More Than 25,000 Bees Die in Oregon
Jun 22, 2013 9:27pm
More than 25,000 bees were found dead in Wilsonville, Ore. (The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservatio/AP Photo)
The mystery of why thousands of bees fell from the sky has been solved, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
The department announced Friday that it has determined an insecticide caused the deaths this week of 25,000 bees in Wilsonville, Ore.
The bees were found scattered across a parking lot earlier this week.
Mace Vaughn and his partner Rich Hatfield of the non-profit environmental group the Xerces Society worked with the Oregon Department of Agriculture to discover the cause by painstakingly picking up specimens of dead bees.
“We’ve lost a hundred, a hundred fifty colonies at least just from this area — just wiped them out,” Vaughn told ABCNews.com affiliate KATU-TV in Portland.
On Friday, the Oregon Department of Agriculture determined the bees were killed by an insecticide called Safari used to kill aphids. The trees where the insecticide was used are being netted to protect any surviving bees that might wander into the area.
The death of the bees in Oregon comes as colony collapse disorder threatens honey bee populations across the U.S.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, beekeepers have been reported losing between 30 to 90 percent of their colonies since 2006. There is no known cause for the disorder, in which bees abruptly leave the hive.
U.S. Bee Deaths From Colony Collapse Disorder May Be Tied To Diet, Study Finds
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/04/us-bee-deaths-colony-collapse_n_3379506.html
Monsanto strikes again...
Deletehttp://www.viewzone.com/lostbees.bayerx.html
ReplyDeleteHoney bees are dying all over the globe. Here's why!
Since 2007, the media has been reporting about the dramatic loss of bees in Europe and North America. As many as 50% to 90% of the bee populations have simply vanished, leaving their hives empty and forcing farmers to demand investigations to determine the cause.
At first it was only the honeybees that were decimated -- then the bumblebee populations began to disappear. Bumblebees are responsible for pollinating an estimated 15 percent of all the crops grown in the U.S., worth $3 billion, particularly those raised in greenhouses. Those include tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. The crisis was eventually given a name: Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD.
I do not care if it is a natural virus, pesticides, or GMO's something is killing our bees.
ReplyDeleteChemtrails - do they exist ---- 25000 bees dropping dean in one small area would say YES... but they do not exist at least not officially ....
In CA they fly over in "spray patterns" and have admitted to spraying for mosquitoes - West Nile Virus you know. The problem is that they are killing all our beneficials as well. In addition they are spraying the food that we eat - oh well.
Although we can do without but the bee is not one of them. If you see a beekeeper tell them thank you for they are working overtime trying to save bees - their own and wild.
ReplyDeleteMaxie says CCD is the fault of tea baggers but never fear, our glorious leader will be around for decades to come and HE will make certain food is rationed appropriately.
Actually, I was just getting ready to honestly thank Angie for posting this topic. It's a big problem. Tea Baggers are not responsible for it, but once William shows up to start defending someone, that will tip us off to who is to blame.
