Where's the Bees? (Colony Collapse Disorder)

THE ANSWER REVEALED

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/ap_on_go_co/sick_bees;_ylt=Amkhnn0WNefLicObz9A0f8qs0NUE

The problem affects about 40 percent of Haagen-Dazs' 73 flavors, including banana split and chocolate peanut butter, because ingredients such as almonds, cherries and strawberries rely on honey bees for pollination.

Katty Pien, brand director for Haagen-Dazs, said those ingredients could become too scarce or expensive if bees keep dying. It could force the company to discontinue some of its most popular flavors, Pien said.

Haagen-Dazs has developed a new limited-time flavor, vanilla honey bee, and will use some of the proceeds for research on the disorder. Burt's Bees has introduced Colony Collapse Disorder Lip Balm to "soften your lips while saving honeybees."

Unfortunately, it's partly an advertisement for a new Häagen-Dazs flavour that's being launched, but other than that: super cool video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m5vt07W2n4

This freaks me out more than anything else- polar icecaps melting, freak weather whatever. This is the thing that makes me believe shit is going down.

"Colony Collapse Disorder Lip Balm"

Oh dear god keep it away from my mouth

so bees are like the canary in the mineshaft of the planet is what you're saying?

xpost

Unless you're Russell T Davies of Dr Who fame, in which case they're just like the dolphins in Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

my landlords called someone to spray a hive somewhere behind our building. there were literally thousands of dead and dying bees back there for up to two months. It was horrible, I should have called some state agency about it. I'm not sure they were the same bees taht people are concerned about though.

your landlord may have to answer to the hague for what he's done.

or not - the bees people are mostly concerned about are the domesticated type - the ones giving us sweet sweet honey. not those other deadbeats.

deadbees.

Where's the bees, String?

yeah it's honeybees that people are worried about and these were something else (not bumblebees...there must be a third type?). anyway, seeing a six-inch high mountain of dead bee corpses was gruesome anyway.

Was waiting for the el this morning, and I looked down at the platform and noticed several dozen bees, a third of which looked to be already dead and the rest stumbling around futilely. Weird.

Bees, like people, can get diseases. They can even get bee mites, which can also destroy a hive - disorienting and weakening the drones. What you saw is distressing, but it happens from a variety of causes.

The difference with Colony Collapse Disorder was it was new, unknown, untreatable and had catastrophic results.

Does anyone know the current state of knowlege on it?

Does anyone know the current state of knowlege on it?

There are a couple competing theories. Wikipedia's summary at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder feel incomplete, but the references linked off of it are worth the time reading.

I thought it was proved pretty conclusively by the French research that it was caused by sub-lethal doses of neonicotinoid pesticides?

At least that's what was posited very convincingly in A Spring Without Bees by Michael Schacker. He goes through all the theories one by one, but the only one with any substantial research evidence was the imidacloprid one. He makes a very good case.

Honey bee populations in the U.S. have been sharply declining

Not at my house. On Saturday we called the "Bee Man" to address the dozens of bees that were congregating around a broken soffit under my roof. Turns out they were making a huge honeycomb inside the soffit. When the "Bee Man" (his trade name) pulled the soffit out, thousands upon thousands of bees poured out of the hole. Now: All bees gone. The "Bee Man" reports only one sting during the ordeal (and that this was a relatively small hive).

the fact that bees are showing up in places they normally wouldn't might indicate a problem, because what happened to their colony?

we had bees at our place horrible for a few years, last year some pesticide people came and killed their hive, there were literally thousands and thousands of dead bees behind my building for weeks, it was horrifying.

I must admit, the "Bee Man" humanely addressed the problem. There were some dead bees, but for the most part, he sprayed the area with something that just cleared them away, removed the "perfume" they create that attracts other bees, then sealed up the area so they couldn't return. The overwhelming majority of the bees just flew away (or around, confused).

Thank goodness for that, since the bees were just outside one of our windows, so my 8 year-old daughter watched the whole thing. She would have been traumatized forever if there was a mass bee extermination.

breakthrough! new research suggests that colony collapse is caused by a combination of a virus and a fungus living in the insects' digestive system, probably affecting nutrition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html

today is a good day for bees.

