Bees

[crunchy5]

Looks like a breakthrough

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/ ... 938949.ece

The mysterious disappearance of honeybees in America and other parts of the world could be explained by a virus which is transmitted by a parasitic mite, scientists believe. The virus has been identified in commercial bee hives which suffered from colony collapse disorder (CCD) – when worker bees suddenly vanish without trace, leaving behind a queen bee and a store of pollen and honey. Although the link with the virus does not prove it causes CCD, experts think it plays a significant role, perhaps together with another, as yet unknown, agent.

The virus is transmitted by the varroa mite – a parasite first detected in 1992 in Britain, where it has caused extensive damage in its own right. It is feared that it could also become an agent for transmitting new viral infections. Honeybees are important throughout the world, not just for their honey but because many commercial fruit and vegetable crops rely on them for pollination. American bee-keepers have been hit hardest by CCD – with about a quarter reporting that between 50 per cent and 90 per cent of their hives are affected.

US scientists genetically analysed biological material found in affected and unaffected hives. They were able to eliminate all but one type of DNA – that belonging to a known bee pathogen called Israeli acute paralysis virus. This was first identified in 2002 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as biologists investigated an outbreak of paralysis and death among Israeli bees. The US team believes the virus may have been introduced to America by bees imported from Australia.

"Our extensive study suggests the Israeli acute paralysis virus may be a potential cause of CCD," said Ian Lipkin, of Columbia University, a senior author of the study, which is published in the journal Science. "Our next step is to ascertain whether this virus, alone or in concert with other factors such as microbes, toxins and stressors, can induce CCD in healthy bees."

The scientists sequenced all the different DNA types found in the affected and unaffected hives. By a process of elimination, they were able to identify Israeli acute paralysis virus as the most likely culprit. It was found in more than 96 per cent of affected colonies but in almost none of the unaffected hives.

The team found bacterial DNA in the hives but these microbes belonged to species known to live harmlessly within a honeybee's gut, and so could be eliminated as a possible cause of CCD. They then turned to viruses. "We knew before we started that we would find a boatload of viruses in the bees, given our preliminary research," said researcher Diane Cox-Foster, a professor of entomology at Penn State University. "Eighteen different types are known from serology and antibody work in England." The experts analysed DNA from 21 healthy colonies and 30 affected by CCD and concluded that the increased risk of the disorder depended on levels of infection with the Israeli virus. The prevalence of the virus and its timing with CCD outbreaks suggested it was a "significant marker", Ms Cox-Foster
added

 

[staticgirl]

I know this ain't bees but I didn't think it was worth making a new thread and there's a similar theme about scientists messing with nature...

http://tinyurl.com/22qbjz

GAY PLAN TO GET MOTHS OUT THE CLOSET AND SAVE TREES


08:00 - 08 September 2007

A Moth invasion could be stopped by if wildlife experts can turn enough males gay. Oak processionary moths are approaching Lincolnshire from the south and brown tailed cousins are advancing on the northern front. Both munch their way through vegetation and will threaten precious woodland in Lincolnshire. But boffins at Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire are trying an unusual approach to keeping moth numbers down. They are setting up pheromone traps which draw males in with a female scent. Once inside, the manly moths are doused in female pheromones. So when they leave, the lads are irresistible to their other male mates. While the boys get on with their mid-air frolics, the girls are left to shrivel up and die without mating.

 

[Pete Younger]

Well if we suddenly see an unusual number of men in Nottinghamshire wearing pink, we'll know the stuff leaked into the air.

 

[jefflovestone]

Well if we suddenly see an unusual number of men in Nottinghamshire wearing pink, we'll know the stuff leaked into the air.

I can't wait to start reading new 'chemtrail' conspiracies based on this.

 

[jouweleen]

Hello All - This was posted as breaking news on FT today:

Woman wants to remove 60K bees in walls Fri Apr 11, 7:28 PM ET

A Greenville County woman is working with a beekeeper to rid her home of 60,000 bees living in the walls of her house for a month.

