Colony Collapse Disorder: Cause Discovered?

A new study claims to have identified the cause (causes, really) of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious bee disease that is still killing honey bees.

May 25, 2010 at 4:43pm by Kim Flottum

The USDA announced on May 25th that preliminary evidence suggests two pathogens, that, when working in concert, can lead to the decline in a honey bee colony now called Colony Collapse Disorder.

This tandem attack has been suggested previously, both here and in other reports, but this is the first report to make it past scientific peer review. A Montana researcher has also been steering this research through what seems to be a desert of common sense in the traditional academic media, who seem to be hooked on the Israeli virus suspected some time ago as the leading cause of colony collapse disorder.

USDA Scientist Jay Evans, from the Beltsville Bee Lab presented his findings at the General Meeting Of Microbiology in San Diego, and was available for a live interview.

The two pathogens are not even closely related. One, a fungus, labeled Nosema cerena, enters the honey bee gut and damages the epithelial cells to complete its life cycle. These damaged cells provide an entryway for members of the RNA virus family Dicistroviridae to enter and wreak their havoc.

Jay suspects other stresses in the honey bee system are contributing to this, particularly poor nutrition. He suggested that colony collapse disorder tends to be a seasonal phenomena, occurring primarily in the spring, when a colony begins two very stressful activities. Old, overwintering bees must begin to both forage for additional food to feed their newly emerging brood, and at the same time convert that new found food into the royal and worker jelly needed by the new bees to grow correctly. (In a typical situation later in the season bees do one or the other activity, but not both, and never at the same time.) Both of these activities are incredibly taxing, and bees consume exceptional amounts of energy – often absorbing protein from their own bodies to compensate for this additional stress.

Nutritionally challenged bees require significant amounts of food to continue these activities, and Nosema cerena-damaged bees are unable to consume and utilize enough food to make this work. Starving to death because of this compromise, in a sense, is suspected, and the colony collapses.

Management to increase food stores in the fall for consumption in the spring, and controlling the Nosema fungus are recommendations to help beekeepers deal with colony collapse disorder. At least for now.

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/blogs/bees/colony-collapse-disorder-cause-0525?src=rss#ixzz0p6PlMmEz

Heat Forms Potentially Harmful Substance In High-fructose Corn Syrup, Bee Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Aug. 27, 2009) — Researchers have established the conditions that foster formation of potentially dangerous levels of a toxic substance in the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that is often fed to honey bees. Their study, which appears in the current issue of ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, may also have implications for soft drinks and dozens of other human foods that contain HFCS. The substance, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), forms mainly from heating fructose.

In the new study, Blaise LeBlanc and Gillian Eggleston and colleagues note HFCS's ubiquitous usage as a sweetener in beverages and processed foods. Some commercial beekeepers also feed it to bees to increase reproduction and honey production. When exposed to warm temperatures, HFCS can form HMF and kill honeybees. Some researchers believe that HMF may be a factor in Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disease that has killed at least one-third of the honeybee population in the United States.

The scientists measured levels of HMF in HFCS products from different manufacturers over a period of 35 days at different temperatures. As temperatures rose, levels of HMF increased steadily. Levels jumped dramatically at about 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The data are important for commercial beekeepers, for manufacturers of HFCS, and for purposes of food storage. Because HFCS is incorporated as a sweetener in many processed foods, the data from this study are important for human health as well," the report states. It adds that studies have linked HMF to DNA damage in humans. In addition, HMF breaks down in the body to other substances potentially more harmful than HMF.

---

Journal reference:

1. LeBlanc et al. Formation of Hydroxymethylfurfural in Domestic High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Its Toxicity to the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2009; 57 (16): 7369 DOI:10.1021/jf9014526

Adapted from materials provided by American Chemical Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090826110118.htm

A new study shows that heat can produce a potentially toxic substance in high-fructose corn syrup that may kill honeybees. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Beehive Fence Deters Elephant Raiders

Science News

ScienceDaily (June 6, 2009)

A fence made out of beehives wired together has been shown to significantly reduce crop raids by elephants, Oxford University scientists report.

The fence is constructed of log beehives suspended on poles beneath tiny thatched roofs (to keep off the sun). The hives are connected by eight metre lengths of fencing wire. Elephants avoid the hives and will attempt to push through the wire but this causes the hives to swing violently causing the elephants to fear an attack of angry bees.

The results of a pilot study in Kenya, published in the African Journal of Ecology, show that a farm protected by the beehive fence had 86 per cent fewer successful crop raids by elephants and 150 per cent fewer raiding elephants than a control farm without the fence.

The reduction occurred despite the fact that none of the hives were occupied at the time suggesting that elephants remember painful past encounters with African honeybees and avoid the sights and smells associated with them.

‘Our previous research has shown that elephants are scared away by recordings of the buzzing of angry bees,’ said Lucy King of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology who led the project in collaboration with the charity Save the Elephants. ‘We designed the beehive fence as an affordable and practical way of applying this knowledge to create a barrier that the elephants would be afraid to cross.’

‘The reaction from the farmers involved in our pilot study has been very positive,’ said Lucy King. ‘Our beehive fence design has been shown to be robust enough to survive elephant raids and cheap enough for farmers to construct themselves – especially as it also gives protection against cattle rustlers and, when occupied by colonies of African honeybees, will give the farmers two or three honey harvests a year that they can sell to offset the cost of building the fence.’