DeleteWiki
ReplyDeleteGenetically modified crops[edit]
A connection between Bt maize and CCD was raised in experiments conducted in Germany that were described on the Internet but never published in a scientific journal. In these studies, honeybees were fed Bt maize pollen and, although healthy bees had no acute or chronic toxic symptoms, in one experiment where bees were infested with parasites, the study was aborted because Bt pollen appeared to accelerate the bees’ decline.[149] However, this review also states that these results were never published in a scientific journal and concludes that there are no data in the scientific literature supporting direct or indirect damage to bees caused by currently approved GE crops engineered to make Bt proteins.[149]
There are no data in the scientific literature supporting direct or indirect damage to bees caused by currently approved GE crops engineered to make Bt proteins. For example, in 2008 a meta-analysis[150] of 25 independent studies assessing effects of Bt Cry proteins on honeybee survival (mortality) showed that Bt proteins used in commercialized GE crops to control lepidopteran and coleopteran pests do not negatively impact the survival of honeybee larvae or adults. Additionally, larvae consume only a small percent of their protein from pollen, and there is also a lack of geographic correlation between GE crop locations and regions where CCD occurs.[149]
Wiki
ReplyDeleteHistory[edit]
Limited occurrences resembling CCD have been documented as early as 1869[24][25] and this set of symptoms has, in the past several decades, been given many different names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease).[1] Most recently, a similar phenomenon in the winter of 2004/2005 occurred, and was attributed to Varroa mites (the "Vampire Mite" scare), though this was never ultimately confirmed. The cause of the appearance of this syndrome has never been determined. Upon recognition that the syndrome does not seem to be seasonally restricted, and that it may not be a "disease" in the standard sense—that there may not be a specific causative agent—the syndrome was renamed.[2]
There was a well documented outbreak of colony losses spreading from the Isle of Wight to the rest of the UK in 1906. These losses later were attributed to a combination of factors including adverse weather, intensive apiculture leading to inadequate forage, and a new infection, the chronic bee paralysis virus; [26] but, at the time, the cause of this agricultural beekeeping problem was similarly mysterious and unknown.
Reports show this behavior in hives in the US in 1918[27] and 1919.[27] Coined "Mystery Disease" by some,[27] it eventually became more widely known as "Disappearing Disease".[27] Oertel, in 1965,[28] reported that hives afflicted with Disappearing Disease in Louisiana had plenty of honey in the combs although there were few or no bees, discrediting reports that attributed the disappearances to lack of food.
From 1972 to 2006, dramatic reductions continued in the number of feral honey bees in the U.S.[29] and a significant though somewhat gradual decline in the number of colonies maintained by beekeepers. This decline includes the cumulative losses from all factors, such as urbanization, pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and commercial beekeepers' retiring and going out of business. However, in late 2006 and early 2007, the rate of attrition was alleged to have reached new proportions, and the term "colony collapse disorder" began to be used to describe this sudden rash of disappearances (sometimes referred to as Spontaneous Hive Collapse or the Mary Celeste Syndrome in the United Kingdom).[3][30]
Losses had remained stable since the 1990s at 17%–20% per year attributable to a variety of factors, such as mites, diseases, and management stress.[31] The first report of CCD was in mid-November 2006 by a Pennsylvania beekeeper overwintering in Florida. By February 2007, large commercial migratory beekeepers in several states had reported heavy losses associated with CCD. Their reports of losses varied widely, ranging from 30% to 90% of their bee colonies; in some cases beekeepers reported loss of nearly all of their colonies with surviving colonies so weakened that they might no longer be viable to pollinate or produce honey.[16]
Losses were reported in migratory operations wintering in California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas. In late February, some larger non-migratory beekeepers in the mid-Atlantic and Pacific Northwest regions also reported significant losses of more than 50%. Colony losses also were reported in five Canadian provinces, several European countries, and countries in South and Central America and Asia. In 2010, the USDA reported that data on overall honey bee losses for 2010 indicated an estimated 34 percent loss, which is statistically similar to losses reported in 2007, 2008, and 2009.[16]
Uncertainties[edit]
ReplyDeleteIt is important to note that the majority of studies conducted on pollinators have been performed in adult honeybees (Apis mellifera). Very few studies have been conducted on wild bees, most of which are solitary and raise their young in burrows and small colonies. There are also few studies that have been conducted on brood, larvae, or the queen, making it difficult to determine the impact of pesticides on different members of the colony and life stages of the bee. Although a number of field and semi-field studies have been conducted on imidacloprid and bees, these studies have design and implementation deficiencies, which make them unusable. Thus, the chronic effects of imidacloprid in the field is still unknown. [19]
With so many people using pesticides and week killers on their lawns, bees are finding it difficult to forage for safe flowers, especially clover, a favorite for pollen collection.
ReplyDeleteWithout bees in our environment, our food supply is in danger.