WYFF-TV reported that Jane Walcott is allergic to bees and has been sleeping with anti-allergy medication near her bed to give herself an emergency shot if stung.

Beekeeper Charlie Holden said it will take a few weeks to remove the bees, which he hopes to move to his home, where he keeps around 3 million of the insects in 50 hives.

Meanwhile, about 30 miles away, beekeepers have contained a swarm of 10,000 honeybees near a downtown Spartanburg business.

The (Spartanburg) Herald Journal reported that beekeeper Raymond Crocker was able to coax the honeybees away from Smith's Drug Store after two attempts earlier this week.
_____________________________________________________________

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080411/ap_on_fe_st/odd_bees_in_home;_ylt=Ahmvuy6027eBNzC9b5Tntb_tiBIF
______________________________________________________________

This reminds me of another story a few years ago about a man finding the classic car in his barn infested with bees. It was noted as one of the largest hives ever found. What do you think? Could it be with CCD that the bees are eventually relocating? Maybe just confused for a while and regrouping later?

Perhaps classic alien/bee abduction? :shock:

 

[ElishevaBarsabe]

Could be relocating. A documentary we saw last night stated that none of these problems are happening to beekeepers who use organic bee-keeping methods.

 

[OneWingedBird]

i didn't see the documentary, but our bees at work died off mysteriously last year (i asked the bee man about it and he had no particular ideas) and afaik they're kept using organic methods.

will have ask the bee man when i see him again...

 

[jouweleen]

Another weird bee story

Cloud Of Bees Swarming In 'Tornado Pattern' Chases Diners From Restaurant

DeLAND, Fla. -- A giant cloud of thousands of bees mysteriously appeared and began to swirl in a "tornado pattern" around a Central Florida Mexican restaurant.

PHOTOS: Thousands Of Bees Menace Diners

Customers at Oxie's restaurant located near Highway 17-92 and Plymouth Avenue in DeLand said they noticed a cloud in the sky and thought it was raining. They then realized, the cloud was a swarm of bees.
"A lot of people said it was bees and ran to their cars," restaurant owner Oxie Ochiana said. "It was scary. I was panicking. I didn't know what to do."
Witnesses said the bees began to swirl like a tornado and menace customers Thursday.
"I looked and it was like a tornado of bees just all around our parking lot, swarming," said restaurant worker Marie Olson.
A crowd formed at a distance to watch the cloud of bees.
"It was crazy," Olson said. "I was shocked. I was surprised to see it. I don't know where they came from, so it was amazing to actually see them like that. It was awesome."
State bee experts said the bees, which were moving from tree to tree, are now resting because they have formed two huge cone-shaped swarms in a tree.
Experts said the bees would likely move out about 24 hours after forming the cones.
However, Ochiana called beekeepers to remove the cones from nearby trees Thursday night.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

http://www.local6.com/news/15982205/detail.html

 

[rynner2]

'Who says there are no bees? 15,000 just landed in my lunch'
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:28 PM on 25th June 2008

Shoppers were stunned when a massive swarm of thousands of honey bees touched down in a busy city centre.

Around 15,000 insects gathered in Queen Street, Exeter, at around lunchtime on Tuesday.

While some people darted for cover, others stood and watched the aerial acrobatics.

After around five minutes, the swarm flew underneath a table outside Bella Italia, setting up camp for several hours.

The swarm of over 15,000 bees was roughly a metre in diameter and around an inch thick.

Speaking from inside Bella Italia, supervisor Joe Heginworth, 18, said: 'I've never seen anything like this before.

'There's a pile of people outside watching them and taking photographs on their mobile phones.'

Brenda Cann, 62, saw the bees arrive from outside Queen Street News, where she works.

She said: 'They were coming down from the direction of the High Street.

'They near enough stretched across the whole of Queen Street, but I wasn't really worried.

'A lot of people were coming in to ask what was going on.'

A police spokesman said members of the public started to report the swarm from around 1.30pm.

'One call said there was a large colony of bees coming up from the pavement and they were concerned someone might get stung,'' he said.