During the six-week pilot study the team used GPS to track one particularly notorious elephant raider dubbed ‘Genghis Khan’. Genghis was spotted raiding by several farmers and was observed amongst a herd of eighteen bull elephants returning from crop raids and his GPS movements were shown to closely match the routes of the raiding groups.

Despite their thick hides adult elephants can be stung around their eyes or up their trunks, whilst calves could potentially be killed by a swarm of stinging bees as they have yet to develop this thick protective skin.

Lucy King said: ‘We hope that these results will encourage farmers in other areas losing crops to elephant raiders to build their own beehive fences and help to reduce the conflict between humans and elephants that can lead to the tragedy of animals being shot, as well as farmers suffering devastating losses to the crops that are their livelihood.’

Adapted from materials provided by University of Oxford.

contributed by Mary Ann

Found: a cause of Colony Collapse Disorder [UPDATE] Hotlist

Go to link for updates and working tags

by Wee Mama

Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 11:23:35 AM PDT
Found: a cause of Colony Collapse Disorder Hotlist


News in recent years about Colony Collapse Disorder of bees raised concerns here over the past two years, reflected in part in Devilstower's diary. Good news! It appears that the cause has been identified, which is the first step to managing or avoiding the disease. A report today in Ars technica summarized research from Environmental Microbiology Reports. Spanish researchers found a parasitic fungus, Nosema ceranae, in two infected hives after eliminating other possible causes. More significantly, they were able to treat other hives with an antifungal, fumagillin, and completely cure the colonies.


Healthy on top, sick colony below


Here's the abstract (permitted by fair use, I believe):

Honeybee colony collapse is a sanitary and ecological worldwide problem. The features of this syndrome are an unexplained disappearance of adult bees, a lack of brood attention, reduced colony strength, and heavy winter mortality without any previous evident pathological disturbances. To date there has not been a consensus about its origins. This report describes the clinical features of two professional bee-keepers affecting by this syndrome. Anamnesis, clinical examination and analyses support that the depopulation in both cases was due to the infection by Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia), an emerging pathogen of Apis mellifera. No other significant pathogens or pesticides (neonicotinoids) were detected and the bees had not been foraging in corn or sunflower crops. The treatment with fumagillin avoided the loss of surviving weak colonies. This is the first case report of honeybee colony collapse due to N. ceranae in professional apiaries in field conditions reported worldwide.

Obviously treating every colony in the world with fumagillin would not be a good idea - too expensive, and certain to lead to resistance. But knowing the cause makes it much more likely that good practices can reduce the incidence, and the fumagillin makes a good back up if hygiene fails.

Thought you all would enjoy getting some good news on this lovely spring day! (Lovely here at least - hope most of you are also enjoying some true spring).

And some eye candy from UCSD:

Russians Saving U.S. from Colony Collapse Disorder

Russian bees are stationed at the White House. (That's a good thing.)

April 14, 2009 at 12:47PM by Kim Flottum


Buzz up!

Here's a thought on the current status of Colony Collapse Disorder. Long ago...well, just over 50 years ago or so, but not too far away from where I am now, a group of University and USDA Honey Bee Scientists gathered to study a problem that had been plaguing beekeepers in all parts of the country for a couple of years. Beekeepers were complaining that they were finding colonies devoid of bees, gone, empty and barren, and nothing was left behind to give a clue as to what had happened. Quick research showed that this wasn't a new problem, and indeed had occurred quite a few times over the years...well, over the years that people had been keeping records about such things.

By the time the scientists had been rallied to do something by concerned beekeepers the situation had already gone on for a couple of seasons and was heading into the third. They wanted to meet it head on for the third year to see what could be done. Of course by the time they got together it was plain that the problem was abating...and in fact it was difficult to find samples to study.

One of the scientists was heard to say that it was a real task to study what they were calling disappearing disease, because every time they got together to study it..."the damn thing disappeared."

This spring, the damn thing seems to have disappeared again. We've looked at why we think this is the case, and, indeed, beekeepers have gone a long way in improving how they keep bees healthy. Better nutrition management, cleaner homes for the bees to live in, safer mite controls being used by beekeepers and of course many of the bees and beekeepers that were susceptible to whatever it was are gone.

Late last week a press release was issued by the White House and the USDA about one more thing that seems to have shown CCD to the door this year: honey bees that have some resistance to one of the suspected precursors of CCD – the varroa mite.
white house garden

The White House and CCD? Yes, the White House, the USDA and CCD.

Down in Baton Rouge, La., there's a USDA Honey Bee Research Lab. There, they've imported and refined several strains of pretty much mongrel bees from eastern Russia that have been living with varroa for over a hundred years. In that time those varroa mites have taken a terrible toll on those bees. But not all of them died. In fact, some have thrived, and it was offspring from these varroa- and tracheal mite-tolerant bees that came to America. After vigorous inspections and extended isolation time to make certain they were disease and pest free, plus a few years of controlled breeding to increase even more this tolerance to mites, they have been released to the beekeepers here that need them. The result is that beekeepers using Russian bees use far fewer (and often no) mite control chemicals to keep their bees healthy. Because of this they spend less money and less time with this aspect of their business, and they have happier bees to boot. Plus, they lose fewer colonies so that cost, too, is reduced. All in all, keeping these bees saves time, money, environmental contamination and reduces or eliminates any threat of hive product problems. And now, there's even a Russian Bee Breeders Association in place to insure quality control. For beekeepers everywhere, the Russians are coming.

