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Cause behind bee colony collapse disorder found. No one seems to care?


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Cause behind bee colony collapse disorder found. No one seems to care?
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alcimedes
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2012-07-31, 10:24

This is baffling to me. 30% of the world's food production relies on bees, yet we're not talking about these Science publications? WTF.

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philp...e-bees-studies

Gist of the studies are this:

One article found that in colonies exposed to this pesticide, bee queen production dropped from almost 14 on average in a control colony to anywhere from 1.4 ~ 2 queens after exposure to the pesticide.

The other article found that the mortality rate of foraging bees would be upwards of 30% after exposure to nectar containing this pesticide, vs. a typical 15% mortality rate for foragers. At that mortality rate, the colonies die off.

I'm hoping that enough people will read this that the story will start making it back into the front and center. This is a huge deal. Any reporter talking about the Kardasians should be flogged if they haven't already covered this story at least a dozen times in the last month.

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billybobsky
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2012-07-31, 12:26

I saw this when it was first published...
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alcimedes
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2012-07-31, 13:50

So is the science solid or is it bunk? If this stuff really is in all the corn, soybean, wheat etc. being planted that's millions of acres.
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Anonymous Coward
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2012-07-31, 15:06

If I remember correctly, pesticides were proposed as a cause last year, but there is a more recent article that identifies reason for the decrease as something other than chemical and that the reason is consistent for different locations worldwide. If I find it, I'll post a link.

This is not what I was thinking of, but it is a start:
http://articles.cnn.com/2007-09-06/t...ees?_s=PM:TECH

Also not the article I remember:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...tration-1.html
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alcimedes
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2012-07-31, 15:16

These two Science publications were just published a few months ago.
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Anonymous Coward
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2012-07-31, 16:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by alcimedes View Post
These two Science publications were just published a few months ago.
Yes, I see that; however, the information is not necessarily new. Even though the article stated that the articles are recent, I could not find direct links to the articles and also the article says that some of them are not yet released, so I cannot see when the research was done. All I am saying at this point is that the findings about the pesticide are not recent (relatively speaking; that is, the information was made known before these articles, sometime last year).

P.S. Not saying that more recent == more correct.

This is the article I was thinking about:
Global Honey Bee Viral Landscape Altered by a Parasitic Mite
Stephen J. Martin, Andrea C. Highfield, Laura Brettell, Ethel M. Villalobos, Giles E. Budge, Michelle Powell, Scott Nikaido, and Declan C. Schroeder
Science 8 June 2012: 1304-1306. [DOI:10.1126/science.1220941]

Global Honey Bee Viral Landscape Altered by a Parasitic Mite
Stephen J. Martin1,*, Andrea C. Highfield2, Laura Brettell1, Ethel M. Villalobos3, Giles E. Budge4, Michelle Powell4, Scott Nikaido3, Declan C. Schroeder2,*
+ Author Affiliations

1Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
2The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB, UK.
3Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii, USA.
4The Food and Environment Research Agency, Sand Hutton, York YO41 1LZ, UK.
↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: s.j.martin@sheffield.ac.uk (S.J.M.); dsch@mba.ac.uk (D.C.S.)
ABSTRACT

Emerging diseases are among the greatest threats to honey bees. Unfortunately, where and when an emerging disease will appear are almost impossible to predict. The arrival of the parasitic Varroa mite into the Hawaiian honey bee population allowed us to investigate changes in the prevalence, load, and strain diversity of honey bee viruses. The mite increased the prevalence of a single viral species, deformed wing virus (DWV), from ~10 to 100% within honey bee populations, which was accompanied by a millionfold increase in viral titer and a massive reduction in DWV diversity, leading to the predominance of a single DWV strain. Therefore, the global spread of Varroa has selected DWV variants that have emerged to allow it to become one of the most widely distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet.

Received for publication 22 February 2012.
Accepted for publication 27 April 2012.

Apparently, these are the articles referenced. Note the dates at the bottom of the abstract compared with the above article.
Neonicotinoid Pesticide Reduces Bumble Bee Colony Growth and Queen Production
Penelope R. Whitehorn1, Stephanie O’Connor1, Felix L. Wackers2, Dave Goulson1,*
+ Author Affiliations

1School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK.
2Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK.
↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dave.goulson@stir.ac.uk
ABSTRACT

Growing evidence for declines in bee populations has caused great concern because of the valuable ecosystem services they provide. Neonicotinoid insecticides have been implicated in these declines because they occur at trace levels in the nectar and pollen of crop plants. We exposed colonies of the bumble bee Bombus terrestris in the laboratory to field-realistic levels of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, then allowed them to develop naturally under field conditions. Treated colonies had a significantly reduced growth rate and suffered an 85% reduction in production of new queens compared with control colonies. Given the scale of use of neonicotinoids, we suggest that they may be having a considerable negative impact on wild bumble bee populations across the developed world.