The bees were cordoned off to prevent anybody getting too close for comfort.

Milly Lefebvre, 37, was on her lunch break from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, in Queen Street, when she spotted the commotion.

'It seemed to be a huge amount of bees in a very little space,' she said.


'There was still a group of teenagers having coffee next to them. It was quite surreal.'

Exeter City Council's pest control team was called in to remove the insects with the help of local beekeeper, John Baston.

Mr Easton, 64, said the bees probably stopped for a breather while looking for a new home.

He said some swarms could be aggressive and caution should be taken when dealing with them.

'I was collecting a similar swarm last week and I received 50 stings on the back of one glove alone,' he said.

'Under those circumstances, if you are not protected it can be quite dangerous.

'My advice for anyone who comes across a swarm is to leave them alone and call an expert.'

Mr Easton, who has kept bees for 25 years, said he removed the swarm by gently picking up a chair the majority had settled on before shaking it above an open hive.

'The idea was for the queen bee to fall into the hive and the others to stay in there with her,' he added.

Mr Easton said he would take the bees home and give them 20Ibs of sugar syrup before checking them several times for signs of disease.

'If they are free of disease I will continue to build up their stores to see them through the winter,' he said.

A council spokeswoman said: 'It's the time of year for bees to swarm and it's not unusual for swarms to appear in the centre of Exeter.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lunch.html

[photos on link]

 

[rynner2]

So if it isn't bug eat bug, what is it that's killing the honey bees?
Steve Bird

The cause of a virus that wiped out billions of honeybees remains a mystery after new research disproved the theory that it was transmitted by mites.

For years scientists believed that the deformed wing virus (DWV) was spread by varroa destructor mites, which have invaded and spread infections among honeybee colonies in Britain.

But researchers from the Rothamsted research institute in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, found out that DWV does not grow within the mite. Instead, the infection has been found only inside the gut of the varroa, suggesting that the mite has merely eaten it from the bodies of bees already infected. Varroa mites cannot regurgitate their gut contents, and so would not be able to transmit the virus. The researchers used an antibody technique to track the viral particles. It does not appear that the virus has invaded the mites’ cells and can reproduce within them.

Teresa Santillan-Galicia, who led the study, which is published today, said: “The presence of deformed wing virus in large amounts in mite faeces suggests it is picked up during feeding on an infected bee. However, one important question remains: how is the virus transmitted to bees?

“It is likely that the amount of virus acquired by the mite plays an important role in the interaction between deformed wing virus and the varroa mite.

“Full understanding of the interaction between deformed wing virus and the varroa mite will provide basic information for the future development of more sustainable control strategies against the mite and the virus.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 238250.ece

 

[rynner2]

Lorry carrying 12m bees overturns

Motorists on Canada's biggest highway ended up with a bee in their bonnet after a truck transporting 12m of the insects overturned.

The lorry was carrying 330 crates of honey bees when it tipped over on a ramp in St Leonard, New Brunswick.

Bee experts were called in to help deal with the accident on the Trans-Canada Highway.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a downpour of rain helped to contain the bees in and around the vehicle.

"Bees don't like the rain... thousands of bees are hanging on the back of this truck and on the pavement right behind," said police spokesman Derek Strong.

'Disoriented and agitated'

The BBC's Lee Carter in Toronto says the bees had been used to pollinate a crop of blueberries, and were being transported home when the accident happened.

Afterwards, the highway was closed and beekeepers in white protective suits attempted to lure the insects back to their hives.

A Canadian journalist who tried to get too close to the overturned truck was stung several times, but no-one has been seriously injured, says our correspondent.

Experts said it was unlikely that the bees would survive very long without the care of experienced beekeepers.

Richard Duplain, vice president of the New Brunswick Beekeepers Association, told AP news agency the bees would quite likely be angered by their ordeal.