Awesome!

yaay, bees! i really hope our armies and scientists can fix your virus
also you are way smarter than us when it comes to pollination
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/human-bee-pollinator

Oh for fuck's sake... EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

The world honey bee population has plunged in recent years, worrying beekeepers and farmers who know how critical bee pollination is for many crops. A number of theories have popped up as to why the North American honey bee population has declined--electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, and climate change have all been pinpointed. Now a leaked EPA document reveals that the agency allowed the widespread use of a bee-toxic pesticide, despite warnings from EPA scientists.
The document, which was leaked to a Colorado beekeeper, shows that the EPA has ignored warnings about the use of clothianidin, a pesticide produced by Bayer that mainly is used to pre-treat corn seeds. The pesticide scooped up $262 million in sales in 2009 by farmers, who also use the substance on canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers, and wheat, according to Grist.

The leaked document (PDF) was put out in response to Bayer's request to approve use of the pesticide on cotton and mustard. The document invalidates a prior Bayer study that justified the registration of clothianidin on the basis of its safety to honeybees:

Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

The entire 101-page memo is damning (and worth a read). But the opinion of EPA scientists apparently isn't enough for the agency, which is allowing clothianidin to keep its registration.

yeah fuck it what have bees done for us lately. give those jobs back to americans, I say.

xp that's outrageous. where do things stand with the whole bee thing right now? think i've read things about colonies starting to recover, is everything a-ok in beeland now?

That is terrible! I saw slightly more bees this summer than the one before, which was encouraging, but they all seemed to have disappeared again pretty early in the summer. :(

(Confession: I thought this thread had been revived because the Dr Who which mentioned the bees disappearing was on Britisher telly last night)

Jesus Christ.

Heh. I thought the same as passing spacecadet, except with The Happening / Douglas Coupland / Futurama.

http://inhabitat.com/its-official-cell-phones-are-killing-bees/

whoa, but...

"virtually most"

lol yeah that's pretty bad but the whole thing is sort of wild, huh?

yeah, terrifying, though it's nice to have a clear answer

I'd feel more confident if that story wasn't sourced from the UK's Daily Mail

Not that I'm saying it's wrong, just does anyone have a reliable link to studies, etc?

yeah the science seems a little under sourced... I've read a lot of different explanations for CCD

the cell signal theory is highly dubious. more on that here: http://scienceblogs.com/myrmecos/2010/06/cell_phones_still_arent_causin.php

USDA and EPA report that the phenomenon is attributable to multiple causes, with pathogens (bacterial and viral infections) and pesticides the most likely among them.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572
http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/about/intheworks/honeybee.htm

from the USDA Agricultural Research Service's most recent (2010) progress report:

During the past 3 years, numerous causes for CCD have been proposed and examined. There have been many associations identified throughout the course of research; however, it is becoming increasingly clear that no single factor alone is responsible for the malady. Researchers continue to document elevated pathogen levels in CCD-affected bees, with no specific pathogen linked definitively to CCD. In addition, tests to examine hives for known honey bee parasites (varroa mites, honey bee tracheal mites, Nosema species), which pose significant problems for beekeepers, and once were highly suspected to play a major role in
CCD, have not revealed these parasites, by themselves, at sufficient levels to explain the problem. Over the past year, several independent studies have shown that bees are exposed to a wide range of pesticides and that some pesticides have interactive effects (on bee mortality) with other pesticides, with bee pests, or with viruses. Taken together, these studies support the hypothesis that CCD is a syndrome of stress, caused by many different factors working individually, but more likely in combination. Insufficient data are available to confirm this, but studies continue, based on the groundwork that has been laid.

it's a really interesting issue. i've been on the verge of finishing a masters in environmental geography for quite some time now, and though i highly doubt that once i'm finished i'll end up staying in academia any longer than i have to, i definitely think there's a lot of potential for the practical applications of maps with regard to this issue, and it would be very fulfilling to do so.

i can't have been the only one expecting this revive to be abt borad drama

maybe

http://grist.org/food/2012-01-13-honey-bees-problem-nearing-a-critical-point/?fb_ref=hv1

Of particular concern is a group of pesticides, chemically similar to nicotine, called neonicotinoids (neonics for short), and one in particular called clothianidin. Instead of being sprayed, neonics are used to treat seeds, so that they’re absorbed by the plant’s vascular system, and then end up attacking the central nervous systems of bees that come to collect pollen. Virtually all of today’s genetically engineered Bt corn is treated with neonics. The chemical industry alleges that bees don’t like to collect corn pollen, but new research shows that not only do bees indeed forage in corn, but they also have multiple other routes of exposure to neonics.

