Originally posted by greenfruit
Even if Bees should die out (North America) This is not a world wide problem.
Only one-third of the human diet is derived from insect-pollinated plants. So don't panic yet guys.

So what do the live stock eat which takes up most of the other 2/3's
IMO we don't need bees, wasps and such will do the job.

More than half of all honey bees in Denmark died this winter... They believe they died from some virus, and they fear for the consequences.

About a year ago is when I first heard about the bees and didn't really think much about it. My thought at first was it will be nice to barbecue and not have them hanging around.

Well I could have smacked myself but after I thought about it I knew as much as them being a pain there is a reason for them.

What I was mostly surprised was when we called the exterminator and them saying they don't kill them because we need them because of all the missing bees. When he said he will try and look to get a beekeeper it really hit home at how important it is we them those pain in the butt critters.

It has been known that you should watch the animals and they will tell you when something isn't right.

Has anyone here noticed that the frog population has dwindled significantly as well. When I was a kid it was nothing to go outside and catch 50 or so frogs in a night. Now I honestly can't tell when I last saw one.

Are bees intentionally being killed off to usher in the use of genetically modified seeds or other artificial food sources?

heres what i dont get though, if bees are dying off all over the world and its a huge problem, why has there been no increase in the price of honey combined with a decline in honey availability here in Australia?

blue gum honey, red gum honey, ordinary honey... the prices and availability are unchanged.

or is this problem mainly located in the USA?

I have heard about massive honey bee disappearance or die off from C2C and remember seeing a documentary about this almost a year ago. Seems the conclusion was multiple contributing factors like mites, viruses and fungi-more specifically a total failure of the bees immune system as some individual bees tested had multiple problems/diseases. Cell phone towers and EM fields were talked about as a possible cause but it seems it was dismissed back then. The problem has gotten so bad that I don't think it can easily be dismissed anymore.

I have heard about bee keepers here on the west coast (Oregon, California) loosing almost all of there bees and they are now forced to import bees for the first time. I think some effort needs to be done to track where the bees are going if that's not already being done. Are they all flying off in random directions or are they following some guy playing a flute? Lets start making a bunch of bee cams, and then maybe we can watch the big bumbles chase dgtempe around the yard.

Something to keep in mind about wild hives is that they have the ability to move away from problem areas, if there are any, and domestic hives are placed in locations where they are needed for crop pollination and then they all fly away or die. Are these locations problem areas? One more thing, if honey bees are responsible for 80% of all insect pollination then what's the percentage for edible food bearing plants? A chain reaction of this sort will most definitely be very bad regardless what Einstein has ever said.