"You certainly don't want to go walking through a field of disoriented, agitated and wet honey bees," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7482609.stm

 

[rynner2]

Electronic smog 'is disrupting nature on a massive scale'
New study blames mobile phone masts and power lines for collapse of bee colonies and decline in sparrows

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 7 September 2008

Mobile phones, Wi-Fi systems, electric power lines and similar sources of "electrosmog" are disrupting nature on a massive scale, causing birds and bees to lose their bearings, fail to reproduce and die, a conference will be told this week.

Dr Ulrich Warnke – who has been researching the effects of man-made electrical fields on wildlife for more than 30 years – will tell the conference, organised by the Radiation Research Trust at the Royal Society in London, that "an unprecedented dense mesh of artificial magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic fields" has been generated, overwhelming the "natural system of information" on which the species rely.

He believes this could be responsible for the disappearance of bees in Europe and the US in what is known as colony collapse disorder, for the decline of the house sparrow, whose numbers have fallen by half in Britain over the past 30 years, and that it could also interfere with bird migration.

Dr Warnke, a lecturer at the University of Saarland, in Germany, adds that the world's natural electrical and magnetic fields have had a "decisive hand in the evolution of species". Over millions of years they learned to use them to work out where they were, the time of day, and the approach of bad weather.

Now, he says, "man-made technology has created transmitters which have fundamentally changed the natural electromagnetic energies and forces on the earth's surface. Animals that depend on natural electrical, magnetic and electromagnetic fields for their orientation and navigation are confused by the much stronger and constantly changing artificial fields."

His research has shown that bees exposed to the kinds of electrical fields generated by power lines killed each other and their young, while ones exposed to signals in the same range as mobile phones lost much of their homing ability. Studies at the University of Koblenz-Landau, reported in The Independent on Sunday last year, have found bees failed to return to their hives when digital cordless phones were placed in them, while an Austrian survey noted that two-thirds of beekeepers with mobile phone masts within 300 metres had suffered unexplained colony collapse.

Dr Warnke also cites Spanish and Belgian studies showing that the number of sparrows near mobile phone masts fell as radiation increased. And he says that migrating birds, flying in formation, had been seen to split up when approaching the masts.

But the Mobile Operators Association, representing the UK's five mobile phone companies, says a US research group has found collapsing bee colonies in areas with no mobile phone service, and Denis Summers-Smith, a leading expert on sparrows, has described the link as "nonsense".

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 21711.html

 

[wembley8]

Note that the Radiation Research Trust is not an official body, and there's no mention of whether thee results are peer-reviewed.
I'm guessing not, but can anyone else confirm?

 

[ramonmercado]

'No proof' of bee killer theory
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7925397.stm
By Matt McGrath
Science reporter, BBC World Service

Bee hives were left deserted by adult worker bees
Scientists say there is no proof that a mysterious disease blamed for the deaths of billions of bees actually exists, the BBC has been told.

For five years increasing numbers of unexplained bee deaths have been reported worldwide, with US commercial beekeepers suffering the most.

The term Colony Collapse Disorder was coined to describe the illness.

But many experts now say that the term is misleading and there is no single, new ailment killing the bees.

In part of California the honeybee is of crucial importance to the local economy as 80% of the world's almonds come from there - America's most valuable horticultural export.

But without the bee pollinating the trees, there would be no almonds.

In a few frenzied weeks in February and March, billions of honey bees are transported to the state from as far away as Florida to flit innocently among the snowy almond blossoms, and ensure the success of this lucrative crop.

However, since 2004 their numbers have been mysteriously declining, and it was only at the end of 2006 that the severity of the losses began to be fully realised.


It's probably not a unique event in beekeeping to have large numbers of colonies die

Frank Eischen
US Department of Agriculture


Commercial bee keeper Dave Hackenberg, from Pennsylvania, was the first to sound the alarm.

He recalled the moment when he first realised something was wrong:

"I started opening a few hives, and they were completely empty boxes, no bees. I got real frantic and I started looking at lots of beehives, I noticed that there were no dead bees on the ground, there weren't any bodies there."

Even stranger than the absence of the insects was the fact that other bees would not go near these deserted colonies.

Since then around 2m colonies of bees have disappeared across the US. And the losses have continued this year, albeit at a lower rate.