And now, apparently, Russians are coming to the White House. This July the White House hive is to get one of these USDA developed Russian Queens so that varroa tolerance will reside in DC, too. The White House and the Secretary of the Department Of Agriculture engineered this late last week, and come July, a Russian will be living at the White House. How sweet is that?

Honeybees in Danger

Sunday 12 April 2009

by: Evaggelos Vallianatos, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Industrial, pesticide-dependent agricultural practices in the United States are creating a death trap for the honeybee and threatening the human-bee symbiotic relationship forged over millenia. (Photo: Getty Images)

When I was teaching at Humboldt State University in northern California 20 years ago, I invited a beekeeper to talk to my students. He said that each time he took his bees to southern California to pollinate other farmers' crops, he would lose a third of his bees to sprays. In 2009, the loss ranges all the way to 60 percent.

Honeybees have been in terrible straits.

A little history explains this tragedy.

For millennia, honeybees lived in symbiotic relationship with societies all over the world.

The Greeks loved them. In the eighth century BCE, the epic poet Hesiod considered them gifts of the gods to just farmers. And in the fourth century of our era, the Greek mathematician Pappos admired their hexagonal cells, crediting them with "geometrical forethought."

However, industrialized agriculture is not friendly to honeybees.

In 1974, the US Environmental Protection Agency licensed the nerve gas parathion trapped into nylon bubbles the size of pollen particles.

What makes this microencapsulated formulation more dangerous to bees than the technical material is the very technology of the "time release" microcapsule.

This acutely toxic insecticide, born of chemical warfare, would be on the surface of the flower for several days. The foraging bee, if alive after its visit to the beautiful white flowers of almonds, for example, laden with invisible spheres of asphyxiating gas, would be bringing back to its home pollen and nectar mixed with parathion.

It is possible that the nectar, which the bee makes into honey, and the pollen, might end up in some food store to be bought and eaten by human beings.

Beekeepers are well aware of what is happening to their bees, including the potential that their honey may not be fit for humans.

Moreover, many beekeepers do not throw away the honey, pollen and wax of colonies destroyed by encapsulated parathion or other poisons. They melt the wax for new combs: And they sell both honey and pollen to the public.

Government "regulators" know about this danger.

An academic expert, Carl Johansen, professor of entomology at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, called the microencapsulated methyl parathion "the most destructive bee poisoning insecticide ever developed."

In 1976, the US Department of Agriculture published a report by one of its former employees, S. E. McGregor, a honeybee expert who documented that about a third of what we eat benefits from honeybee pollination. This includes vegetables, oilseeds and domesticated animals eating bee-pollinated hay.

In 2007, the value of food dependent on honeybees was $15 billion in the United States.

McGregor also pointed out that insect-pollinated legumes collect nitrogen from the air, storing it in their roots and enriching the soil. In addition, insect pollination makes the crops more wholesome and abundant. He advised the farmer he should never forget that "no cultural practice will cause fruit or seed to set if its pollination is neglected."

In addition, McGregor blamed the chemical industry for seducing the farmers to its potent toxins. He said:

"Pesticides are like dope drugs. The more they are used the more powerful the next one must be to give satisfaction" and therein develops the spiraling effect, the pesticide treadmill. The chemical salesman, in pressuring the grower to use his product, practically assumes the role of the "dope pusher." Once the victim, the grower, is "hooked," he becomes a steady and an ever-increasing user.

No government agency listened to McGregor.

The result of America's pesticide treadmill is that now, in 2009, honeybees and other pollinators are moving towards extinction.

In October 2006, the US National Research Council warned of the" "demonstrably downward" trends in the populations of pollinators. For the first time since 1922, American farmers are renting imported bees for their crops. They are even buying bees from Australia.

Honeybees, the National Academies report said, pollinate more than 90 crops in America, but have declined by 30 percent in the last 20 years alone. The scientists who wrote the report expressed alarm at the precipitous decline of the pollinators.

Unfortunately, this made no difference to EPA, which failed to ban the microencapsulated parathion that is so deadly to honeybees.

Bee experts know that insecticides cause brain damage to the bees, disorienting them, making it often impossible for them to find their way home.

This is a consequence of decades of agribusiness warfare against nature and, in time, honeybees. In addition, beekeepers truck billions of bees all over the country for pollination, depriving them of good food, stressing them enormously, and, very possibly, injuring their health.

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Evaggelos Vallianatos, former EPA analyst, is the author of "This Land Is Their Land" and "The Passion of the Greeks.

SnagFilms Film Widget

Bee Species Outnumber Mammals And Birds Combined

ScienceDaily (Jun. 17, 2008) — Scientists have discovered that there are more bee species than previously thought. In the first global accounting of bee species in over a hundred years, John S. Ascher, a research scientist in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, compiled online species pages and distribution maps for more than 19,200 described bee species, showcasing the diversity of these essential pollinators. This new species inventory documents 2,000 more described, valid species than estimated by Charles Michener in the first edition of his definitive The Bees of the World published eight years ago.

"The bee taxonomic community came together and completed the first global checklist of bee names since 1896," says Ascher. "Most people know of honey bees and a few bumble bees, but we have documented that there are actually more species of bees than of birds and mammals put together."

The list of bee names finished by Ascher and colleagues was placed online by John Pickering of the University of Georgia through computer applications that linked all names to Discover Life species pages, a searchable taxonomic classification for all bees, and global maps for all genera and species. Ascher and colleagues recently reviewed all valid names from his checklist and from those of experts from all over the world for the World Bee Checklist project led by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and available online (http://www.itis.gov).

