdrew the product without admitting that it was the culprit. Vive La France! They take their food seriously. Shame on us. Shame on the EPA. Shame on the media for not even mentioning the history of the peoples fight against Imidacloprid in France. The more stories I hear about the mystery disease the sillier they get. Soon the media will begin to snicker at all of the alarmists who worry about GMO's and cell towers. They will sigh, continue to wonder and finally forget about it. Already some are beginning to talk about how we can survive without bees as though it were just another problem like surviving without oil. Imidacloprid is the most likely culprit in CCD, even thought there may be other contributing factors. This is the same class of stuff some of us put on our dogs and cats to kill fleas and ticks (see Fipronil and Frontline.) It is much less toxic to mammals than to invertebrates. ( I confess that the ticks at my place have tempted me to put it on my own neck.) Yesterday, I overheard a salesperson in the coop suggest to a customer that he put some on his chickens. What a wonderful idea. We can have it for breakfast in our locally produced eggs. This morning The Weather Channel carried a Bayer advertisement for Merit calling out to those of us who are "sick and tired of all those bugs." If Imidacloprid were being discussed as a cause for CCD, you can be sure that the Weather Channel would be a little more concerned about those ads. That is why it is hardly ever mentioned by name. Instead, the generic term 'pesticide' is used in news discussions of CCD. In fairness, defenders of Imidacloprid say is that it is less toxic to humans than the Lindane that it replaces. Also, this is the only chemical known to kill the wooly adelgid that attacks canadian hemlocks. But many home gardeners are aware of Lindane's danger using it carefully if at all. And, even it there is some role for Imidacloprid, there is no excuse for mixing a persistent neurotoxin into our food supply and placing it in the hands of unsuspecting or careless homeowners. The Merit label I saw carried no warnings about bees even though there is no question that a sufficiently large dose of Immidacloprid is known to kill honeybees. This fact is not in any dispute. The question really is whether there are low, sub-lethal doses that do kill the bees. Bayer says there is no proof of this. They cannot find any traces of the stuff in the dead bees. (Actually, they cannot even find the bees.) Consider, however, the following. The graphic on the Merit label illustrates how the product travels up from the roots into the branches. Bayer claims (and studies confirm) that it is present in blossoms and pollen and that it persists in the soil for at least one year. So the bees do get some of it. If it will kill a really tough Japanese Beetle for 12 months is it really sensible to think that it wouldn't kill a honeybee, known to be sensitive to the drug? Consider also Bayer's own account of how termites are killed by Imidacloprid: the termite's immune system is compromised by the neurotoxin so that it becomes susceptible to the viruses, bacteria and fungi that are normally present and controlled. In other words, their immune systems collapse. If, by chance, the termite is not killed outright, when it flies away from its nest, Bayer's ads say that it will not be able to find its way back. Sound familiar? Sound like colony collapse disorder?"


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