www.cnn.com...
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's
commercially managed hives lost since last year.
Bees are dying at unsustainable levels, the president of the Apiary Inspectors of America says.
Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.
As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new
diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.
This is the second year the association has measured colony deaths across the country. This means there aren't enough numbers to show a trend, but
clearly bees are dying at unsustainable levels and the situation is not improving, said vanEngelsdorp, also a bee expert with the Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture.
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Every time I go outside and see bees in my yard, I feel happy because it hasn't hit my house yet.
This is bad news for our food supply, which is already being heavily hit by shortages from Ethanol production and rising global demand. I don't know
why people aren't running around in a panic over this. I guess because it's easier to sweep it under the carpet and pretend it doesn't exist.
After all, it might mean we have to clean up the environment to fix it!
If the bees go, so do the rest of us...