The bee checklists were developed as a key component of the Museum's Bee Database Project initiated in 2006 by Ascher and Jerome G. Rozen, Jr., Curator of bees at the Museum, and with technical support from Curator Randall Schuh. A primary goal of this project is to document floral and distributional records for all bees, including now obscure species that may someday become significant new pollinators for our crops. The vast majority of known bee species are solitary, primitively social, or parasitic.

These bees do not make honey or live in hives but are essential pollinators of crops and native plants. Honey is made by nearly 500 species of tropical stingless bees in addition to the well-known honey bee Apis mellifera. Honey bees are the most economically important pollinators and are currently in the news because of colony collapse disorder, an unexplained phenomenon that is wiping out colonies throughout the United States.

The crises facing traditionally managed pollinators like honey bees highlight the need for more information about bee species and their interactions with the plants they pollinate. The National Academy of Sciences identified improved taxonomic data on bees as a high priority, and the new online bee checklists, maps, and other databases have for the first time made comprehensive data readily accessible.

The checklists compiled by Ascher and colleagues facilitate ongoing databasing of the Museum's worldwide collections of more than 400,000 bee specimens. Funding was provided by Robert G. Goelet, Chairman Emeritus of the Museum's Board of Trustees.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080611135020.htm

So much that we are still discovering. How many species have disappeared that we never knew existed?

Bees Under Threat As Pollution Means Flowers Are Losing Their Natural Scent

April 20, 2008
By Gwyneth Rees
UK Daily Mail

They are a quintessential sign of summer - the scent of blossom on the wind and the buzzing of bees. But scientists claim that both are now under threat - as flowers lose their natural scent due to pollution.
A new study suggests that gases from car emission are dulling floral aromas and disrupting insect life. Researchers claim pollution is dramatically cutting the distance travelled by the scent molecules of plants. This is preventing flowers from attracting bees and other insects needed to pollinate them. As a consequence, the numbers of insects are dramatically dwindling as they struggle to located the nectar off which they feed.

Professor Jose Fuentes, of the University of Virginia, which carried out the research, said: "Scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,2000 metres. "But today they may only travel 200 to 300 metres. "This makes it increasingly difficult for bees and other insects to locate the flowers."

The study, funded by the US National Science Foundation, examined the smell given off by snapdragons. They found that the scent molecules are volatile and quickly bond with pollutants, such as ozone and nitrate radicals - formed mainly from vehicle emissions. This chemically alters the molecules so that they no longer smell like flowers. As a result, bees and other insects - which rely on the scent of flowers to locate them - fail to do so and do not get enough food. The ability of the insects to attract mates and repel enemies is also impeded, scientists fear. While the flowers, which rely on insects to pollinate them, also suffer. Scientists have found that bees, which pollinate most of the world's crops, are in unprecedented decline in Britain and across much of the globe.

At least a quarter of America's 2.5million honey bee colonies have been wiped out by colony collapse disorder (CCD) where hives are found to be suddenly deserted. Although the mysterious phenomenon has yet to appear in the UK, insect numbers have been declining here too. Agricultural minister Lord Rooker has warned that "the honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years". The scientists do not believe pollution is necessarily the cause of CCD but they claim it is making it harder for many insects to survive.

Research shows it is not just insects that are affected by the actions of humans. The number of birds visiting our gardens and parks has plunged by a fifth in four years, a survey has revealed. The decline follows a succession of mild winters and the growing popularity of paving and decking, which robs gardens of valuable plants and insects.

Changes in farming techniques, a decline in hedgerows and increased used of pesticides may also have hit bird numbers.

link

Honey Bee Collapse Now Worse on West Coast

© 2008 by Linda Moulton Howe

link

“It's worse than last year, and last year was worse
than the year before. So, it's bad. And there are a lot of good,
big beekeepers that are having a lot of problems. I think we're coming
in for a big train wreck.” - Gilly Sherman, Beekeeper

34% of American honey bees in
commercial hives have disappeared this spring of 2008, in a
persistent mystery known as “colony collapse disorder.”


April 10, 2008 Gainesville, Florida - On April 5, 2008, England's BBC News carried a report entitled, “U. S. Fears Over Honey Bee Collapse.” A California beekeeper, Gilly Sherman, was interviewed and he said sobering words: “It's worse than last year, and last yar was worse than the year before. So, it's bad. And there are a lot of good, big beekeepers that are having a lot of problems. I think we're coming in for a big train wreck.”

I took that quote to Jerry Hayes, Chief, Apiary Section, Florida Department of Agriculture, and President of the Apiary Inspectors of America in Gainesville, Florida and asked for his comment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interview:

Jerry Hayes, Chief, Apiary Section, Florida Department of Agriculture, and President of the Apiary Inspectors of America in Gainesville, Florida:
“Certainly West Coast beekeepers were more dramatically affected this year than perhaps East Coast beekeepers. Last year, East Coast beekeepers had the first and dramatic events happening to their bee colonies. Sometimes, the West Coast beekeepers said, ‘Well, it’s not happening to us. You must just be bad beekeepers.’ So, now the shoe is on the other foot and they are suffering as badly as anybody has been. Everybody is on an even playing field right now.

Bees are not healthy. Bees have not been healthy for a few years and they are becoming more unhealthy. The beekeepers, the industry that uses them as a tool, is in a precarious situation.

