Mystery Illness Killing U.S. Honeybees by the Thousands

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination.

Researchers are scrambling to find the cause of the ailment, called Colony Collapse Disorder.

Reports of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 22 states. Some affected commercial beekeepers — who often keep thousands of colonies — have reported losing more than 50 percent of their bees. A colony can have roughly 20,000 bees in the winter, and up to 60,000 in the summer.

SOURCE | Fox News

Oh really? If mysterious bird diseases weren't enough, now we have some strange disease killing off bees? Very strange. The article reinforces the idea that bee-experts are completley perplexed by this occurance. There are 22 states currently affected by this. I would think that something like this would have to spread... not just pop up. This is not something that should just *poof* enter the scene. Interesting.


[edit on 11-2-2007 by damajikninja]

Most people don't know how serious this is. With out the bees and their pollinaztion of all sorts of crops, vinyards, orchards; the food supply could be in serious danger unless someother method of pollinazation of plants can be found.

Originally posted by whaaa
Most people don't know how serious this is. With out the bees and their pollinaztion of all sorts of crops, vinyards, orchards; the food supply could be in serious danger unless someother method of pollinazation of plants can be found.

EXACTLY. That would be just one of a few implications of a bee population drop. Not to mention we might not have Honey Nut Cheerios anymore...

Really though... it is my understanding that insects are very hardy to viruses and bacteria... how is it that a huge population of "bugs" can all start dying out in seperate geographic locations at once?

Could this be a "bad step" in their genome? Was this an eventuality? AmI thinking to hard?? lolol

[edit on 11-2-2007 by damajikninja]

It seems especially strange since bees produce honey, the perfect food that doesn't grow bacteria, I would somehow expect them to have highly functional immune systems as well.

It's always about the birds and the bees..............

Originally posted by interestedalways
It's always about the birds and the bees..............

Auspicious words, IA.

A scary scenario.

The first thought in my mind was 'who benefits(?)' and I started thinking genetically altered Terminator seeds.

But that's just me...

Man, this is realy scary... first the birds, now the bees. What will be next?

This isn't the first time the bee scare's been around.

Seems to me it wasn't an illness, bacteria or virus that was killing them last time, but a parasitic mite that invades the hives.

I wonder if it's something along the lines of what member loam posted today...

Killers on the move...

The life-threatening tropical fungus has entrenched itself on Vancouver Island's east coast, sickening humans and animals — cats, dogs, pet birds, llamas, ferrets, horses and the prized Dall's porpoise. For a pathogen never expected in this corner of the world, the C. gattii strain in B.C. is flourishing at a rate at least 30 times more infectious than any other on the planet.

PS...Auspicious derives from Latin auspicium, "an omen, a sign," from auspex, "one who observes or looks at the habits of birds for purposes of divination," from avis, "bird" + specere, "to look, to look at."

Originally posted by masqua

The life-threatening tropical fungus has entrenched itself on Vancouver Island's east coast, sickening humans and animals —

What in the world is a tropical fungus? No wonder so many people are tired and don't feel good too much these days. We are surrounded by so much yuk.

PS...Auspicious derives from Latin auspicium, "an omen, a sign," from auspex, "one who observes or looks at the habits of birds for purposes of divination," from avis, "bird" + specere, "to look, to look at."

Thanks Masqua. That almost sounds like a definition from the mysterious first language "the language of the birds"

We had a major bee die off in Texas a few years ago which they found to be due to a parasite. They have since brought in bees resistant to the parasite and have also found a method of keeping it under control. During the time of the die off though I noticed that the pollination of my garden was mainly handled by wasps. It was if they suddenly doubled in numbers, red wasps, black wasps, yellow jackets and took over the job that the bees usually had. My garden did not produce at the usual level, but was not far off. So I would recommend to stop killing the wasps as they do more than sting; they also go after garden pests and pollinate the garden.

[edit on 12-2-2007 by seentoomuch]

Crop-helping honeybees dying mystery deaths USA Today
Alarm sounded over US honey bee die-off Wikinews

Bees pollinate $15 billion worth of U.S. crops/year and now we have Colony Collapse Disorder. The Varroa destructor mites has been ravaging the western honeybee for several years. The damage became so extensive a couple years ago, my alumni had to ship in bees from back East so the college's agriculture program could actually see some decent crop yields and to study the plight of our honeybee.

Who has the most to lose? All growers that don't use GMO products or have the resources to hand pollinate. GMO corn was banned in southern Mexico since 1998, since then GMO has been the culprit behind wiping out the Monarch butterfly and contaminating many species of native corn in Mexico.

Bee deaths threaten crops The Evening Sun
State planning to import bees to boost crops Stockton Record
Farmers scramble for dwindling numbers of bees to pollinate crops Longview Daily News

If some corporation is purposely trying to destroy the food supply by destroying insect pollinators, heads oughta roll! This is during a time of a 10 year high in grain prices, rising meat prices, tortillo protests and soaring ethanol demand.

GM Crops Harm Wildlife ISIS

Hey cool - looks like I was the first person to post about the Bee problem! Well, somebody made a post back in 2004, but other than that, I win!

lol

Seriously though, there has been a lot of BEE talk since this thread. Some people have even linked it back to HAARP. I am rather interested in HAARP again, and this BEE connection intrigues me. Need to research...

This just in from BBC:

Virus implicated in bee decline

A virus has emerged as a strong suspect in the hunt for the mystery disease killing off North American honeybees.

Genetic research showed that Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) turned up regularly in hives affected by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

More as it unfolds.

From what I've read one of the causes the bee's were dying off was an Asian Parasite.

I started this thread last month.

Asian Parasite Killing Western Bees - Scientist

Here is a quote from the article in that thread

Source

MADRID - A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years.

What is this parasite?

The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae said Mariano Higes, who leads a team of researchers at a government-funded apiculture centre in Guadalajara, the province east of Madrid that is the heartland of Spain's honey industry.

How can these parasites be stopped?

Treatment for nosema ceranae is effective and cheap -- 1 euro (US$1.4) a hive twice a year -- but beekeepers first have to be convinced the parasite is the problem.

From what I read in Wikipedia, the parasites weaken the bee's, then when they go out foraging for food, they become exhausted and die far away from the hive. That is why it seems like the bee's were just disappearing.

So, that is what I have read about why the bee's are dying off, but maybe it's parasites AND a virus killing them off!


[edit on 6/9/07 by Keyhole]

Originally posted by damajikninja
Hey cool - looks like I was the first person to post about the Bee problem! Well, somebody made a post back in 2004, but other than that, I win!

lol

Seriously though, there has been a lot of BEE talk since this thread.

So many threads on ATS now about the BEES... yet this thread hasn't been past page 1, and I only got one flag? Boo. Not that I need the points, but c'mon...

[edit on 9/11/2007 by damajikninja]

Albert Einstein speculated that "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left."