Received for publication 10 October 2011.
Accepted for publication 7 March 2012.

A Common Pesticide Decreases Foraging Success and Survival in Honey Bees
Mickaël Henry1,2,*, Maxime Béguin2,3, Fabrice Requier4,5, Orianne Rollin2,6, Jean-François Odoux5, Pierrick Aupinel5, Jean Aptel1,2, Sylvie Tchamitchian1,2, Axel Decourtye2,6
+ Author Affiliations

1INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique), UR406 Abeilles et Environnement, F-84914 Avignon, France.
2UMT Protection des Abeilles dans l’Environnement, Site Agroparc, F-84914 Avignon, France.
3Association pour le Développement de l’Apiculture Provençale, F-13626 Aix-en-Provence, France.
4Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS (USC-INRA 1339), UPR1934, F-79360 Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France.
5INRA, UE1255, UE Entomologie, F-17700 Surgères, France.
6Association de Coordination Technique Agricole, Site Agroparc, F-84914 Avignon, France.
↵*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mickael.henry@avignon.inra.fr
ABSTRACT

Nonlethal exposure of honey bees to thiamethoxam (neonicotinoid systemic pesticide) causes high mortality due to homing failure at levels that could put a colony at risk of collapse. Simulated exposure events on free-ranging foragers labeled with a radio-frequency identification tag suggest that homing is impaired by thiamethoxam intoxication. These experiments offer new insights into the consequences of common neonicotinoid pesticides used worldwide.

Received for publication 10 October 2011.
Accepted for publication 5 March 2012.

Last edited by Anonymous Coward : 2012-07-31 at 16:45.
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Windswept
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2012-07-31, 19:31

I've been worried about colony collapse since news of it first started appearing in the media. I loathe pesticides, and so hope that harmless chemicals can be developed that will repel insects from places we don't want them, but won't poison the insects or the environment.

I've had problems with bees getting into the structure of my house and building hives in the walls. All they need is a small 1/4" hole in the wall of the house's exterior to find their way into the walls. I've had hives in two walls and in the attic. Hives full of honey that will eventually spill down inside the walls, attract other insects like ants, and then after a time turn rancid.

So far, the hives have been removed while the honey was still contained and not leaking. And the bees are probably Africanized bees, and therefore aggressive and dangerous if they are disturbed. I've had to call Africanized bee experts three times, to the tune of $700 per event, but well worth it. Poor bees. It makes me so sad that I can't share my house with them, but it's just not possible, alc. Not aggressive Africanized bees with honey leaking in the walls.
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Dave
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2012-07-31, 19:38

Quote:
Originally Posted by Windswept View Post
It makes me so sad that I can't share my house with them, but it's just not possible, alc. Not aggressive Africanized bees with honey leaking in the walls.
Bees have the wrong number of legs for that.
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billybobsky
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2012-08-01, 08:33

The science is sound, but may not be the complete story. Climate variation, viruses, pathogens etc could all contribute to the collapse.
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Majost
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2012-08-01, 08:57

Quote:
Originally Posted by billybobsky View Post
The science is sound, but may not be the complete story. Climate variation, viruses, pathogens etc could all contribute to the collapse.
Sure, but this strikes me as a bit of a "no shit, sherlock" moment. Oh, you mean those chemicals we developed to kill bugs are killing the good bugs, too? Is it really all that surprising? To compare to another pesticide effect story, the fact that DDT affected birds was at least a step removed up the food chain and more surprising to a naive observer.
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Eugene
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2012-08-01, 16:50

It's not that I don't care, it's just that I can't practically do anything more personally to save bees. I already buy organically grown, pesticide free produce and use very few chemical pollutants in my daily life.
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billybobsky
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2012-08-01, 17:31

Quote:
Originally Posted by Majost View Post
Sure, but this strikes me as a bit of a "no shit, sherlock" moment. Oh, you mean those chemicals we developed to kill bugs are killing the good bugs, too? Is it really all that surprising? To compare to another pesticide effect story, the fact that DDT affected birds was at least a step removed up the food chain and more surprising to a naive observer.
There's the small issue that people do not have a freaking clue they can cause so much destruction unintentionally.

also: while DDT is bad news when sprayed in an uncontrolled manner, its ban probably set back malaria control 50-100 years... again, unintended consequences all around...
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Eugene
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2012-08-01, 23:07

It's not like malaria since the ban of DDT has killed off 1/3 of the human population...not even remotely close.
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billybobsky
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2012-08-02, 07:51

My point wasn't a comparison of two situations that exist because of unintended consequences, my point was that we are really bad at making decisions that don't have unintended consequences.

And while it is certainly true that malaria only kills a little over 1 million people a year (more than many many other causes), over 1 billion are infected and 2 billion more live in at risk areas. Or put another way: the DTT banned fucked things up.
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