SO WOULD YOU AGREE WITH THE BEEKEEPER QUOTED BY THE BBC NEWS, ‘I THINK WE’RE COMING IN FOR A BIG TRAIN WRECK’?

We’ll never know these things until after the train wreck. It certainly does not look good. I’ve been reading some reports about whole populations of bats dying and disappearing in the Northeast. The quail population in the southeast has virtually disappeared. I don’t know if any of these things have parallels and links, but it certainly is interesting that something in the environment is impacting these other animals.

WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA?

34% Bee Loss in U. S. by Spring 2008

The Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA), of which I am a part – we just completed a survey of 327 beekeepers and we came up with about a 34% loss rate over this past 2007 to 2008 winter season.

THAT’S EVEN MORE THAN LAST YEAR?

Yes, a little bit. [ 2007 estimated American loss was 25%.]

GOING INTO THIS SPRING OF 2008, WHAT ARE YOUR GREATEST WORRIES?

Beekeepers cannot continue to take these kinds of losses and rebound in any kind of way.


Cause of Colony Collapse Disorder?

“Unfortunately, we still don’t have a clear picture of why this is happening.”

THE LAST TIIME WE TALKED, IT WAS THE ISRAELI VIRUS UNDER SUSPICION OF COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES THROUGH AUSTRALIAN BEES THAT HAD BEEN BROUGHT IN BECAUSE THE NORTH AMERICAN BEE POPULATION HAD BEEN WEAKENED. IS THERE EVIDENCE THAT THE ISRAELI ACUTE PARALYSIS VIRUS IS STILL CAUSING THE MORTALITY? OR IS THERE STILL SOMETHING TO BE FOUND? WHAT IS CAUSING ONE-THIRD OF ALL THE BEES IN THE UNITED STATES TO DISAPPEAR IN THE WINTER OF 2007 TO SPRING OF 2008?

[ Editor’s Note: See 090707 Earthfiles: Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) September 2007 journal, Science.]

Boy, if I knew that, I’d probably have a statue some place, Linda. Obviously it’s all the issues that are still on the table right now. Viruses – whether it’s the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, or other viruses that are known and impact honeybees? There again, pesticides, poor nutrition, stress whatever that is from moving bees back and forth, a shallow genetic pool in our managed bee colonies. Some how, all these things are interacting. Basically, we need more funds in order to hire smart people and expensive equipment to figure what is going on. Research is never quick.

DID YOU EXPECT AN INCREASE IN THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BEES IN NORTH AMERICA?

I was personally interested to find out if it was going to continue and to find out what was going to happen to our West Coast beekeepers that seemed to have dodged a bit of the bullet last year. I was hoping that it would not, but I knew that something like this just generally does not go away on its own.

BUT ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT THE WEST COAST BEEKEEPERS ARE BEING HIT HARD NOW IN 2008?

No, not really. You know how things spread – if this is a pathogen or something in which all populations are not hit equally. So, it was unfortunately their turn.

HAS THE ISRAELI ACUTE PARALYSIS VIRUS BEEN FOUND IN THE WEST COAST HONEYBEES?

Yes, it’s there, but not at any dramatic levels. In fact, there’s kind of an East Coast variant and a West Coast variant of the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus. There’s also the Kashmir bee virus that has shown up in quite large numbers. Then you add in all the other things we talked about that could cause the immune system collapse. All those things are interacting.

SO, IN APRIL 2008, YOU CAN’T SAY EVEN NOW THAT IT IS THE ISRAELI VIRUS THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST OF COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER?

No, because in the CCD, the Israeli acute paralysis virus was found in most of the samples and at the moment is considered just a marker. It was not present in tremendously high numbers. And we can’t say it’s the varroa mite because in CCD, varroa and trachea mites are in very low levels. The Nosema protozoan was found in less than 50% of the colonies. Unfortunately, we still don’t have a clear picture of why this is happening.


Future Almond and Other American
Crop Pollinations in Jeopardy?

WITH A 33% DISAPPEARANCE RATE SO FAR IN 2008, WHAT HAPPENS TO ALMOND POLLINATION AND CROPS BECAUSE THEY WERE STRETCHED LAST YEAR TRYING TO IMPORT ENOUGH BEES FROM THE EAST COAST AND AUSTRALIA TO GET THE ALMOND GROVES POLLINATED. WHAT HAPPENS NOW WITH EVEN MORE BEES DISAPPEARING?

Well, almond pollination is over right now. And most of the bees fell apart during or towards the end of almond pollination. I think the almond guys got by in good shape, so they don’t care as long as they get pollination for next year because this year is over with. To them, honeybees are an input, just like fertilizer, pesticides and fungicides. So, until next year, the almond growers probably don’t care.

WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL THE OTHER CROPS THAT ARE DEPENDENT UPON HONEY BEES, IF THEY HAVE FALLEN APART IN SUCH GREAT NUMBERS TRYING TO POLLINATE THE ALMOND CROP?

That’s a great question. The bees are coming back to Florida now and we’re talking about watermelon pollination. And then the bees will be moving north for blueberries and apples and cranberries. But yours is a good question and I don’t have an answer for it at this moment in time.


U. S. Headed for Reliance On
International Food Imports

”The USDA projects that something like 40% of our vegetables
are going to be coming from China in 2012 or some date like that and the
U. S. is going to be a net food importer in fifty years.”

