The Bees Are Disappearing Again (seattletimes.com) 49
"Honeybee colonies are under siege across much of North America..." reported the New York Times last week. [Alternate URL here.] Last winter beekeepers across America "began reporting massive beehive collapses. More than half of the roughly 2.8 million colonies collapsed, costing the industry about $600 million in economic losses..."
America's Department of Agriculture says "sublethal exposure" to pesticides remains one of the biggest factors threatening honeybees, according to the article — but it's one of several threats. "Parasites, loss of habitat, climate change and pesticides threaten to wipe out as much as 70% or more of the nation's honeybee colonies this year, potentially the most devastating loss that the nation has ever seen." Some years are worse than others, but there has been a steady decline over time. Scientists have named the phenomenon colony collapse disorder: Bees simply disappear after they fly out to forage for pollen and nectar. Illness disables their radar, preventing them from finding their way home. The queen and her brood, if they survive, remain defenseless.
The precise causes remain unknown.
Bee colonies have become even more vulnerable because of the increase in extreme weather conditions, including droughts, heat waves, monster hurricanes, explosive wildfires and floods that have damaged or destroyed the bees and the vegetation they pollinate. If that isn't bad enough, parasites — and other creatures researchers refer to as "biotic" threats that prey on bees — proliferate when there is damage to ecosystems.
All that means that the U.S. beekeeping industry has contracted by about 2.9% over the past five years, according to data collected by IBISWorld, a research firm. Annual loss rates have been increasing among all beekeepers over the past decade with the most significant colony collapses in commercial operations happening during the past five years.
The article notes that "compounding the troubles for the bee industry are recent federal cuts" proposed by DOGE to America's Department of Agriculture, "where researchers were studying ways to protect the nation's honeybees." And while federal policies like tariffs could make farming more expensive, "Beekeepers also often depend on immigrants to manage their hives and to help produce commercial honey..."
America's Department of Agriculture says "sublethal exposure" to pesticides remains one of the biggest factors threatening honeybees, according to the article — but it's one of several threats. "Parasites, loss of habitat, climate change and pesticides threaten to wipe out as much as 70% or more of the nation's honeybee colonies this year, potentially the most devastating loss that the nation has ever seen." Some years are worse than others, but there has been a steady decline over time. Scientists have named the phenomenon colony collapse disorder: Bees simply disappear after they fly out to forage for pollen and nectar. Illness disables their radar, preventing them from finding their way home. The queen and her brood, if they survive, remain defenseless.
The precise causes remain unknown.
Bee colonies have become even more vulnerable because of the increase in extreme weather conditions, including droughts, heat waves, monster hurricanes, explosive wildfires and floods that have damaged or destroyed the bees and the vegetation they pollinate. If that isn't bad enough, parasites — and other creatures researchers refer to as "biotic" threats that prey on bees — proliferate when there is damage to ecosystems.
All that means that the U.S. beekeeping industry has contracted by about 2.9% over the past five years, according to data collected by IBISWorld, a research firm. Annual loss rates have been increasing among all beekeepers over the past decade with the most significant colony collapses in commercial operations happening during the past five years.
The article notes that "compounding the troubles for the bee industry are recent federal cuts" proposed by DOGE to America's Department of Agriculture, "where researchers were studying ways to protect the nation's honeybees." And while federal policies like tariffs could make farming more expensive, "Beekeepers also often depend on immigrants to manage their hives and to help produce commercial honey..."
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
But you sound worse by dismissing it out of hand because you don't want to hear about it.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
They are all dirty, EV or ICE.
no, this is a lie.
A quick google reveals:
"Mining these materials, however, has a high environmental cost, a factor that inevitably makes the EV manufacturing process more energy intensive than that of an ICE vehicle. The environmental impact of battery production comes from the toxic fumes released during the mining process and the water-intensive nature of the activity. In 2016, hundreds of protestors threw dead fish plucked from the waters of the Liqui river onto the streets of Tagong, Tibet, publicly denouncing the Ganzi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Sounds like a touchy subject for you.
Re:Climate Change (Score:5, Insightful)
I get it, science is difficult. Those science guys are constantly changing their story when new information arrives. And how can an ordinary person be expected to keep up. The lack of eternal, absolute truths makes science totally worthless compared to the warm comfort of cult thinking.
Re: (Score:2)
Those science guys are constantly changing their story when new information arrives.
That's not really true.
While some minor tweaks in the models do happen, the story on the global warming has not changed in decades.
More importantly, all measurements confirm that we've decided to go for the worst case.
Re: (Score:1)
Chicken Little. (Score:3)
without the chicken littles blaming it on "muh climate change".
You ... do know chicken little was right all along in that movie ... right?
European honeybees are not a native species (Score:4, Informative)
The European honeybee is not native to north America.
The honeybees used in modern commercial agriculture are actually migrant farm workers. Companies specialize in supplying pollination services and truck the bees all around to different farms to assist with pollination as needed by the farmers.
The collapse of honey bee colonies, by itself, does not represent an ecosystem collapse. It is more of a crisis for commercial agriculture (which is still a very important thing). But the factors thought to be contributing to this collapse are also mostly commercial agriculture practices. This seems to be a problem for commercial agriculture caused by commercial agriculture.
