The Science and Politics Behind Colony Collapse Disorder; Is the Crisis Over?

iONiUM writes: An article at the Globe and Mail claims that there is no longer any Honeybee crises, and that the deaths of the Honeybees previously was a one-off, or possibly non-cyclical occurrence (caused by neonics or nature — the debate is still out). The data used is that from Stats Canada which claims "the number of honeybee colonies is at a record high [in Canada]." Globally, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization says that "worldwide bee populations have rebounded to a record high." The story reports: "I have great news for honey lovers everywhere. The Canadian honeybee industry is thriving. Despite those headlines about mass die-offs and and killer pesticides, the number of honeybee colonies is at a record high. Last year, according to Statistics Canada, nearly 700,000 honeybee colonies produced $200-million worth of honey. Bee survival rates have rebounded even in Ontario, which was hard hit by unusually high winter die-offs."

Comments

I'm going with it was a new pesticide...

[Karmashock]

... and they stopped using it.

So problem solved... now.

Meh.

By the way, has anyone personally ever tried to grow a lot of plants? My god the insects. I went through something like 5 different pesticides to kill these little fruit flies that were giving me a horrible problem.

I tried all the organic stuff. Aromatic oils... insecticidal soaps... The aromatic oils make my plants smell like a dumpster filled with cheap perfume... on fire. And the soaps do totally kill the insects that I personally nail with the soap... But... anything I miss is going to be fine. I went through this progression of increasingly aggressive pesticides. I think the last one I used worked... I'm still waiting to make sure. But it appears to have finally killed about 90 percent of the insect population. I'm looking for 100 percent but maybe that's too much to hope for.

Next move is to try some friendly bacterias and other organisms that are said to be good at killing the pest in question. But yeah. Once you've dealt with this you get a lot sympathy for farmers dealing with pests. You start to have this reaction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Not the end of the crisis yet...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you gotta admit they were pretty successful wiping out the middle class.