I’d like to see people at the federal level and others realize how important honeybees are! But if people don’t care where food comes from, if people are happy that food is at the grocery store and they don’t care how it gets to the grocery store, then maybe all this concern is a moot point. People have to care about this. The USDA projects that something like 40% of our vegetables are going to be coming from China in 2012 or some date like that and the U. S. is going to be a net food importer in fifty years.

We already have someone who has us by the nose for energy production, oil (Middle East). And so now, we’re going to turn our food production over to someone else? This all has larger strategic implications than just honey bees. This is talking about the food supply and how secure our food supply is in the United States?

So, I just hope that people realize how important honey bees are and somehow give support. We support sugar people. We have been throwing money at the corn people for years and everything else. Why not honey bees, if they are important?


Implications for Increasing Decline
of American Honey Bees?

“If the almond people come up short, my guess is that probably the Mexicans will petition to bring their Africanized bee colonies across the border to fill that gap. And that will probably destroy the U.S. commercial beekeeping industry.”

YOU AND I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SO MANY HONEY BEES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA NOW FOR A YEAR. I THINK I THOUGHT, AS A REPORTER, THAT BY THE SPRING OF 2008 THAT WE WOULD BE SEEING A RESTORATION OF BETTER HEALTH TO THE BEES AND THAT EVERYTHING MIGHT BE GETTING BETTER. THE FACT THAT IT’S GONE DOWN HILL EVEN MORE, THE FACT THAT EVEN MORE BEES HAVE DISAPPEARED THROUGH THE WINTER OF 2007 TO 2008, THE FACT THAT AFTER THE ALMOND POLLINATION THAT, TO USE YOUR WORDS, ‘THE BEES ARE FALLING APART IN THE UNITED STATES.’ WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EVERYTHING IS GOING DOWN HILL IN APRIL?

There might be crops that are potentially impacted and as the almond acreage grows, the almond growers will try to use every honeybee colony in the United States. If the almond people come up short, my guess is that probably the Mexicans will petition to bring their Africanized bee colonies across the border to fill that gap. And that will probably destroy the U.S. commercial beekeeping industry.

BUT WOULD YOU AND OTHERS IN AGRICULTURE ALLOW THAT TO OCCUR?

I’m just a mid-level civil servant. The almond people and value of the almond crop – money talks in our capitalistic society and the almond people will not be denied.

BUT DO YOU SERIOUSLY MEAN THERE COULD BE A DECISION THAT WOULD BE ONLY POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL FOR THE ALMOND INDUSTRY THAT COULD END UP BRINGING IN AFRICANIZED BEES THAT WOULD DESTROY THE REST OF THE NORTH AMERICAN HONEYBEE?

It’s very possible.

THAT IS ACTUALLY BEING DISCUSSED NOW AS AN OPTION?

I didn’t make that up! (laughs)

I’M VERY DISTRESSED TO HEAR THIS.

Me, too.



A Year from Now in 2009?

“(Richard Adee, largest beekeeper in U. S.) is truthfully shell shocked and numb and doesn’t know what to do. You can’t replace 60,000 colonies overnight.”

GIVEN THE FACT THAT THE PERCENTAGE IN THE NUMBER OF BEES DISAPPEARING IN 2008 IS EVEN HIGHER THAN IT WAS IN 2007, AND THAT THE BEE HEALTH IS NOT GOOD, WHAT WOULD YOU EXPECT TO BE THE STATUS A YEAR FROM NOW IN 2009?

I don’t know. I don’t know if this is Darwin in action and that this might go away as the weak are culled out and the strong survive – because if this continues on for another year or two, there won’t be many commercial beekeepers left. There will be some small beekeepers left, but not of the size that can load up colonies on semi-trucks and take them over the United States.

The largest beekeeper in the United States [ Richard Adee Honey Farms, Brookings, South Dakota], I think lost 60,000 colonies out of his 80,000 colonies this past late winter and spring. He had something like 100 loads of empty equipment that he had to bring back from California. You just can’t replace those kinds of numbers very quickly.

WHEN YOU TALK TO THAT LARGE HONEYBEE KEEPER, WHAT HIS IS ASSESSMENT, TALKING TO YOU, ABOUT THE NEXT FEW MONTHS INTO NEXT YEAR?

He is truthfully shell shocked and numb and doesn’t know what to do. You can’t replace 60,000 colonies overnight.

WOULDN’T THIS RISE TO A NATIONAL SECURITY LEVEL? WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE LOSS OF POLLINATORS THAT AFFECT SO MUCH OF OUR FOOD SUPPLY?

You would think so. Obviously, Senator Boxer is meeting tomorrow. So, certainly at high levels of the government, there is interest. And of course, we’re at war and spending a lot of money on the war, and money can be authorized, but is it appropriated? So, the whole political scene has to play out its course here in the way we handle things here in the United States.

ARE YOU OPTOMISTIC OR PESIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE OF HONEYBEES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA?

I’m pessimistic. We have a tendency to wait until a crisis happens in western civilization. We might lose control of our food supply at some point.

IF ONE-THIRD OF THE HONEYBEE POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES DISAPPEARED IN THE 2007 TO 2008 WINTER-SPRING, AND IF NEXT YEAR, THE PERCENTAGE CLIMBS TO ABOUT A 50% LOSS, HAS THERE EVER BEEN A TIME IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY IN WHICH HALF OF THE HONEYBEE POPULATION DISAPPEARED AND WAS ABLE TO COME BACK?

