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Headfry - there is to be a bee survey this year, see current GW magazine or www.bumblebeeconservation.org/BBCGW_survey
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Hi
The general public seems unwilling to embrace all environmental issues at the same time.
People who campaign for the eagle and the polar bear may not care about bees or butterflies, but bio-accumulation, global warming, monoculture farming and pesticides may be the deadly combination causing the disappearance of the Western honeybee.
The bee could be the canary of the state of the earth's environment.
FGComment
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Lots of bumblebees here, few wild ones but when our blue wild geraniums flower end My there should be hyndred. We are on the edge of pasture fields and then woods so no mass use of pesticides or monoculture: both of which are (partially) blamed for the loss of bees.
Still too cold at nights 4-5C for mass bees yet..Comment
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This is one explanation, and is a problem that is becoming very widespread -
Varroasis is not a disease but an infestation by the parasitic mite Varroa destructor (previously jacobsoni). Since reaching this country in 1992, it has become endemic throughout the U.K. and most of the world. Your colonies will have varroa mites. Doing nothing is not an option – without treatment colonies will die within 3 years (there are no long-standing feral colonies). You must learn to monitor colonies for levels of infestation and treat when necessary with the approved varroacides in the correct manner – failure to keep to the time-scale has resulted in resistant mites. Fit varroa screens to hives in order to monitor levels of infestation. Uncap drone brood. Place a super frame in the middle of the brood box and destroy the drone brood built under the frame (varroa mites prefer drone brood). You must remove the brood traps - leaving them will have the opposite effect! 1,000 mites is now taken to be the highest acceptable population. Treat with Apistan/Bayvarol or Apiguard - other treatments may be time-consuming, temperature dependent, ineffective or pose a health risk to bees or humans (especially formic acid). Mite resistance requires Integrated Pest Management, a combination of methods used at different times of the year. There is no 100% knockdown treatment. Varroa breeds in sealed cells of brood – since a newly hived swarm has no brood, it can be treated to give a clean start. Apart from seeing mites, you may see stunted bees with distorted wings resulting from the varroa mite sucking the larval ‘blood’ – this is usually an indication of a high level of infestation. The puncturing of the larvae enables non-apparent viruses to take hold such as Slow Paralysis Virus and Deformed Wing Virus (Acute, Chronic, Cloudy Wing Viruses) – the colony dies from virus infection. Although varroa is now endemic in the UK and from 2005 will no longer be a statutory notifiable disease, the NBU will continue to offer advice on its control as it does for other serious nonstatutory diseases.Rat
British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God
http://scotsburngarden.blogspot.com/
http://davethegardener.blogspot.com/Comment
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Isn't the varroa mite just a convenient scapegoat for the chemical industry?
Parasites don't normally kill their hosts. It's not in their interest too. Parasitoids are the ones that kill their hosts.
The obvious culprit to me is these new "systemic" pesticides that they inject the seeds with, which then go on to produce toxic plants.
They're supposed to disorientate insects, which is exactly what is happening to bees. Apparently, they're just not coming back to the hive.
Mites wouldn't cause empty hives. If bees were dieing in random places, the parasites would be stranded. My guess is that bees managing to get back are disorientated, don't go out again and stop feeding properly, leaving them weak and sitting ducks for the mites to tuck in to. Also maybe less bees in the hive means less housekeeping and removal of corpses, allowing the mite population to explode. The mite is a symptom, not the cause IMHO.
On one of the programs about it on telly, one bee keeper hired 3 healthy hives to a farmer, 2 then suffered CCD, whilst 1 didn't. The 2 that collapsed had been doing fields of seasonal crops and the one that survived had done an orchard (where no systemic pesticides would have been used). Seems fairly conclusive evidence to me!
Normal pesticide sprays have been used for years with no significant impact on bees because they're short lived and only bees unlucky enough to be there at the time or shortly after will die.
The systemic pesticides mean that EVERY bee that ever visits that plant is exposed. Anybody know when they were introduced or what areas of the country they're used in? I'd be willing to bet that if you plotted their introduction date against CCD cases, there'd be a link.