The unexplained nature of the affliction, with empty hives and no clearly defined infection, has stumped scientists.

Since the 1980s a rising tide of ailments has assaulted the honeybee, including the varroa mite and many deadly viruses.


Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version
Advertisement
Putting the varroa mite under the microscope

Colony collapse

But the dramatic and rapid losses of the last five years had convinced experts that something new was at work within the hives.



Researchers around the world are running round trying to find the cause of the disorder - and there's absolutely no proof that there's a disorder there



Dennis Anderson
CSIRO



They developed a concept called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD.

Dr Jeff Pettis, a researcher with the US Department of Agriculture Bee Lab, said CCD applied to colonies which died although there were no high levels of parasites:

"The colony was once strong, it reared a lot of young developing bees and then the adult bee population simply disappeared or died.

"With those symptoms it certainly is unique and it doesn't really match up with our expectations for parasitic mite loss and the like."

But to date researchers have found few clues as to the exact cause of the disorder.

And some senior scientists now say the "disorder" does not exist as a separate illness.

Dr Dennis Anderson, principal research scientist on entomology with the Australian research organisation CSIRO said the term could be distracting scientists from other work:

"It's misleading in the fact that the general public and beekeepers and now even researchers are under the impression that we've got some mysterious disorder here in our bees.

"And so researchers around the world are running round trying to find the cause of the disorder - and there's absolutely no proof that there's a disorder there."

Previous declines

His view is shared by some experts in the US.

Conducting experiments at an isolated almond orchard in the Central valley area of California, Frank Eischen, of the US Department of Agriculture, said it was "probably true" that there was no new single disease.

"We've seen these kinds of symptoms before, during the seventies, during the nineties, now," he added.

"It's probably not a unique event in beekeeping to have large numbers of colonies die."
The varroa mite sucks the bees' blood and weakens the immune system

Many experts speak about a "perfect storm" of impacts that are the real reason for the decline.

Principal among them are infestations of the varroa mite, which suck the bees' blood and weaken their immune systems.

There are also concerns that bees are being deprived of nutrition as urbanisation removes their natural pastures.

One of the biggest worries is the possible impact of agricultural pesticides.

It is believed these chemicals can act like alcohol on humans, disorienting the bees and causing them to get lost on the way home.

Busy work

The intensity of agriculture could be the real underlying cause of bee stress, some experts believe.

Commercial beekeeper Dave Hackenberg described the working life of a bee as difficult:

"My bees are in California pollinating almonds. In the middle of March they are going to be trucked all the way across the United States all the way back to Florida to pollinate oranges then they are trucked another thousand miles north to pollinate apples in Pennsylvania.

"When they go to these places, the only thing that's there is the crop that you pollinate, it's a big monoculture.

"We all like steak and potatoes and we all like corn, but if we eat any of these on their own for a month at a time then your body would not be in the best of shape."


Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version
Advertisement
Buzz words: Ten amazing facts about bees

Public hoax?

Some critics of the bee industry have called the whole concept of CCD a hoax, a public relations stunt designed to attract public sympathy.

Dr Eischen does not believe it was made up, but says CCD has been helpful to highlight problems in the food supply:

"We rely on farming, and to have that brought to the fore by the press that there is a problem with something as fundamental as getting fruit to produce, trees to bear, vegetables to yield and it all comes together with the bee coming to a flower and performing a vital service, the imagery is great and it strikes at the heartstrings of a lot of citizens and from that respect its been good.

"It highlights the hard work it takes to bring a crop to market."

 

[Mythopoeika]

Perhaps the bees have evolved intelligence and have realised that we humans have been exploiting them - they've gone on strike!

 

[GNC]

I don't know about anybody else but I'm seeing plenty of bees this summer. Mostly big bumble bees. Has there been a resurgence recently?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I don't know about anybody else but I'm seeing plenty of bees this summer. Mostly big bumble bees. Has there been a resurgence recently?

Yes, I've seen lots of them this year. The petunias seem to be their favourite.

