You’re Worrying About the Wrong Bees

You’re Worrying About the Wrong Bees

So I saw this article the other day and meant to make a thread about it, but didn't have the time to sit and respond to people's posts after doing it so I decided to wait until I could.

Much has been said about the bee extinction epidemic, but this article points out that it isn't the honey bees that are the problem. They'll be fine because humans have domesticated them. It is all the OTHER bees going extinct that is the problem.

Honey bees will be fine. They are a globally distributed, domesticated animal. Apis mellifera will not go extinct, and the species is not remotely threatened with extinction.

The bees you should be concerned about are the 3,999 other bee species living in North America, most of which are solitary, stingless, ground-nesting bees you’ve never heard of. Incredible losses in native bee diversity are already happening. 50 percent of Midwestern native bee species disappeared from their historic ranges in the last 100 years. Four of our bumblebee species declined 96 percent in the last 20 years, and three species are believed to already be extinct. A little part of me despairs when I read in a scientific paper: “This species probably should be listed under the Endangered Species Act if it still exists.”

This is quite a long article and I suggest you read all of it before posting as I won't be posting large bits of it in this thread. I do want to discuss some of the bigger points in the OP though. First, I want to point out that honey bees aren't the primary source for pollination of plants. They aren't equipped to do it and can't compensate for other bees when they fall behind.

Managed honey bee colonies supplement the work of natural wild pollinators, not the other way around. In a study of 41 different crop systems worldwide, honeybees only increased yield in 14 percent of the crops. Who did all the pollination? Native bees and other insects.

In watermelons, native bees do 90 percent of the pollination.
Native bees improve fruit production in apples. Native bee pollination creates twice as much fruit as honey bees in blueberries. In tomatoes, native bee species increase fruit production significantly.

Honey bees aren’t physically big enough to successfully pollinate tomatoes; it takes a burly bumble bee to do the job. In a lot of crops, specialist pollinators do a better job than generalist honey bees.

The article also points out a neglected study that shows a decrease in bee pollination in response to testing various pesticides.

Last week, the big bee news was a suggestion nicotine-derived pesticides can cause honey bee addiction. But you might have missed another important paper that looked at the same group of pesticides on both honey bees and native bees. This massive study paired multiple plantings of seeds coated with a neonicotinoid pesticide with seed treated only with a fungicide. This was one of the largest tests to date of how pesticides and bees interact in a real-world situation, outside a laboratory.

Honey bees weren’t affected by the seed treatments. But wild bees were affected, and in a big way. Wild bee density in the treated fields was half that of the untreated fields. Bumble bee colonies grew more slowly, and produced fewer queens. Solitary bee nests disappeared from the treated fields completely.

The thing is that solitary bees are the most common type of bee and if we are destroying them, we will have a SERIOUS problem on our hands in the future. Imagine large fields of plantlife disappearing because they cannot get pollinated properly. Bees are our friends and sometimes they hurt, but we need to take care of them so they can take care of us.

I don't need anymore information than I saw in your OP. If I was trying to push counteracting the use of pesticides I would need it. But sadly, the people allowing this just take the word of the companies making these chemicals. We can't do much more than sign petitions that someone writes up with evidence like this. They know of this in Europe and are trying to lessen the use of these pesticides now, but here in America the chemical companies have lots of people brainwashed with misapplied evidence or evidence that neglects to test all things. Their parameters exclude things they shouldn't which shows that they are safe.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, this stuff effects us also, but they do not test for everything, saying the only pertinent part of our DNA is the small part that codes for proteins. This is the biggest lie I have ever heard, if our DNA did not need the other ninety nine percent of junk, it would have evolved out for lack of need.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Good Thread and nice information here.
This does Suck!
The Chem Companies Suck More!
I am inclined to agree with Ricky as well.
Our dangers from the pesticides are not even talked about in the mainstream.
It will someday, IMO, take it's Toll on Us as a Species.....
Sad times for all indeed......
Alas, Such is This Ride......
It Is What It Is.
And IT Isn't Good!!!

Syx...

Great information thanks. I will give this thread a B +

Great info' & quite logical too.
Cheers

a reply to: rickymouse

Do you have any links to info in Europe about how they go about this? I'm curious about it.

I love bees, all of them!

They are working their butts off every season, to PROVIDE for the ecosystem (that thing humans are slowly destroying)..

Without em, who does the work? Who pollinated, who's gets honey in my tea?

No one but the bee!

a reply to: Krazysh0t

www.sciencedaily.com...

WHO is going to all the chemicals that they previously approved and testing them themselves. They are trying to stop their people from getting sick there. They wised up a bit there.

originally posted by: rickymouse
a reply to: Krazysh0t

www.sciencedaily.com...

WHO is going to all the chemicals that they previously approved and testing them themselves. They are trying to stop their people from getting sick there. They wised up a bit there.

NICE! Hopefully the US will wise up soon and follow their example.

"If we only investigate how a new pesticide affects honeybees, that is not sufficient to predict the consequences for wild bees in a real landscape," said Maj Rundlöf.

"The results show that it is inappropriate to use clothianidin on rapeseed," said Thorsten Rahbek Pedersen, project manager at the Swedish Board of Agriculture. "We need alternative preparations and new cultivation methods if we are to continue growing spring rapeseed in Sweden."

Exactly!

Krazy,

I want to ask one question: "Why aren't farmers complaining about this?"

I mean, they're the ones buying the pesticides from the manufacturers. You'd think this would ultimately lead to the demise of their businesses.

-Cheers

originally posted by: Snarl
Krazy,

I want to ask one question: "Why aren't farmers complaining about this?"

I mean, they're the ones buying the pesticides from the manufacturers. You'd think this would ultimately lead to the demise of their businesses.

-Cheers

I wouldn't be sure myself. My first guess would be that they aren't aware that they are doing the damage that they are doing. My second guess would be that they know but don't want to switch pesticides because of price issues and the government not forcing them. My third guess would be a combination of the two. Your mileage my vary though.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Take a look if you can :

The Vanishing of the Bees

a reply to: Snarl

The farmers are the cause I'm not sorry to say.

Over use and mismanagement of pesticides is the problem here.