<p>Did anyone else see the PBS Nature show this evening about the disappearing bees?</p>
<p>Interesting and very disconcerting.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen the show yet - not yet shown on the west coast, but I’ve read a few articles about the problem. Based on what I know now, I’m betting it’s a virus.</p>
<p>Just saw a segment on CCD on 60 Minutes.
May be it’s time to start growing bees in labs the way they have hatcheries for fish.</p>
<p>Yeah that’s what they concluded, along with exposure to pesticides. They said both were responsible. Don’t quote me on the exact number, but something like 1/3 of this country’s bees have disappeared in the last 6 months (at time of filming). Nearly all our food depends on pollination by bees!</p>
<p>
Not mine, because, as you know, and much to your chagrin, I am a meat-eater and meat doesn’t need pollinatin’!</p>
<p>(yikes! duckin’ and runnin’)</p>
<p>Just jerking your chain, my good friend.</p>
<p>Eh, what do you think the cows, pigs and chickens eat? </p>
<p>ha, didn’t think of that, did you? =D</p>
<p>Of course I was kidding , leal (though now that you mention it, perhaps cows pigs and chickens should, like me, also begin to eat meat - I’m kidding!).</p>
<p>You say “nearly” all our food depends upon bees. Is there food that does not depend upon bees? I suppose there are other animals that pollinate, but my goodness it would seem they would be far less efficient than bees are.</p>
<p>And I wonder how this might affect the world’s oceans and the critters therein.</p>
<p>Don’t quote me on this, but if I remember correctly I think they said something like 75% of all plants depend on bees. </p>
<p>Of our food supply, only the wind-pollinated grains like corn, wheat and rice would not be affected. But the animals need to forage, too, and not live on only grains.</p>
<p>They mentioned an area in China in which the entire local bee population was destroyed by pesticides. The pear orchards have to be pollinated by hand - a laborious task! That’s why those Aisan pears that come individually wrapped are so expensive.</p>
<p>So, it IS possible to manually pollinate SOME plants, but they said on a wide scale it would not be feasible.</p>
<p>They were using phrases like ‘the end of life as we know it’ which sounded really bleak. They won’t know for a few more months how many bees will survive into next year. Some beekeepers discovered 80% of their hives gone, in just a few days. Again, don’t quote me on this, but I think they said 1/3 of the bees in the US have disappeared in 6 months. So it’s happening VERY rapidly. </p>
<p>The African bees are more resistant, but they are also more aggressive. They’re working on breeding the African bees with ours, but trying to leave out the aggressive genes.</p>
<p>So, wouldn’t it be ironic if the demise of the human race is not a meteor, not Y2k, not nuclear war, not Captain Trips, but…the extinction of bees?</p>
<p>Hmmm. You sound almost pleased with the prospect of the end of man, leal. Yeah. I knew this was happening, though I did not think it was taking place so rapidly. I also wonder if folks are telling the truth here or will this be another one of those “We’re all gonna die! Die! Die!” things that never materializes. I need to look into this a bit more. Admittedly, I have not followed it much at all.</p>
<p>Pleased?? Not sure how you get that out of what I said. I just said it would be ironic, is all, with all the doom-and-gloom predictions, as you yourself mentioned.</p>
<p>Actually, I wouldn’t say they haven’t materialized yet. The only one that didn’t was Y2K. Massive deaths from environmental poisons is surely happening, and could very well get worse…and the natural disasters like earthquakes and meteors are accurately predicted by scientists - it’s just that the window is rather long, as in decades and in some cases even centuries, so it’s really too early to tell (in other words, just because a meteor hasn’t hit the Earth in x number of years does not mean it won’t - many meteors have hit the Earth before so the odds WILL catch up with us sooner or later).</p>
<p>I wonder how they’re going to spin this, since it’s sort of like pestilence in reverse. By ‘they’ I mean those who actually try to orchestrate events to bring about ‘Armageddon.’</p>
<p>How about at the end? “If our bees continue to decline at the current rate, they will be completely gone by 2035.” :eek:</p>
<p>And it didn’t even mention the effects on wild plants and, hence, wildlife.</p>
<p>Yes, we saw the show last night & it is very disturbing and amazing to see the pear growers in China pollinating their trees by hand. My husband had to pollinate some of our garden this year due to the lack of bees-most was pollinated by other flying insects.</p>
<p>My husband has been keeping 1-2 hives since the 70’s and it’s become a family hobby and we have been watching this very closely.</p>
<p>Beekeeper here. The bees in question were almost all (almost) used in transient pollination service. That means they were trucked to CA to pollinate almonds in Feb-Mar, then up to Oregon, then to FL, and so forth. They are highly stressed and subjected to a lot of pesticide crop spraying. The largest beekeepers (10,000 hives and up) were highly affected. This isn’t the first time it has happened, but like all natural disasters, the press gets better and better so they seem worse. The bees are doing well in many areas and are already recovering in affected areas. If you want to help, limit pesticide use when plants are blooming (or eliminate it completely). If you have to spray, spray after sunset or very early in the mornings when the bees aren’t flying. You can also help by stopping unnecessary laws against beekeeping in urban areas.</p>
<p>Thanks, bandit! That’s a relief to hear that there is a logical explanation. That the stress of being transported would weaken their immune systems makes sense. The Nature show I saw did not say that most of the bees affected had been transported.</p>
<p>That would have ruined a good scare story.</p>
<p>Side note.
The Asian Pears that I have are pretty much self pollinating. I have abandoned the pear trees because they set to much and the amount of labor in reducing the fruit set is enormous. You can tell if the fruit is self pollinating if the stamen (female part) is lower than the pistols (male part) where the pollen is produced.</p>
<p>Loss of bees is frightening and in the area that I live, Willamette Valley foothills, I have noticed the bee loss for many years. It is now rare that I see a honey bee, and all of the commercial orchards around me have been pulled. </p>
<p>Advice to homeowners: use only one quarter to one half of recommended amount, add a spreader agent, never spray on a windy day, spray early morning and, use pesticides only when needed and not broad spectrum.</p>
<p>Judging by the bees swarming and nesting in the siding of my house – repeatedly – over the past three months, my point-of-view is that bees are on a rampage and far too populous. I wish the bees near my house would succumb.</p>
<p>LedZep fan: Surely there is some nice beekeeper who would be delighted to take them off your hands! Please find a way to relocate them. They are too valuable to kill.</p>
<p>I’ve had a guy vacuum them out and take them away to sell, but it hasn’t gotten rid of my problem.</p>
<p>You’re right, though. Elimination, not extermination, provides a win-win. So far, though, it’s been a win-no result experience.</p>
<p>The only way to really eliminate bees in a wall is to open the wall and remove the comb. If you leave the comb you will have an eternal mess. First the comb can melt and you have honey running in your walls with the associated roaches and ants. Second, bees can smell old comb and will continue to repopulate the wall.<br>
Beekeepers should charge for removing bees. It’s hard work and you seldom get a viable hive as a result. I’m now at $75 and hour for working inside a beesuit in the Texas heat and it’s not enough. I just do it because nobody else will help people, including exterminators. I turned down more than I removed this year do to lack of time, and I’m still getting calls weekly this late in the year.</p>