 

[MsPix]

I've seen quite a few bumble bees around the flowers on my tomatoes. I've seen more butterflies this year as well.

 

[Mister_Awesome]

I've been seeing lots of bees too! Good news!

 

[mynameisearl]

If all the Bees were gone, how long would humans survive?
Albert Einstein once said “If all the Bees were gone, humans would be gone within 4 years.” Basically his theory makes sense. No Bees, No Pollination! There is no question the bees are becoming extinct. Ask any “beekeeper” and they’ll tell you the same. I know there have been attempts at “alternative” Pollination but none have ever been successful. Only the Bees can do it.
My question is “Has there ever been any scientific proof to support Albert’s Einstein theory?”

PS.... all you will be eating will be RICE AND CORN....

 

[Timble2]

Figs are pollinated by wasps...

 

[Tyger_Lily]

There is a mite which infects the bee and eradicates colonies very quicly. So far, Australia has managed to keep it at bay and a lot of their honey is being imported to various countries especially the USA as they have suffered from this quite badly.

I think most bee keepers would agree there has been a decline in the number of bees (which live in hives, as not all do) and honey production has fallen drastically making it quite expensive.

Can you think of any other insect which plays such a huge part in our eco-system which we are reliant on and which is so widely spread across the globe? Certain plants are wind pollinated but lots aren't and are dependant of bees, hoverflies and their ilk to do that job.

Personally, I think Einstein has a valid point. If bees were to disappear everything would go Pete Tong pretty quickly.

Why do supermarkets put BBE or Use By dates on honey, which is in fact one of the only foods never to go off, if stored correctly? Weird!

 

[mynameisearl]

Because it does spoil once it goes through production and isn't in its raw state anymore. The pasteurization of it changes its natural state and allows it to become spoiled. It's only the raw honey which you don't have to worry about.... Earl....

 

[SHAYBARSABE]

Figs are pollinated by wasps...

Bees and wasps are both in the order Hymenoptera. Wasps do perform some polliation, but aren't as efficient as bees because wasps lack fuzzy hairs.

 

[mynameisearl]

Another possible cause is bee exploitation. Some scientists suggest that the reason the Colony Collapse is acute in the U.S. is due to poor management. Bees may be stressed to greatly during travel when bees are 'rented out' to pollinate crops. Or they may be under-cared for in captivity. Many bee keepers take great offense at this suggestion.

Climate change, Damp weather is bad for bee productivity. Physically, bee keepers say they don't do well in that weather. But a bigger problem may be flowering. bees build their hives as flowers bloom. As that period has moved up in the year, bees may not be able to keep up with the shift, drastic weather shifts could also be disrupting their life cycle.

 

[rynner2]

I've been seeing lots of bees too! Good news!

And yet...

Fifth of honeybees died in winter

Almost a fifth of the UK's honeybees died last winter, the British Beekeepers' Association has said.

Combined with an average 30% loss the year before, it means beekeepers are struggling to keep colonies going.

Honeybees are worth £200m a year to UK agriculture because of their work pollinating crops.

Bees are suffering from viruses, a parasitic mite and changes in the weather. Experts are calling for more money to be put into research.

A survey by the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) suggested an average of 19.2% of colonies died over winter, which is "double" the acceptable level.

The highest losses were recorded in the north of England, where 32.1% perished, and the lowest in eastern England, where 12.8% did not survive.

The survey showed an improvement on the previous year, which the BBKA put down to the period of really cold weather in the winter which encouraged the bees to "cluster" together, helping them to survive.

It also said the good weather in early spring enabled them to forage for nectar and pollen.

But there was still a "worrying and continuing high level of colony loss", said the BBKA's president Tim Lovett.

"It underlines the need for research into the causes and remedies for disease in order to ensure that our principal economic pollinator, the honeybee, can survive the onslaught of the threats it currently faces," he said.

"These ongoing losses in the pollination army of honeybees cannot continue if we are to secure food supplies."

Nearly all the UK's 250 species of bee are in decline. In the last two years, honeybee numbers have fallen by 10-15%.

