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More Than 40% of US Honeybee Colonies Died In a 12-Month Period Ending In April
walterbyrd writes: The Agriculture Department released its annual honeybee survey Wednesday and it doesn't look good. More than 40% of U.S. honeybee colonies died in a 12-month period ending in April. While the precise cause of the honeybee crisis is unknown, scientists generally blame a combination of factors, including poor diets and stress. Some bees die from infestations of the Varroa mite, a bloodsucking parasite that weakens bees and introduces diseases to the hive. Environmental groups also point to a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. In April, the Environmental Protection Agency said it would stop approving new outdoor uses for those types of chemicals until more studies on bee health are conducted.
Over a 200 year period, 100% of the humans on the planet die ... of course, more are born to replace them so the population actually grows ... making that number that looked super duper scary ... pretty much normal.
So ... 40% in and of itself doesn't mean anything to me if Bees only live 2-3 years anyway.
How many new colonies were formed and how was the total population effected in the end.
The title and summary give no indication that something is wrong, only the indication that someone wants a sensationalist headline.
Facts please ... you know, news for nerds.
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The fact that urban bees are thiving [treehugger.com] in cities such as Paris and London, despite all the pollution in those environments, is inteesting.
Where the carpet bombing of these pesticides is not done.
Interesting indeed.
You forgot big oil, global warming, the War on Terror, the Koch Brothers, and all the other lefty bogeymen. May as well get them too while you're talking out of your ass.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Not three posts down and some lunatic brings up climate change.
I swear, it's the scientific version of "I have black friends".
In Alberta, where there are more commercial bee keeping operations than anywhere in Canada, of honey and other types, and where neonic use is higher than in many other places. Bees are simply are not having the problems seen elsewhere. The bee keepers association here in Alberta is strongly opposed to an outright neonic ban because it would severely hurt their pollination and honey business. Without neonics there would be a lot less Canola and other crops to pollinate.
Now, this isn't to say that neonics aren't a big part of the problem of bees dying elsewhere. It could have to do with how the neonics are being used. In Alberta they are used when treating the seeds with fungicide, and typically they are placed in the ground with a gravity-fed drill, or an air drill that blows them into the ground. So all the neonic residue gets placed under the soil. In other places, they use vacuum planters (corn, soybeans) which blows neonic-laden dust into the air. So it could be this that contributes to the problem.
While "innocent until proven guilty" is typically the right approach, "huge assholes until proven otherwise" has always been extremely accurate for Monsanto.
Australia uses the neonics differently, as I recall. Something about the way they spread the pesticide makes it less likely to interfere with bees.
That said, it's an insecticide. It's meant to kill insects, and they're generally pretty indiscriminate. It's also fairly likely that even if it's a sub-lethal dose for bees, it's a lethal dose for different beneficial insects.
I think there are multiple causes--varroa mites have been around for decades without causing such widespread colony collapse. We've got a changing climate and agricultural monocultures, as well as stress from neonics (which it turns out honeybees may prefer over non-treated nectar).
Looking for single causes is usually hopeless. But we can control our use of pesticides, so it's one of the things on the chopping block. One way or another, we have to bring this problem under control.