Boy, not that I’m aware. We are in a precarious situation strategically for maintaining food supplies for our population. We need to have somebody at some level decide that honeybees are important. It’s like a lot of other agricultural industries in the U. S. – the Chinese have basically wiped out the American apple industry; the Brazilians have virtually wiped out the citrus juice industry; and these trends continue. Maybe this is the natural order of things.

DOSN’T IT SEEM THAT THIS WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY THE OPPOSITE OF THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS?

Yes, I would agree with you, but I’m a pragmatist and the low-cost producer gets the orders. It doesn’t make any difference where it’s produced or how it’s produced. Look at the Chinese goods that have come in over the last year and there are other scary things coming in, not only from them but other countries that don’t have quite the regulations and pesticides and chemical oversight that we do.



Genetically Modified Crops Could
Also Be Killing Honey Bees

IS THERE ANY MORE HARDER DATA LINKING THE GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS TO THE WEAKENING AND DISAPPEARANCE OF THE HONEY BEES?

Yes, that’s certainly being looked at. In fact, I read an article the other day talking about some genetically modified crops that had the BT toxin in it (genetically modified crops with built-in pesticide) and they found that with the BT toxin, there are a couple of different toxins involved, and one toxin they found was actually opening up the cell walls of insects and animals to allow this second toxin in to affect it. So, we don’t understand what we do - and places such as Monsanto.

So, we’re going down a precarious path and we don’t know everything. Unfortunately, we will make mistakes as human beings, but the repercussions as things grow and become more global and widespread is that the repercussions will be more severe and more dramatic.

SO, WHILE WE ARE PROMOTING A GM FOOD INTO THE FUTURE ON THE ONE HAND IN GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS, WE COULD BE KILLING THE VERY INSECT THAT KEEPS PLANTS ALIVE.

Yes, but there again, if the seed companies can develop plants that don’t need insect pollinators, and keep selling seed to the farmers, maybe that’s the goal.

WHAT I’M HEARING IN YOUR VOICE AND YOUR WORDS IS THAT YOU ARE FEELING AND SENSING THAT THIS IS A VERY DEPRESSING SITUATION WITH VERY LITTLE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.

Boy, is that coming through my voice? I’m sorry, but yeah, it is. I’m sure there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but I can’t tell if it is an answer, or a train coming down the track.

WHICH COMES BACK FULL CIRCLE TO THE BEEKEEPER WHO SAID TO THE BBC THIS WEEK, ‘I THINK WE’RE COMING IN FOR A BIG TRAIN WRECK.’

It’s possible. We’ll know in the future. But the take home message is: Honeybees are not healthy and we, at this moment in time, have no way to make them healthier.”



On March 29, 2007, Brent Halsall, President, Ontario
Beekeeper's Assoc., Greely, Ontario, Canada, opened his hives
and found about 40% of all his bees dead - some dried up;
others fresh as if not long dead. Image © 2007 by CBC.

ECO-TERRORISM: THERE'S NO SUCH THING

Property Rights Extremists Equate McMansions to 9/11 Victims

NEW YORK--The United States should not build housing. Whole neighborhoods in places like Chicago and Dayton and Oakland and Newark and Memphis are dominated by abandoned houses and apartment buildings. Ten percent of our national housing stock--more than 13 million homes, enough to put roofs over the homeless three times over--are vacant year-round. So why do we let developers bulldoze fields and forests to put up soulless monstrosities?

Several "model houses" at a development bearing the typically atrocious name of "Quinn's Crossing at Yarrowbay Communities" at the edge of Seattle's creeping suburban sprawl went up in flames, apparently torched by radical environmentalists. I had two reactions. First, I was reminded of my wonder that such things happen so infrequently.

Then I laughed. I wasn't alone. Time magazine bemoaned "a notable lack of sympathy for the fate of the homes" among residents of Washington state.

Quinn's Crossing, says its website, was "dedicated to the ethos of putting the earth first." In this case, putting Mother Earth "first" led the developers in "energy efficient" 4,500-square-feet McMansions. "The houses are out in the middle of nowhere, on land that used to be occupied by beaver dams and environmentally sensitive wetlands; the site sits at the headwaters of Bear Creek, where endangered chinook salmon spawn," reported Erica C. Barnett for the Seattle weekly newspaper The Stranger. "The houses, and their polluting septic systems, also sit atop an aquifer, which provides drinking water for the area's Cross Valley Water District."

4,500 square feet? My last Manhattan apartment had 725. Visitors (New Yorkers, most of whom live in even tighter quarters) cooed over how big it was. The house in which I grew up had 1,000; it was designed for a nuclear family of four.

What galled ELF was the developers' attempt to pass off self-indulgent, gargantuan McMansions as ecologically friendly. "The builders heavily promoted the 'built green' concept and pointed out that the homes were smaller than the 10,000-square-foot houses on previous Street of Dreams tours," reported The Los Angeles Times.

Barnett's story asked: "Were the Terrorists Right?" She noted: "An energy-efficient mansion will never use less energy than even a large urban apartment."

Right or wrong, they're not terrorists.

The feds say they are. They call Earth Liberation Front, the loose-knit "group" that took responsibility for the blazes in unincorporated Snohomish County, the biggest threat to mom, freedom, apple pie and three-minute pop songs since the Soviet Union closed shop. Six months before 9/11, shortly before the famous "Bin Laden Wants to Kick Our Ass Six Ways to Sunday" memo, the FBI went so far as to list the ELF as a federally designated terrorist organization. Like Al Qaeda.

