14 Jul 2007, Posted by Cat in News, 14 Comments. Tagged bees
apocalypse bee?
The June 2007 issue of Fortean Times — my main news source aside from Boing Boing — is packed with fascinating tid bits, but this story on Colony Collapse Disorder has me a little worried. I don’t know much about bees, but apparently Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, “man would only have four years life left”. Says Zac Browning, vice president of the American Bee Federation “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food”.
Apparently bees in half of the US states as well as in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are abandoning their hives. The reason is not known, but German research has long shown that bee behaviour changes near power lines. One possible hypothesis to the current CCD epidemic is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems. Hmmm… remember that post I did about the racing pigeons and how so many of them can’t seem to find their way home these days? Mobile phones are evil. I’m so glad I lost mine in Adelaide a few weeks back.
14 Comments
July 14, 2007 9:48 am
strangedave
The leading theory for the bees is some sort of fungus, I think. The mobile phone theory never had much real evidence behind it.
July 14 2007 09:58 am
crankynick @
Mites, I believe:
Science Daily has a decent article about it
It's also important to remember that there's a difference between wild colonies and the commercially farmed colonies that the US and Europe rely on for honey and for orchard pollination - these colonies are driven around on the back fo trucks, and people have been saying that they're at rick of disease and parasites for some time, because they're effectively a monuculture.
Salon also had a good article about it.
July 14, 2007 1:28 pm
flinthart
Two things to note: first, that certified organic beekeepers aren’t reporting any losses. Second, that this isn’t the first time this has occurred. I can’t recall precisely where, but sometime in the last three weeks I read an account of precisely the same thing happening in the 1920s.
Oh, and while we’re at it, there’s no trace of this in Australia, and nobody so far has actually been able to source that Einstein quote.
July 14, 2007 1:58 pm
slithytove
First, data from the US doesn’t count, because honeybees aren’t native here. They have to be imported, and always die off if they aren’t kept under pristine conditions. Complaints that honeybees aren’t thriving in North America are sort of like complaints about the troubling failure of zebra herds to take hold in Antarctica, or the lack of polar bears in the Grand Canyon.
I know what you mean about the homing pigeons. A few years ago, I sent some sensitive nuclear bomb data to a colleague on the west coast by homing pigeon. Never arrived, and had to re-send it by Fedex. A year later, I got the pigeon’s leg band back from some helpful fellow in Pakistan. Wow. Those little pigeons sure do get around!
July 15 2007 03:19 am
Cat @
Hmmm... I've been to the Grand canyon and I didn't see a single polar bear. ITS A CONSPIRACY!!!
July 14, 2007 4:43 pm
leecetheartist
I feel kind of mixed about honeybees. I like honey…and it’s a pretty good export for us, but so many of our birds, especially parrots and owls are hollow nesters, and so many of the remaining old trees with hollows have been taken over by feral honey bees.
There are native bees that we can use as pollinators in Australia. So I’m mixed about the possibility of the honeybees getting this disease here…
July 14, 2007 5:03 pm
martianmooncrab
The wild bees here didnt get the memo, I have seen two swarms of bees here so far this year, and one of them was humongous!!
and the news pins the collapse to an European mite that they dont know how it got here.
July 15, 2007 1:56 am
doctor_k_
Oh sorry – all the bees are at my house. They’ve set up a happy hive in the wall of our back room, and invited all their friends.
My bad. I’ll give them back.
July 15 2007 02:02 am
Cat @
Might have guessed... hey, happy birthday for a few days ago.
July 15, 2007 2:56 am
strangedave
I thought I would just add that Fortean Times and boingboing are major news sources for me too.
July 15 2007 03:18 am
Cat @
I figured as much
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