The conservation watchdog Natural England recently called on people living in urban areas to consider keeping bees.

Its chief scientist Tom Tew told the BBC: "We want urban people to engage with wildlife and get joy and pleasure from it... the more hives you have the more resilient the whole population is to the outbreak of disease."

The BBC presenter Martha Kaerney is an amateur beekeeper and has seen for herself the decline in numbers.

She told Breakfast on BBC One: "They've died out on me before and it was really distressing.

"You put the bees away for the winter and you hope they're going to be OK.

"And when you open up the colony in the Spring and see lots of dead bees in there, it's unpleasant.

"Beekeeping is a fascinating hobby and I love it. But they are dying. This year is slightly better than last year though."

A report by the Parliamentary Accounts Committee last month warned the government was giving "little priority" to the health of the nation's bees despite their importance to the agricultural economy.

Experts say sustaining bee populations is essential to ensuring the survival of Britain's plants and crops.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8217401.stm

 

[Mister_Awesome]

Well, I can report that I've been seeing more bees this year than I have in over ten years. Of course, this is in Oregon. Sorry to hear that it isn't everywhere!

 

[rynner2]

Another problem...

UK warned as plague of bee-eating hornets spreads north in France
• Pesticides and traps fail to halt steady colonisation
• British summer could be their downfall, says expert
Lizzy Davies in Paris guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009

For five years they have wreaked havoc in the fields of south-western France, scaring locals with their venomous stings and ravaging the bee population to feed their rapacious appetites. Now, according to French beekeepers, Asian predatory hornets have been sighted in Paris for the first time, raising the prospect of a nationwide invasion which entomologists fear could eventually reach Britain.

Claude Cohen, president of the Parisian region's apiculture development agency, said a hornet nest had been found this week in the centre of Blanc Mesnil, north-east of the capital.

If confirmed by further testing, the find will raise fears that the spread of the bee-eating Vespa velutina is no longer limited to the Aquitaine region near Bordeaux, where it is believed to have arrived on board container ships from China in 2004, and the surrounding south-west.

Denis Thiery, a specialist at the National Institute for Agricultural Research, said the hornets were likely to push on with a relentless colonisation of their adopted country until they become a common sight in vast swaths of France – and ultimately in other European states.

"We are seeing a real geographical expansion," he said, adding that an eventual invasion of southern England, which has a relatively mild climate the hornets would enjoy, could not be ruled out.

Biologists insist that this variety of Asian hornet, which can grow to an inch long, is no more ferocious than its European counterpart, although its stings, which contain more poison than those of wasps, can be very painful and can require hospital attention.

This summer swarms of the insects were reported to have attacked a mother and baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, as well as pursuing passersby and tourists on bikes.

But the hornet's menace to human beings pales into insignificance in comparison with the destruction it wreaks on its chosen habitat. In south-western France, where its population surges each year, beleaguered beekeepers claim that they are being driven into the ground by the insect's destructive eating habits.

"We have literally been invaded," said Raymond Saunier, president of the Gironde department's beekeeping union. "In the past two to four years we have lost 30% of our hives. All it takes is two or three hornets near your hive and you've had it."

He added: "It's not just about us trying to make honey. What's even more serious is the effect they have on the pollination process [by killing so many bees]. It's really a disaster."

.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/se ... ris-france

 

[rynner2]

New film blames drug firm for plight of honey bees
By Michael McCarthy, Environment editor
Wednesday, 30 September 2009

It's a question that has baffled the worlds of agriculture and science – what is it that has caused the mysterious deaths of honey bees all over the world in the last five years? A new film may have the answer.

Vanishing of the Bees, which will be released in Britain next month, claims the cause is the use of a new generation of pesticides that weakens the bees and makes them more susceptible to other diseases.

Narrated by the British actress Emilia Fox, the 90-minute film tells the story of what has become known as colony collapse disorder.

The problem first appeared in America in the winter of 2004, when many beekeepers across the country found that their bees had suddenly vanished, leaving behind empty hives. Since then scientists have failed to find a single cause for it.

