The Great Bee Die Off

Today's deep thought moment, is exclusively about bee's. You're probably asking yourself, out there in reader land, why the hell are you going to talk about bees Linda? Well did you know? That in recent years... thousands, upon thousands of bees, have been dying off. In your head your asking me. Why the hell are the Bee's dying off, Linda? Good question class, I'm gonna go do some research, and then I'll try to answer that question in a minute.

Anyway Ellen Page, was talking about the "Vanishing of the Bees," and here's that link to that segment, on Bill Maher T.V talk show. She was talking about the disappearance of the Bees, and how Einstein had said, that if the bees die, that we'll only have 4 years of life left, on the planet. Because...Bee's are responsible, for pollination, and without it stuff won't grow, and we won't eat.

Here's that Albert Einsteins quote:

(1)" If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.” He was speaking in regards to the symbiotic relationship of all life on the planet. Which is all part of a huge interconnected ecosystem. Each element playing a role dependent, on many other elements. That all work in concert, creating the symphony of life. Should any part of the global body suffer, so does the whole body.

OK, so how long, has this great-bee-die-off, been happening? The great-bee-die off, has been going on for, 4 years. There's was less then a 36% loss in 2009, and to date, in 2011, that's risen to about, a 30% loss every year that this die-off has been going on. Now to me that's a lot of dead bees! Bee keeper's these days, are really suffering, from these staggering numbers of dead bees, and many have gone out-of-business in recent years. Look, if my party-people out there, love eating, we should be ringing our alarm-bells. Why? Because...1 in 3 foods, that you're probably shoveling in your mouth right now, came from a bee pollinating your favorite vegi or...fruit somewhere.

(2)"One in every three bites of food you eat comes from a plant, or depends on a plant, that was pollinated by an insect, most likely a bee," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp of Penn State University's College of Agricultural Sciences.

So, why can't the bees find their way home? In hives around America, they'll open the hive, find the queen, a few workers, plenty of brood (baby bees), but no adult bees! So did they run-away? Where have these bees gone? Researchers are calling this mystery, Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD.  It looks las if there are a lot of researchers and scientist, that are trying to play the blame game, over this disaster.

(2) "Something is wrong out there," said David Mendes, a commercial beekeeper near Fort Myers, Fla., who is also president of the American Beekeeping Federation. "It may be something in the agricultural environment that's making them sicker and more vulnerable to illness.

Before 2006 there was only a 10% die off, which was caused by starvation in the spring. 10% meant, that 10 out of every 100 bee-hives, that beekeepers managed, would die. Today most bee-keepers, have to purchase bees in packages, from the Southern U.S, because of these die offs. (4)Jeff Pettis, of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland says, “CCD is likely due to a number of factors, not just a single smoking gun.” Some of the potential factors, include stress, pesticides, mites, and viruses.

(3) We show, that the relative abundances of four species, have declined by up to 96% and that their surveyed geographic ranges, have contracted by 23–87%, some within the last 20 years. We also show, that declining populations, have significantly higher infection levels, of the microsporidian pathogens. 

OK, I and others, seem to think...that the great Bee die off, has something to do with, a new pesticide called neonicotinoid. These pesticides, lead to paralysis, in some insects. Leading to the insects death! It's been baned in the U.S, because of the negative-affects, it was having on the world's honey-bee. Even small amounts of this pesticide, and bees won't be able to navigate. They also won't make it back to their hives. It looks like, we may now actually know, part of the reason, why bees, won't be making the track back to the hives.

Here's another reason;

 (4)This may be linked to poor queen quality as well. A well-mated queen (one that mates with many-many drones of good quality) will have a colony that is vigorous, one that gets up early in the morning and forages on a wide variety of plants. So this means, that the colony will be sluggish. Because...the Queen bee, will be worse genetically, then their mothers. They'll pick lazy, poor-quality drones. Who will probably, be to stupid, to find their way back to their hives.

As if these factors, weren't enough to kill off, most bee colonies. There's one more thing which might be a leading factor in their deaths. Bees are also being attacked by Varroa mites or...as I like to call them, "bloodsuckers!" These little monsters, literally, suck every last drop, out of a bee. They will heavily invest a bee-hive, eventually killing off the hive.

This is what those mites do to the Bees;

(4)The female Varroa mite sneaks inside a honeycomb cell with a baby bee and attaches herself to the larva just before the bees cover it with wax. Inside the cell, the female will lay one egg, a male who hatches out a few days later. They mate and she can lay one egg every four days after that.

There is one saving grace for the bees, these mites usually only attach themselves, to the drones on male bees. Thank God, that bee-keepers have a pesticide, which usually kills the mites, while not killing the bees. But...still the pesticide, isn't good for the bee. Why? Because over a matter of time, maybe years, the bees will have ingested so much to the pesticide. Pesticides that were meant for the mite. The pesticide will eventually affect the bees genetically, by weakening their amune systems.

Besides all those factors, affecting bees overall health, and ability to survive. Maybe the biggest factor is;

(4)There are other factors influencing the decline of bees. Weather can affect bees tremendously. Late springs, early frosts, floods all these affect honeybees. Also forage, what the bees eat could be a huge factor in honeybee health. In the US we are seeing a huge decline in the number of species of flowers that are native and an increase in the number of non-native species.

So, I think, I've covered this deep thought moment. About the "Great Bee Die Off," and that die-off's causes. But...one things for sure. If bees die off, we will soon be, following them! Everything on this planet, depends on pollination! Pollination only happens, because...of a dutiful bees work. Whatever the reason, hopefully, scientists can save them, us, and the world! That's the end of today's deep thought moment. Have a great weekend.

(1)http://blog.targethealth.com/?p=58
(2)http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391
(3)http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/01/03/1014743108
(4)http://insteading.com/2011/03/31/why-are-the-bees-dying/