25,000 Bumble bees found dead in a Target parking lot.

Oregon scientists investigate mass death of bumble bees

This is not good news at all.
I'm not anywhere near Oregon, so maybe someone up there can fill us in a little bit more. But where I am in VA. Bumble bees are the only bees I have seen at all this year. I have yet to see a single honey bee.

"We're aware of a pesticide application in the vicinity, but have not yet identified the active ingredient. We are in the process of interviewing parties that may have applied the pesticide," said Dale Mitchell with the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Just speculation on my part, but I would not be surprised at all to learn a Monsanto product was involved here.

took this from the link you gave

WILSONVILLE -- It's a mystery that has prompted an investigation by the State of Oregon. Thousands of dead bumblebees are blanketing a parking lot in Wilsonville. The plaza, just off Interstate 5 that houses Costco, Target, a Sprint store and Panda Express to name a few, has about 65 European Linden trees. Since the weekend, dead bumblebees have been falling from the trees. Experts estimate there have been more than 25,000 dead bees. On Sunday, the bees started falling from the trees until shoppers reported them to the various stores. "They were just evenly spread out over the entire parking lot," said Mace Vaughan, Pollinator Conservation Program Director with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Monday, the calls flooded The Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. "(The were) just telling us that there seemed to be an incredible, awful bumblebee die-off and could we get out here to look and see what was going on," said Vaughan. Wednesday, KGW found even more dead or dying bees falling from the trees. "I've never seen any sort of a die-off of bumblebees on this scale," said Vaughan. The group called in the Oregon Department of Agriculture who opened an investigation. They said they're looking into whether a pesticide on the trees killed the bees. "We're aware of a pesticide application in the vicinity, but have not yet identified the active ingredient. We are in the process of interviewing parties that may have applied the pesticide," said Dale Mitchell with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. But, they're also looking into whether the trees played a part. European Linden trees have been known to kill bees in Europe. Vaughan and his staff have collected their own samples and they're sending them to a lab in North Carolina that specifically tests for insecticides in bees and flowers. Vaughan said this is devastating because bumblebees are incredibly important to us all. "The Willamette Valley is the heart of blueberry country, raspberry country, blackberry country. We are the biggest seed producing state in the union. All of those crops, bumblebees are critically important, probably the most important pollinator," he added.

reply to post by watchitburn

reply to post by watchitburn



I'm not too far from you, in north-west Virginia, and have the same absence of honey bees.

May 2012 was the last time I saw honey bees at my home. There were hundreds for a few days in my Euonymus alata (burning bush), but haven't seen one since then.

Not 5 minutes ago, I noticed the bumble bees on my Hosta blossoms.
It seems like many other bees and wasps are around: Carpenter bees (ugh-my deck railing & fascia can't take much more), giant hornets, baldface hornets, and wasps of several variety are ever present--but no honeybees.

I'm going to try to talk to the owner of a nearby apple orchard and ask him what is pollenating his trees.
With the absence of honey bees, we can't lose the bumbles, too.

reply to post by watchitburn


Oregon is where they found that rogue strain of Wheat that has pretty much blocked all the US wheat exports. Maybe something to do with this? How far away is this Target from the field they found the GM wheat?

I have yet to see a honey bee in my area (northeast) and it's the middle of June. Tons of Bumblebees that annoy me when tending to the lawn, but no honey bees.

This is very, very bad.

reply to post by chaakin


I had almost forgotten about that.
Good call, and definitely worth looking into.

reply to post by Olivine


Carpenter bees scare the crap out of me. Have you ever been stung by one of them? I swatted one away from my daughter once and the sting hurt like H3LL! I don't like those things..but never kill them..I feel bad about killing anything even wasp..but I don't like them..I wish they would leave my wood fence alone. I do find it interesting how they drill a completely perfect hole though

I am confused..so those little bees that hang low on the ground everywhere aren't honeybees? I thought they were..I am going to have to use picture id to figure this out.

reply to post by Neopan100


Bumble bees are the green/yellow and black ones, generally about 2x the size of a honey bee.
I try not to kill them either, unless they come in my house. Then they are treated like any other intruder.

reply to post by watchitburn


I've never seen a swarm of bumbles. They always seem to be loners from what I have observed. Here in Ohio, I am seeing honey bees, but also a larger than normal population of wasps. I can't stand wasps and the feeling is mutual.

I tried to hunt down exactly where that wheat field was, but none of the articles about it specify. It had to be somewhere in the Willamette Valley corridor though; the eastern part of Oregon is probably too dry for wheat farming, and there's two mountain ranges that aren't conducive either. I would guess it was probably somewhere between me (southern Oregon) and the Salem area, so mid-central Oregon.

The Wilsonville location is just south of Portland, which is at the north end of the state, so probably these two occurrences are about 200 miles apart.

The article is correct about the Willamette Valley's produce; the variety and quality of the nuts and berries grown here is stunning.

Poor bumblebees

Sad and alarming,good the cause has been found and the situation is being looked into.

Insecticide Safari confirmed in deaths of 25,000 bees in Wilsonville

OregonLive

Safari, which uses the insecticide dinotefuran is to be on a temporary ban(one of 3 in the nitro group) in the Euro Union by the end of the year,was on the trees:

Bee proof netting is being installed on those trees according to Huffington post source.

I have seen Honeybees north of there in Metro Vancouver pollinating my front yard flowers so they aren't totally gone.

I was actually surprised to see them.

reply to post by watchitburn


I dunno what the folks at Monsanto think we're gonna do when all the Honey-Bees have all but died off. I hope they're working on self-pollinating plants or we're gonna be screwed before long.

reply to post by watchitburn


It sounds like it was an accident. A landscaping company applied insecticide when the trees were in bloom.

grist.org...

reply to post by ThreeNF


That's unfortunate.
You would think landscaping companies would be required to have policies in place to prevent accidents of this nature.

25000 is a big hit for bumble bees to take. They are nowhere near as numerous as honey bees.

reply to post by watchitburn


All landscaping companies are quick to spray some sort of crap. It's how they make money. They will make up stories that some wild insect is going to eat your trees and so you need to spray them. People are really to blame for it - they want the perfect green, weed free lawn, bug free trees and most will spray whatever they can to obtain that.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
I can't stand wasps and the feeling is mutual.

I love my paper Wasps! They purge the cabbage fly caterpillars! They recall faces (can link to the ng article by request), so, I stay nice to them as long as they are in an unobtrusive area.

Even my Bee Balm and honey suckle did not attract Honey bees this year ( in NC)... lots of bumbles and carpenters, but no honey bees. It is very strange. I have to hand pollinate my squash.

J.B.

I have seen many bees here in NE Indiana. Both honey and bumblebees. I have never applied any chemical on the fruit trees, but only harvest sour cherries, of which there is a bumper crop this year.

To the poster who said bumbles seemed solitary, you are lucky! I've had several nests, usually in and around my compost bin. They burrowed into the compost early spring, before turning it, and I've even seen some come from underground, like yellow jackets. Due to allergies, we had to destroy the nests. Unfortunately that is the only available option.

Originally posted by xXxinfidelxXx
reply to post by watchitburn

 

I dunno what the folks at Monsanto think we're gonna do when all the Honey-Bees have all but died off. I hope they're working on self-pollinating plants or we're gonna be screwed before long.

No they think they are super smart and can outwit Mother Nature by creating a different kind of pesticide that kills the varroa mite, which it blames the decline on. Just don't buy anything at all that they are involved in and they will go out of business. It would require people getting off of grains largely but that isn't a bad thing - to cut back, use less and buy organic.

www.anairhoads.org...