bees being wiped out by mysterious illness

[Jack Burton]

Another theory:

It's the military ELF (meant to affect the populace's minds, it is said)

It's the cellphones.

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/20 ... _blame.htm

Crazy, but scary.

Also,

The colony collapse disorder has occurred concurrently on four continents within a very short time frame. If the reason was biological or chemical, there would be a pattern of epidemic spread.... we would be able to trace the spread of bee disappearance or Colony Collapse Disorder from a source similar to the spread of SARS a few years ago. That is not the case. The condition has hit each continent at roughly the same time. That would mean the cause has to have hit the continents at the same time as well. Mobile phones meet that criterion.

and

Organic Beekeepers Report No Losses While Conventional Operations Report Massive Colony Losses
Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry.

[Tigerman]

Yet another good reason to refrain from using those horrible devices.

[wildcard]

A significant percentage of the world's beehives are failing and that all the bees are dying. It is called Colony Collapes Disorder (CCD).No one seems to know why, but there are explanations aplenty, ranging from global warming to mites and viruses. Of course the conspiracy therorists have their veiws but I'll spare ya. Albert Einstein's predicted that if the world's bees were ever to die off, owing to the lack of pollinators, humanity would follow about four years later.

Here's what dept of agriculture has to say about it. Probably downplayed a little as not to scare the bejesus out of everyone.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572

More info:
http://www.celsias.com/2007/03/15/bee-c ... t-heading/

[Tempo Gain]

The suspect a new nicotine containing herbicide/pesticide that has an effect on the bees immune system ... or something ...

Evidence is building about this.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/ ... -collapse/

[finley]

It was in The Economist this week too. Hardly bloody surprising though, is it? Insecticides are designed to, um, kill insects. Since the difference between a "good" insect and a "bad" insect is defined by our perceptions of them rather than any specific physical characteristic, it's not possible to make a selective insecticide. Yes, it's a nicotine analog that's implicated - nicotine itself was once used as a pesticide but proved to be so indiscriminately toxic it's now banned in most places.

Yet another reason for not using this shit. It absolutely drives me nuts when politicians say, "ah yes, but this is the only way we can feed the world". What a load of cobblers. Even the pesticide/fertiliser advocates estimate that, in aggregate, the chemicals add only a 20% productivity gain, and 30-40% of our food (in Europe/US) apparently ends up in landfill anyway.

[headhonchoII]

My guess is it is a biological agent like the mite or virus or could be a combination of factors. I guess farmed honey bees are pretty inbred too.

[Nuit]

Greatly disappointed that this isn't being caused by iPhone usage.

[finley]

My guess is it is a biological agent like the mite or virus or could be a combination of factors. I guess farmed honey bees are pretty inbred too.

Yes, I think the current theory is that it's a combination of different factors. The particular item in The Economist suggests that sublethal doses cause a hive to produce fewer queens, or none at all.

However, the really scary part is, it's not just the bees - many insects are pollinators (typically with different plant preferences), and insecticides get them all, to a greater or lesser extent.

[Belgian Pie]

It's like these friggin old fart idiots on the road where I walk my dogs everyday, cutting trees (letting them die actually by removing the bark) and planting more and more bamboo ... results in less and less flowers for bees and other insects as butterflies ... adding a shitload of chemical fertilizer on the bamboo ... just to get more shoots every year, they've never enough. No conservation of hillside land as this kind of bamboo farming does not add anything at preventing landslides because root growth is just local around the bamboo and the loose soil needs artificial support.

[Tempo Gain]

Good move. Let's see if we can get our head out of the corporations' nether regions in the States, fat chance.

NYT: Europe Bans Pesticides Thought Harmful to Bees