more on the bees mystery...

from today's New York Times:

Scientists See Prime Suspect in Mass Deaths of Bees

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: September 6, 2007

Scientists sifting genetic material from thriving and ailing bee colonies say a virus appears to be a prime suspect — but is unlikely to be the only culprit — in the mass die-offs of honeybees reported last fall and winter.

The honeybee die-offs, in which adult bees typically vanished without returning to hives, were reported by about a fourth of the nation’s commercial beekeepers. The losses captured public attention as rumors swirled about causes ranging from climate change to cellphone signals to genetically modified crops.

Now, one bee disease, called Israeli acute paralysis virus, seems strongly associated with the beekeeping operations that experienced big losses, a large research group has concluded, although members of the team stressed that they had not proved the virus caused the die-offs.

“I hope no one goes away with the idea that we’ve actually solved the problem,” said Jeffrey S. Pettis, an entomologist with the Department of Agriculture and co-director of a national group working on the puzzle, which has been given the name colony collapse disorder....

[for rest of article, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/scien ... -bees.html ]

I lost both of my hives to colony collapse this year. It is a very eerie feeling to come upon your hives and discover everyone has abandoned ship.

I am going to start three more hives next year so everyone who requested honey from me ...please be patient

Thanks for the article!

The bee virus will also be discussed this afternoon on Science Friday from NPR
http://www.sciencefriday.com/

2:00 to 4:00 PM every Friday on 89.3 WFPL or Podcast at your leisure
http://www.sciencefriday.com/feed/

3:00 to 4:00 hour live radio or streaming audio
http://www.wfpl.org/listen.htm

September 7, 2007: Hour Two: Bee Virus / The World Without Us / Skinny Gene.
What would happen to the world if we weren't here? Join Ira Flatow in this hour for a talk with writer Alan Weisman about how the world might look if we humans left. We'll also hear about a new theory on the cause of the missing honeybees -- is a virus to blame? Plus, scientists discover a new gene that might keep people from getting fat.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2007/Sep/hour2_090707.html

Resurrecting this old thread after viewing The Vanishing of Bees. (yeah I know , it's been out for a while but I am slow on some of these things.) anyway...
It seems the culprit for the CCDS (colony collapse disorder) was the systemic pesticides that have found a recent rise in popularity. France experienced the same problem almost 10 years prior to the US and have since illegalized most of the systemic pesticides that were once used. The scary thing is that it took 2 generations of bees for the horrific effects of the pesticides to come to fruitition. What kind of health problems may we be seeing in our kids in the nest few years I wonder?

[Robin Garr]

systemic pesticides

Monsanto?

For some bizarre reason, I've had about twenty bumblebees come into my garage and die in the past few weeks. Can't figure out what is attracting them or killing them, but I hate to see it.

systemic pesticides

Monsanto?

That was MY first thought but no, it was Bayer. Our friendly aspirin people. That was something else I learned. Most (if not all) pesticides have their beginnings in Germany's foray into chemical warfare starting in WWI. One of the reasons France outlawed the use of systemic pesticides was because it cannot be washed off the produce like many of the other pesticides commonly used. The pesticide actually "lives/resides/is" within the cell structure of the plant and is then consumed.

And the REALLY disturbing info I learned is that all of the research on these pesticides, all results of testing, all the studies of possible side effects of these poisons are supplied to the EPA by the same companies that are petioning to have their products OK'd for use, so, in this case Bayer. Hardly independent studies huh? Kind of like a car salesman supplying his own accident and service report on the junker he's trying to sell.