Oy. You could have done a wee bit of research in current news. CCD likely is caused by a virus spreading through many parts of the world. What mutated the virus is unknown, but it could just be natural. Or other stressors could make the bees more vulnerable. But never fear, there will soon be another fumigant to buy that will save everything. sigh.

and you could have begun your statement in such a way that didn't make you sound like a condescending schmuck. but hey, nobody's perfect.

Interesting article. If anything I would have to surmise that possibly the biggest culprit might be the changing in the Earths temp. Seems as if the smallest of things are impacted the most.

I've also heard, that it's also a ploy due to falling sales in honey..especially in the U.S., there seems to be a correlation between the low carb craze and the fall in sales of honey. I can't exactly pinpoint where I read it though.

But considering this is a worldwide phenomena I'd have to say it's more environmental.

I just saw a commercial for some pest control company offering to kill more bees. Pendejos!

Here is a bee anecdote. here in S. TX the summer sun is now so hot flowers collapse in the mid day and reopen at dusk.for the past couple years I have noticed bees, which are diurnal (day cyclers) buzzing around after dark. I have named these the Texas Night Bees. my point is only that bees are intelligent creatures that will adapt if possible. But even if they do, it cannot be agribusiness as usual. Food has been genetically modified since the beginning of agriculture, but you can't program poison into a special crop at the expense of the rest of the chain. Pendejos!

There were some articles I read speculating that the Bt toxin made the bees immunosuppressed. Personally, I'm betting on the pesticides and herbicides. Spraying chemicals on flowers to kill plants and bugs can't be good for the bees, who take the poisoned pollen and concentrate it to make honey.

Yes the wider implications with the food change & ecosystem have been downplayed a bit, if it was cell phones would people give them up?
Maybe they need the bee expert from "The Swarm" played by Michael Caine, although he did like kill them all at the end, but he acted like he knew a lot.

Climate change, I think. Compartmentalised thinking will probably struggle with this for a long time, too.

That elitest pyramid you mentioned is looking more like a ponzi scheme everyday.

Nez, I'm not going to pretend to be a bee expert but I have engaged in research on monoculture farming and genetically-modified organisms. This thing with the bees is likely a combination of issues. I hope you don't mind if I go into this a little bit here for you. (I don't want to be like anony-hole in the first comment.)

It's not really surprising that researchers have found N. ceranae in the affected hives. Organisms commonly share their environment with other species. Sometimes these relationships are parasitic as in this case but that doesn't mean N. ceranae is responsible for CCD. You have to consider the fact that "commercial bees" are being used. In the past, there was a lot more genetic variety in bees. Now they are using bees that man has tampered with and may be more susceptible to this particular parasitic infection or fungal infestation. Thus, when they are exposed to it, we see a widespread drop off of bees. If the nature selected bees were there instead, then some would likely die from these infections but perhaps not as many/all of them.

Then there's also the Africanized honey bees that are the product of human tampering, breeding different species of bees with each other. These bees are aggressively taking over the territory that used to be colonized by other honey bees. The Africanized bees produce honey but they are so aggressive that they simply can't be used in a commercial setting even though they produce more honey than the normally used commercial honey bees. You have to exterminate them. They are simply to dangerous for humans to coexist with. They're called "killer bees" for a good reason.

So yeah, you're going to see a lot more ads for bee exterminators because Africanized honey bees have worked their way up from South America, through Central America and are now all across the West Coast. The problem is, everything we do to rid ourselves of the Africanized bees also affects the regular honey bees.

But all of that is the simple stuff. We still don't know if CCD might be the result of the prevalance of monoculture farming. We may be inadvertently creating environments that are toxic to the bees. Instead of having a variety of food sources, they are being forced to live in environments where there is much less to choose from. The strain may indeed be too much for them as the article suggested.

