Humming Praises for the Wild Bee

From the NY Times:

"I’VE been watching the bumblebees flying around the kitchen porch of our old farmhouse in Maryland, and wondering if they have a nest nearby, maybe under the eaves. They like shady spots, protected from the wind and the rain. There are probably some mason bees, too, holed up in the old boards of the barn, or in holes drilled by wood beetles in the trunks of dead trees.



The bumblebee and other native wild bees are all the more important in the garden now that the population of honeybees is in such decline — down to 2.4 million colonies last year from 5.5 million in 1945, according to the Department of Agriculture, due mainly, scientists say, to mites infesting the hives and, lately, to a mysterious epidemic called colony collapse disorder."

Read the entire article here.

Why flowers have lost their scent

Pollution is stifling the fragrance of plants and preventing bees from pollinating them – endangering one of the most essential cycles of nature, writes Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean of The Independent



"Pollution is dulling the scent of flowers and impeding some of the most basic processes of nature, disrupting insect life and imperilling food supplies, a new study suggests.

The potentially hugely significant research – funded by the blue-chip US National Science Foundation – has found that gases mainly formed from the emissions of car exhausts prevent flowers from attracting bees and other insects in order to pollinate them. And the scientists who have conducted the study fear that insects' ability to repel enemies and attract mates may also be impeded.

The researchers – at the University of Virginia – say that pollution is dramatically cutting the distance travelled by the scent of flowers. Professor Jose Fuentes, who led the study, said: "Scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 metres. But today they may travel only 200 to 300 metres. This makes it increasingly difficult for bees and other insects to locate the flowers."

The researchers – who worked on the scent given off by snapdragons – found that the molecules are volatile, and quickly bond with pollutants such as ozone and nitrate radicals, mainly formed from vehicle emissions. This chemically alters the molecules so that they no longer smell like flowers. A vicious cycle is therefore set up where insects struggle to get enough food and the plants do not get pollinated enough to proliferate.

Already 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 2.5 million honey bee colonies have been mysteriously wiped out by colony collapse disorder (CCD), where hives are found suddenly deserted.

The crisis has now spread to Europe. Politicians insist that CCD has not yet been found in Britain, but the insects have been declining here too, and the agriculture minister Lord Rooker has warned that "the honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years".

The researchers do not believe that they have found the cause of CCD, but say that pollution is making life more difficult for bees and other insects in many ways."

Stowaway bees could spread deadly mite

Here we have another entry in the continuing story about the plight of honeybees in the world. This one even has a fountain pen connection (see the penultimate -- pun intended -- paragraph).

"Diseased honey bees could threaten billions of dollars worth of honey production and pollination if they breach Australia's border controls, beekeepers say.

The Australian Honey Bee Industry Council (AHBIC) expresses its concerns in a submission to a Federal Government inquiry on the industry.

One of the diseases Australian beekeepers are particularly concerned about is caused by the mite Varroa destructor, which has been killing bees in New Zealand.

"It's a terrible thing," AHBIC executive director Stephen Ware said.

"It just sucks everything out of the bee and then it goes and reproduces in the [honeycomb]."

While there are strict quarantine rules for bees entering the country officially, illegal imports and accidental arrivals can pose a threat.

Dr Iain East of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) says quarantine authorities have so far destroyed 20 swarms of bees that arrived unannounced on ships.

Dr East coordinates the National Sentinel Hive Program, which is designed to help catch unchecked bees from entering Australia.

He says this involves placing 38 hives at 22 ports and airports around Australia to attract stowaway bees and these colonies can then checked for pests.

Apiarists nervous

But apiarists are nervous about how well the system works.

"It's too ad hoc," Mr Ware said.

"It needs to be better managed."

He says there needs to be a reassessment of whether there are enough hives in the right places.

He is also concerned the hives are not being properly checked.

CSIRO entomologist Dr Denis Anderson says the current sentinel hive program is serviced by volunteer beekeepers and state governments.

He says DAFF has proposed the program be more "fully funded" with support from state and territory governments and run by Animal Health Australia.

"We hope to have it [the new program] operating by 1 July 2008," he said.

Mr Ware says the Varroa mite is deadly to the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) and is costly to control in managed hives.

Feral honey bees

He says it also kills feral honey bees, whose hives can't be treated for the mite, adding that the horticulture industry relies on these bees to pollinate $3.8 billion worth of crops.

Mr Ware says New Zealand horticulturalists are paying beekeepers to put their managed hives on their properties to replace feral pollinators.

"The cost of pollinating crops tripled overnight," he said.

Dr Anderson says Australia is the only continent free of the Varroa mite.

But he says it is particularly vulnerable because of the country's strong dependence on feral bees for pollination.

While the sentinel hive program looks for pests in stowaway bees, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) tries to catch bees that enter by other means.

When imported bees enter quarantine they are allowed to lay eggs and are then killed to be examined for pests and disease.

Some of their progeny are also killed and examined.

Quarantine privatisation

Mr Ware says the bee industry is concerned that Australia's dedicated bee quarantine facility at Eastern Creek in Sydney will suffer from being privatised.

But AQIS says there are no plans to privatise operations.

A spokesperson says while the facility at Eastern Creek was sold to a private operator some years ago, it is still leased to AQIS, which will continue to run the quarantine program.

New facilities will be built before the lease expires in 2015, the spokesperson says.

AQIS says bees are sometimes imported illegally by post or with air passengers.

In one case, sniffer dogs found a passenger with six queen bees hidden in a fountain pen.

In the US, more than a quarter of honey bee colonies collapsed due to a mysterious "colony collapse disorder" and it is now importing live bees from Australia."

Who killed the honeybees?

Here's an update on previous blog entries. This is not the last word, I'm sure.



"A round table of experts answer all our pressing questions about the sudden death of the nation's bees. What they have to say has a bigger sting than we ever expected.

The buzz about the alarming disappearance of bees has been all about people food. Honeybees pollinate one-third of the fruits, nuts and vegetables that end up in our homey kitchen baskets. If the tireless apian workers didn't fly from one flower to the next, depositing pollen grains so that fruit trees can bloom, America could well be asking where its next meal would come from. Last fall, the nation's beekeepers watched in horror as more than a quarter of their 2.4 million colonies collapsed, killing billions of nature's little fertilizers.

But as a Salon round table discussion with bee experts revealed, the mass exodus of bees to the great hive in the sky forebodes a bigger story. The faltering dance between honeybees and trees is symptomatic of industrial disease. As the scientists outlined some of the biological agents behind "colony collapse disorder," and dismissed the ones that are not -- sorry, friends, the Rapture is out -- they sketched a picture of how we are forever altering the planet's delicate web of life.

The scientists constituted a fascinating foursome, each with his own point of view."

You can read the entire article from Salon magazine by clicking the title above. You'll have to click through one online ad to do so.