The film goes on to suggest that neonicotinoid pesticides, some of them made by Bayer, one of the world's biggest chemical companies, may be behind the disappearances.

The pesticides include the widely-used imidacloprid (marketed under the trade name Gaucho), which has been banned in France following pressure from beekeepers. It is still in use in Britain, the US and elsewhere.

Neonicotinoids are systemic compounds, which means they are applied to seeds rather than sprayed on to growing plants. They enter into the plants themselves and affect the insect pests that consume them.

In theory, insects that are not pests should not be affected. But Vanishing of the Bees, made by the independent filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam Henein, suggests that long-term, low-level exposure to these compounds may be having a sub-lethal but debilitating effect on honey bees.

The pesticides, it suggests, may be the final straw for a bee population [that] has already been weakened in recent years by diseases ranging from the devastating varroa mite to the nosema fungus and other viruses.

In particular, the film targets Bayer, the long-established German firm which invented aspirin and is the world's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company.

Bayer rejected the allegations last night, insisting that its products did not harm bees.

"Everybody knows this is about the varroa mite, the nosema pest and a number of fungal and viral diseases," said Dr Julian Little, a UK spokesman for Bayer CropScience.

"The healthiest bees in the world are in Australia, where they have lots of neonicotinoids but they don't have varroa. If you look at a country where they have restricted the use of neonicotinoids, France, they have a worse bee problem there than they do in the UK," Dr Little added. [Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? ]

The British Beekeepers' Association said it did not have the evidence to say if neonicotinoids were behind honey bee declines.

"All the data we have seen so far is inconclusive," said Tim Lovett, the association's president.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 95148.html

 

[rynner2]

Something completely different..

Turkish teenager dies after swarms of bees escape from hives in crash
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:06 PM on 29th September 2009

A teenager died after swarms of bees escaped from their hives after the van carrying them crashed into a lorry in Turkey.
The 18-year-old was trapped inside the van with one other person for more than an hour as rescuers battled thousands of angry bees to free them.
Police, medics and beekeepers who were called to the scene used hoses, blankets and rags to try to ward off the swarming bees which covered the faces of the two people trapped inside the van.

The teenager died in hospital from the combined effect of injuries sustained in the crash and multiple bee stings.
Three people were in intensive care at the Mugla state hospital.
Around 20 people were taken to hospital, six of them injured in the crash and the rest needed treatment after being stung as they tried to help.
'There were hundreds and hundreds of bees covering the van - they swarmed to wherever they saw a living being move,' Kenan Gurbuz, the local bureau chief of the Anatolia news agency, told the Times.
'I was stung several times myself.

'When I arrived there was a man on the ground - he had been undressed and needed treatment but the medics could not get to him for the bees.

'They had filled the ambulance and also stung one of the nurses.'
The van hit a stationary truck on a road near the Mediterranean resort of Marmaris in southwestern Turkey. The impact burst open the bee hives in the van.
The bees swarmed over the injured and police, medics and firefighters who responded to the accident, forcing authorities to seek the help of about 50 beekeepers in the area.

Murat Coban, a beekeeper, told the Times: 'A friend called and told us of the accident and asked for a team to go and help.

'We collected ten people and came over in a minibus. There are about 500 to 600 hives here.'

Video footage shows men in beekeeping clothing placing an injured man - also in protective clothing - onto a stretcher in a swarm of bees and broken beehives, and carrying him down a hillside.
Another person is seen hosing down the area to keep the bees away.
In an operation that lasted four hours, one of the rescue workers doused the crashed vehicles with water in an attempt to keep the bees at bay.

The insects were further pacified by smoke.
At the hospital the victims’ clothes, still covered with bees, had to be stripped off carefully before any treatment could begin.
One of the injured was a doctor known to have an allergy to bees.
In a similar accident in 2006, bees repeatedly stung the two drivers of a truck that carried beehives and overturned on a road in central Turkey.

Police, firefighters and journalists who arrived on the scene also were attacked.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... z0Sa0VzLNn