The Purdue University study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, found high levels of clothianidin in planter exhaust spewed during the spring sowing of treated maize seed. It also found neonics in the soil of unplanted fields nearby those planted with Bt corn, on dandelions growing near those fields, in dead bees found near hive entrances, and in pollen stored in the hives.

Evidence already pointed to the presence of neonic-contaminated pollen as a factor in CCD. As Hackenberg explained, “The insects start taking [the pesticide] home, and it contaminates everywhere the insect came from.” These new revelations about the pervasiveness of neonics in bees’ habitats only strengthen the case against using the insecticides.

The irony, of course, is that farmers use these chemicals to protect their crops from destructive insects, but in so doing, they harm other insects essential to their crops’ production — a catch-22 that Hackenberg said speaks to the fact that “we have become a nation driven by the chemical industry.”

Yep, it was neonicotinoids, alongside environmental changes:

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/04/09/mystery-of-the-disappearing-bees-solved

Mystery of the disappearing bees: Solved!
By Richard Schiffman
April 9, 2012

If it were a novel, people would criticize the plot for being too far-fetched – thriving colonies disappear overnight without leaving a trace, the bodies of the victims are never found. Only in this case, it’s not fiction: It’s what’s happening to fully a third of commercial beehives, over a million colonies every year. Seemingly healthy communities fly off never to return. The queen bee and mother of the hive is abandoned to starve and die.

Thousands of scientific sleuths have been on this case for the last 15 years trying to determine why our honey bees are disappearing in such alarming numbers. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” according to Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program.

Until recently, the evidence was inconclusive on the cause of the mysterious “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) that threatens the future of beekeeping worldwide. But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids.

In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common ingredient in home gardening products.

Research published last month in the prestigious journal Science shows that neonics are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

Another study published in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science and Technology journal implicated neonic-containing dust released into the air at planting time with “lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed by beekeepers.”

Purdue University entomologists observed bees at infected hives exhibiting tremors, uncoordinated movement and convulsions, all signs of acute insecticide poisoning. And yet another study conducted by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health actually re-created colony collapse disorder in several honeybee hives simply by administering small doses of a popular neonic, imidacloprid.

But scientists believe that exposure to toxic pesticides is only one factor that has led to the decline of honey bees in recent years. The destruction and fragmentation of bee habitats, as a result of land development and the spread of monoculture agriculture, deprives pollinators of their diverse natural food supply. This has already led to the extinction of a number of wild bee species. The planting of genetically modified organism (GMO) crops – some of which now contain toxic insecticides within their genetic structure – may also be responsible for poisoning bees and weakening their immune systems.

Every spring millions of bee colonies are trucked to the Central Valley of California and other agricultural areas to replace the wild pollinators, which have all but disappeared in many parts of the country. These bees are routinely fed high-fructose corn syrup instead of their own nutritious honey. And in an effort to boost productivity, the queens are now artificially inseminated, which has led to a disturbing decline in bee genetic diversity. Bees are also dusted with chemical poisons to control mites and other pathogens that have flourished in the overcrowded commercial colonies.

In 1923, Rudolph Steiner, the German founder of biodynamic agriculture, a precursor of the modern organic movement, predicted that within a hundred years artificial industrial techniques used to breed honey bees would lead to the species’ collapse. His prophecy was right on target!

Honey bees have been likened to the canaries in the coal mine. Their vanishing is nature’s way of telling us that conditions have deteriorated in the world around us. Bees won’t survive for long if we don’t change our commercial breeding practices and remove deadly toxins from their environment. A massive pollinator die-off would imperil world food supplies and devastate ecosystems that depend on them. The loss of these creatures might rival climate change in its impact on life on earth.

Still, this is a disaster that does not need to happen. Germany and France have already banned pesticides that have been implicated in the deaths of bees. There is still time to save the bees by working with nature rather than against it, according to environmentalist and author Bill McKibben:

“Past a certain point, we can’t make nature conform to our industrial model. The collapse of beehives is a warning – and the cleverness of a few beekeepers in figuring out how to work with bees not as masters but as partners offers a clear-eyed kind of hope for many of our ecological dilemmas.”

(The news is from April, but I hadn't read it before.)

Guess it's time to genetically engineer better bees.