But that's all just my tuppence!

bint i dont mind at all. and while i can only muse, clearly you have some experience in related areas, so i thank you for droppin it here.

interesting point on the "commercial bees" and "killer bees." wow. but am i surprised? not a bit. once again manipulating things to "pay off" more. like feeding cows other cows. greed. it always accomplishes such groovy things. and we always learn from it, don't we.

i do appreciate your tuppence, these insights. very fascinating. and still we wait, i guess. to see what's going on.

and killer bees! wow. it took about 28 years, but i guess they were right.

The killer bees really are going to be a big problem. Their migration rate is really astounding. They are a good example of why genetically modified crops are a bad idea. Nature does not like to be contained. Even if a farmer doesn't want to grow GMFs, they can't prevent their crops from becoming contaminated if other farmers are using them. Issues like that are causing all sorts of patent problems as well making it easier for corporations like Monsanto to force farmers to work with them, but that's a whole other topic, I guess.

The 'Blue Line', a line of blue bee traps for keeping track of killer bee progress runs about 5 miles from my house. Last report I heard, which I can't verify, indicated the killer bees had reached their northern limit in this area, after that, the winters get too cold for them.

I got this, as a possible indication of the future, from this site:

So, the West Coast, Southwest, Gulf Coast, and Southern regions of the USA will probably wind up with hybridized bee populations.

...Oh, and importing bees (the beekeepers around here prefer Hawaiian bees) isn't a long term solution because the killer bees are insanely territorial when it comes to other bees, too.

Over time, the hybridized populations will probably result in bee varieties that are hardier than commercial bees, produce more honey, slightly more aggressive, but still controllable. in other words, several thousand generations and a lot of dead people and screwed up ecology later, the reason this bee was bred in the first place may actually be achieved.

We hairless apes can be patient about warping a species in our own image at times. Just ask the dog.

Obviously, I messed up that blockquote. Here it is:

Control Level Diagnosis:

Diagnosing a control level depends on the environmental conditions. As Africanized bees expand into temperate areas, their tropical adaptations are less advantageous. Africanized Honey Bee populations in temperate regions would not successfully establish a domain and therefore, a "Minimal Priority" control level should be diagnosed. However, a "Medium Priority" control level for North America's southern semitropical area is recommended. For example, in Argentina, Africanized bees dominate in the northern semitropical regions, but European bees dominate in the southern temperate area; in-between, there are hybrid zones where bees have varying degrees of African or European traits. A similar pattern may occur in the United States, with African traits dominating in extreme southern regions.

Whether CCD turns out to be caused by GMO's or the new pesticides or Global Warming or all the millions of wireless devices, one thing is certain - we've messed with nature so much that it would be very difficult to believe that man is not responsible. Still, NO one is going to willingly give up their cell phones or wireless routers and NO company will willingly cut production of any product that makes money. Period! Those the hard and cold facts.

I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about this issue, related specifically to California, in which a professor from UC Davis believes that due to lack of rain in California, the bees didn't obtain their required mix of pollens; thus, they weren't fully healthy to handle possible others causes and have thus succommed to death. I think the larger issue at hand is the pollution of the environment by CO2, which is causing global warming, which in turn is causing less rain, and ultimately sub-issues like the death of the honeybees. I believe the answer to this honeybee crisis, and many other global problems, lies in resolving CO2 pollution.

Gee, I wonder why Aryans like me are concerned about folks like you coming over the border? Could it be that you are blatantly hostile? If you are really motivated for justice why not go after it in Mexico? Is the US perfect? It is very far from perfection. In some ways we are almost as corrupt as Mexico. But, our people still retain most of their power. Aryan Bill

Gee, I wonder why Aryans like me

And this is where sane folk stop listening.

Bill Robards, I did not come over the border. I was born here, ignorant non-reader of a blog you feel the right to comment on.

and who says i'm motivated for justice? i just love bees. and telling off fools like you. anyway...who the hell are "your people"? aryans? nazis? americans? bees? and more importantly...who cares?

ps. mexicans are not, in general, "blatantly hostile." that's just me. ta-ta!!