Terrorism--you can look it up--involves killing people. Hijacking a plane and flying it into a building is terrorism. Destroying property--property that, for the most part, made the world a worse place--is not.

ELF's goal of "inflict[ing] maximum economic damage on those profiting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment" has inspired people to set fire to SUVs at a New Mexico car dealership, Hummers in California, and a Vail ski lodge whose construction threatened the lynx, an endangered species. Damage to the Colorado ski project amounted to $12 million.

ELF members are vandals. They're arsonists. But they aren't terrorists.

ELF demands that its adherents "take all necessary precautions against harming any animal--human and non-human." Although it could happen someday, no one has ever been killed or hurt in an ELF action. Equating the burning of a Hummer to blowing up a child exposes our society's grotesque overemphasis on the "right" of property owners to do whatever they want. The word "eco-terrorism" is an insult to the human victims of real terrorism, including those of 9/11.

The closest ELF's critics come to landing a punch is pointing out that fires send crud into the atmosphere. "This is releasing more carbon into the air than they ever would have by building the houses," the listing agent for one of the destroyed "rural cluster development" houses told The New York Times. Newsweek asked: "If their cause is to save the environment, how does burning houses, and thereby releasing carbon and toxins into the atmosphere, help achieve that goal?"

Eye-roll alert: A house fire releases air pollution once. A family living in a house does it day after day for decades. Anyway, why are builders making houses out of toxins?

Property rights extremists raised the same point after ELF set fire to 20 Hummer H2s at a California car dealership in 2004. "There's a lot more pollutants from the fire than the vehicles would pollute during their lifetime," said the West Covina fire marshal. Even if that were true, he forgot where those gas guzzlers would have eventually ended up: in landfills, their nasty chemicals seeping into the ground.

"Think of all the resources those fires wasted," moaned Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large. He explained that lawful means--petitions, politely worded letters to the editor, speaking at public hearings--are the proper way to take a stand against the destruction of the environment. "The development where this latest arson took place, situated atop the area's water supply, has been challenged by other groups, using negotiation and the law," he says approvingly. That's true. The local zoning board heard from hundreds of opponents of Quinn's Crossing before voting, 4 to 1, in favor.

Challenged, yes. But not successfully.

link

Silent Spring

"The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man." -- Rachel Carson

I read Rachel Carson’s book about ten years ago. A group of parents were trying to get it banned from use in an environmental science course. I thought at the time, it was one of the most ominous books I’d ever read. The arguments against using the book in the class were resurrections of the protests generated immediately after its publication in 1962, along with the added argument that Ms. Carson’s predictions never came to pass.

Birds, bats, bees, butterflies: all are in decline. Pesticide use, climate change, habitat destruction -- whatever the reason, I wonder how long before we see a Silent Spring.


Common Birds in Drastic Decline

217 U.S. Birds on New "Watch List"
25% of All U.S. Birds "Imperiled"

Butterflies disappear as habitat shrinks, temperatures rise

"The Gravest Threat to Bats Ever Seen"
White Nose Syndrome Could Quickly Lead to Extinction

Hard winter for honeybees: Local beekeepers attribute unusual loss of hives to strange disorder, many other factors

Another Pollinator Falls Victim to Climate Change - Australian Bats Dying from Heat

Czech bee population decimated by parasite

Solutions

"When a decision is made to cope with the symptoms of a problem, it is generally assumed that the corrective measures will solve the problem itself. They seldom do. Engineers cannot seem to get this through their heads. These countermeasures are all based on too narrow a definition of what is wrong. Human measures and countermeasures proceed from limited scientific truth and judgment. A true solution can never come about in this way." --- Masanobu Fukuoka

Climate change, peak oil, colony collapse disorder -- a lack of understanding, or we don’t want to give anything up?

Are the solutions really so complex?

Generation whY?

Allright, this may be short and simple, but it's a start. Better to start small than to sit on the sidelines of the discussion.

With all of the talk of GenX and GenY, it has surprised me that nobody has picked up on the possibility of Generation whY... as in

• Why did we spend the last 100 years acting as if the days of oil would last forever?
• Why have we acted as if the test tube in which we live, planet Earth, has the ability to dilute our pollution indefinitely?
• Why do our leaders and elders shuffle continue to ignore the fact that even if the inevitable catastrophes (environmental, economical and certainly social) will not hit until they are well on their way off this rock, they will hit their descendants?

My real aim isn't blame. That would be as pointless as finding the current world citizens responsible for US slavery, the genocide of the native American people or whatever other horrible crimes of the past you care to address.

My goal is to find a way off this slide to catastrophe. If not for everyone, at least for myself and those for whom I care the most. Some items I'm focused on currently include:

• Becoming more food-independent, including use of local markets/supply and backyard gardening.
• Converting our lifestyle, especially work, to be less dependent on cars. (But damn if we won't keep enjoying our travel-related hobbies... kayaking, ultimate, foreign travel, etc... -- enjoy 'em while ya can, eh?)
• Building a community of family/friends upon whom we can depend, sharing the load of what will certainly include shortages that we couldn't foresee.
• Shifting assets/investments into those less dependent on "global market" forces. (e.g. more local real estate, fewer Large Cap stock funds.)
  

What am I missing? What do you have planned when the stuff hits the fan?


Cheers,
shiv