CNN Update on Honeybee die-off

Here is a new update from CNN (new to me anyway) regarding the Bee die-off across the country.
This seems to be added and updated information but

Scientists are struggling to figure out what is killing the honeybees, and early results of a key study this week point to some kind of disease or parasite.

Here is CNN site with the rest of the story

BELTSVILLE, Maryland (AP) -- Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of America's honeybees could have a devastating effect on the country's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing its people to a glorified bread-and-water diet.

Honeybees do not just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops the country has.

Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, Americans could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.

"This is the biggest general threat to our food supply," Hackett said.

While not all scientists foresee a food crisis, noting that large-scale bee die-offs have happened before, this one seems particularly baffling and alarming.

U.S. beekeepers in the past few months have lost one-quarter of their colonies -- or about five times the normal winter losses -- because of what scientists have dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder.

Oh and by the way, I found this particular comment very interesting, I will past it here in a moment.
Scientist began irradiating the abandoned bee hives and the bees returned, here is a direct quote from the article I posted above.

A quick experiment with some of the devastated hives makes pesticides seem less likely. In the recent experiment, Pettis and colleagues irradiated some hard-hit hives and reintroduced new bee colonies. More bees thrived in the irradiated hives than in the non-irradiated ones, pointing toward some kind of disease or parasite that was killed by radiation.

So theyre still diagnosing this problem a parasites or disease as being the cause.

You know I believe the honeybee’s is dying off for one reason and one reason only. The so called killer bees that came over to our country about 10 years ago.

I believe some scientist were experimenting with these killer bees when some accident happen and they got loose. So now here we are.

It was talked about then how these bees would take over a hive and kill these innocent honeybees.

You know, out of all the doomsday stuff you hear about here, I beleive that the issue with the honey bees dying is the most alarming.

If no solution is found to this problem we are in big trouble.

I suppose its possible. I remember about 15 years ago, I lived on a Tx Barrier Island. I came home from work one day and a swarm of about 5000 killer bees had set up shack on the bottom of the palm fronds of a palm tree that was about 8-10 feet tall. I am extremely afraid of bees and wasps of any kind, to the point that it is a phobia. Ive jumped out of a boat to avoid a bumble bee when i was a kid lol.
Anyway our local fire dept came out with a hose connected to a vat of detergent. yep, basic soap kills these things on contact..