There are plenty of other native pollinators for native plants. They just aren't as efficient at pollinating commercial crops as the European honeybee is. Also, many of the native pollinators are also in jeopardy because of lack of habitat.
Re: (Score:2)
Oblig OrangeGPT (Score:2)
"Illegal bees, I toldja they cause problems, they are too lazy to make honey, spending all day on gang stuff, like spray-painting daisies and pooping on Teslas, terrible terrible stuff, everyone sees it, and the woke commie Dems do nothing, let illegal bees flutter around like Kim Guilfoyle's lips, so sad! Let's get real alpha male American bees and make American honey again! Not Pooh Bear shi
Re:European honeybees are not a native species (Score:4, Funny)
Human beings aren't a native species to North America either. They walked here thousands of years ago, and then ate all the mammoths.
Re: (Score:2)
Human beings aren't a native species to North America either. They walked here thousands of years ago, and then ate all the mammoths.
And ate all the horses.
And one wave of ancient migrants killed off the preceding wave of ancient migrants.
And some of the ancient migrants came by boat long before Europeans.
History, its more complicated than most realize.
Re: (Score:2)
Good parallel. And just like with honey bees, overpopulation of a single species is causing environmental collapse.
Re: (Score:1)
"The honeybees used in modern commercial agriculture are actually migrant farm workers."
So they didn't die, they got deported?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Gay bees, who knew?
The cause is obvious (Score:2)
They can't afford the tariffs.
Re: (Score:2)
They can't afford the tariffs.
No tariffs, they are domestic producers.
Re:The cause is obvious (Score:4, Funny)
They're European honeybees - they've been told to self-deport immediately.
Re: (Score:2)
They're European honeybees - they've been told to self-deport immediately.
Nah, they are socialists and decided to leave entirely on their own.
Hardly a bee so far (Score:4, Interesting)
Flowers have been in bloom here (north of Seattle) for three weeks now, and I've so far only seen two bees.
I'll know we're in real trouble if I don't see bees swarming the cotoneasters later this year.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm north of you, just across the border. I'm seeing more bumblebees then I have in a decade or so.
We have tried changing nothing and its not worked (Score:1)
Thank goodness for the robotic bees ... (Score:3)
"Robot bees: The future of pollination?
MIT researchers are working on tiny robotic bees, capable of helping pollinators. But should we invest in robot bees, or focus on saving the real ones?"
https://environmentamerica.org... [environmentamerica.org]
I mean that's cute and all (Score:2)
One of the things you need to be careful about is when you see a crisis to not just assume some magic science is going to solve the problem. Especially in this day and age when we are constantly pulling resources and funding away from scientists or just plain actively attacking them because of various political nonsense
Re: (Score:2)
One of the things you need to be careful about is when you see a crisis to not just assume some magic science is going to solve the problem.
You mean like every other Malthusian crisis that science and engineering has avoided? :-)
Re: (Score:2)
I have seen an episode of the black mirror that started like this.
STOP THIS NONSENSE: There's *too many* honey bees (Score:2)
Honey bees are not native to the United States. Humans brought them here, we overbreed them, and transport them all over the country to crowd-out other pollinators. We were immensely successful at this for a time, but that time has changed. We have reached an ultimate limit where the environment can't sustain any more honey bees, and we need to stop pretending it is crisis. We make it worse by telling people in urban areas to put bee hives in their backyards, surrounded by a hostile pavement forest.
It is
What is wrong with legal immigrants? (Score:2)
> "Beekeepers also often depend on immigrants to manage their hives and to help produce commercial honey..."
1. I doubt many of the 20 million illegals that were allowed to flood into the US are beekeepers.
2. What is wrong with using *legal* immigrants?
3. What is wrong with US citizens doing the jobs?
Re: (Score:2)
1. I would presume when they talk about "beekeeping" especially on the scale of millions of hives that it is likely a very different and far more labor intensive job of many tasks than doing it as a hobby or some local honey operation. And like most ag jobs I imagine is hot, sweaty and backbreaking.
2. This is a pointless distinction. Find the folks tending the bees already, get their info, work permit, boom, they're legal. If they're here and working then good enough, what more do we want? Or I guess set
Self-inflicted by public health (Score:2)
I noticed a decade or more ago when Zika virus was a thing, various municipalities blew pesticides all over the place to kill mosquitos. One unfortunate side effect was it (apparently) killed the bees. In one place I was living in South Texas, the bee population appeared to disappear overnight. It still hasn't recovered. Bees appear to be quite fragile insects.
Re: (Score:2)
They have the disadvantage of being a social organism that can't survive without a community but other than that they not particularly weaker.
These bugs are designed to soak up pollen and maximize exposure to the upward facing flowers exposed to rain/poisons. Others don't purposely rub against every plant and eat from the surface.
If your food source was covered in poisons you touched and ate from new locations each time (all poisoned) then you had to do heavy labor and use all your concentration to navigate
Blame the Queens (Score:1)
Re: Blame the Queens (Score:1)
This is not hard (Score:2)
People plant invasive ornamentals that do not support local insects. People spray pesticides to kill undesirable insects. Problem is, those pesticides kill the bees too. This is simple common sense. In nature you have to take the bad with the good.