Garden favouring Bumble Bee species are doing quite well.
They should ban the systemic pesticides until more tests have been done.Last edited by BFG; 09-05-2009, 07:10 PM.Comment
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As mentioned above, most creatures on this earth have to deal with parasitic and other infections as part of their lives. Varroa is likely to have been around for almost as long as the bees themselves.
I suspect that it is the widespread and heavy use of agricultrual sprays that is weakening the bees, which then succumb to the parasite infections.
Without the use of chemical sprays, I suspect that the bees would be strong enough to fight off the mites.
Imagine yourself half-poisoned from chemicals, then getting a dose of flu - which would surely overwhelm your bodies already damaged defences..Comment
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I agree with that theory.
I think the immune system of the bees, has been compromised,making them more susceptible to disease.
I have several plants of a variety of Laurel in full bloom,(fantastic scent) and in the space of ten minutes, there was only one bumble bee, having a feast !Comment
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Its colony collapse disorder and it is affecting Bee's across the whole of the globe, I watched a lengthy documentary on BBC 4 about the decline of our beloved friends.
BBC - BBC Four Programmes - Who Killed the Honey Bee?
ABC7.com Green Content - Germany and France ban pesticides linked to bee deaths; Geneticist urges U.S. ban
It is a huge problem, which is particularly damaging to the Bee Farmers in California and some have reported to of lost up to 20 million Bee's in one go. In turn this is having a massive effect on all the fruit and nut plantations and Bee's are having to be shipped around on Lorries on extremely long journeys to do their magic on these plantations. This is also having a detrimental effect on the bees and causes them a great deal of stress.
The causes can not be pin pointed to any single cause, but they believe that a lot of it is down to all the pesticides that are being used across the Globe, Systemic insecticides have been banned in France and Germany but the manufacturers of the chemicals have argued against the findings so far and sadly they has not been banned here in the UK.
Bee’s are said to be the barometer of the health of our plant and the scientists have said Global warming could also have an affect but it’s predominately down to pesticides.
In some studies on Bee’s scientists have found up to 25 different types of pesticides in just one Bee. They believe that the pesticides are preventing the Bee’s from finding their way home and also generally having an affect on the biology of the Bee, causing changes in them from very early on in their development.
The only place in the Globe which it is not having an affect is in Australia where they are actually exporting their Bee’s world wide to Bee Keepers, in a desperate effort to try and bolster their colonies.
I am actually thinking about getting a Bee Hive and making my Vegetable plot as Bee friendly as possible. One of the places wehre Bee's are thriving is in Cities e.g. London. They interviewed this Bee Keeper who lived and kept all his Bee's in London and they are doing very well, which again helps to point the blame at Agriculture and the use of pesticides.
I sincerely hope that scientists can make a break through sooner rather than later and prove that it has something to do with these pesticides and they will be banned.Those that forget the past are condemned to repeat it!Comment
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It's very disconcerting isn't BFG, I note you may have watched the same program.Those that forget the past are condemned to repeat it!Comment
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I was quite pleased to see so many bumble bees appearing late winter/early spring and there were quite a few until about a week ago, but now it is only the odd bee that appears. Two nights ago there was a very large queen bumble bumbling along the path - I brought her in and offered her a drink of watered down honey, but she was on her last legs and, unfortunately died.
Each year we have had the wild black bee in the garden, but I have seen nary a one for the past two years. I have not had a wasp in the garden this year yet and we have normally a couple of nests - if they don't appear I think I might have some serious pest problems as they feed their young thousands of nasties.Comment
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Who killed the honey bee bbc 2 now onComment
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Here in the north west we seem to have plenty bees around especially the tunneling bee,
the soil is quite sandy and they seem very happy.
I have found quite a few sleepy bumble bees so I just take them indoors for a warm and a feed of honey which seems to do the trick.Comment
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just got in from hiveing two swarms today, now got 6 colonysComment
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