CCD - Colony Collapse Disorder - The Why & What of the Bees?

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Much has been mentioned lately about what is happening to our bees on a global scale.

This is very frightening. Some claim this is a result of pesticides, hybrid crops, fungi and varied other explanations.

Is this man's interference without caution with our environment, a purposeful plan to invoke world wide famine, a natural extinction of a species...something else???

Bring your theories and information and let's try to figure this one out!

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Bees - What Nature's Biological Geiger Counters May Be Telling Us
Mar 16th, 2007 6:16 AM

Bees - Biological Geiger Counters
By: Mark Sircus, Ac., OMD

Source: http://Inetrnational Medical Veritas Association

March 16, 2007


Approximately one-third of the typical American’s diet (primarily the healthiest part) is directly or indirectly the result of honey bee pollination.

On their travels, they transfer pollen from plant to plant, flower to flower, fertilizing the blossoms and allowing them to set fruit. This ancient partnership of pollinator and plant is essential to life as we know it. One-third of the food we eat comes from crops that need animal pollinators, a role often filled by bees but sometimes by butterflies, beetles, birds, or bats.

The New York Times and other major media sources have recently published scary articles about a catastrophe in the making, about a disaster that will soon have a direct impact on our collective stomachs. In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers are getting the shock of their lives seeing hundreds of millions of their bees literally disappearing. Beekeepers go out to open their hives and find them empty. Bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply not returning to their homes, they vanish without a trace. Researchers say the bees are dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold. Researchers have labeled this affliction “colony collapse disorder.”

Farmers across North America have been blitzing their fields with millions of tons of herbicides and pesticides for decades. And since the mid to late 1990's massive numbers of genetically engineered crops have been planted.

Greg Ciola

Greg Ciola wrote in his book GMOs, Beware of the Coming Food Apocalypse, “In one German study done at the University of Jena they tested bees on a field of genetically engineered rapeseed (canola). The bees were released onto the crop and then took the pollen back to their hive and fed it to young bees. When scientists analyzed the bacteria in the gut of the young bees they discovered that it contained the same gene traits as those of the modified crops. This study is very alarming because bees are one of the most important insects to mankind. From bees we get honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis, and bees wax. Irrespective of GM crops, there is already great concern in America over the health of the honeybee. American apiaries have been dealing with many other problems over the last few years. They can’t be too pleased to know that altered genes from rapeseed can now be transferred to the bee. Just think how many honeybees in America are now pollinating on genetically modified rapeseed! Better yet, how many honeybees are now pollinating on all genetically modified crops? When bees start dying off, it’s only a matter of time before men does too!”

Safe pastures where bees can forage without being poisoned by pesticides are becoming increasingly rare.

In the UK, there have been "a few but significant examples" of what experts call the "Marie Celeste phenomenon" - colonies abandoning hives altogether leaving no evidence of what caused their disappearance. Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain have also had their bouts with “colony collapse disorder.”

More than 90 crops in North America rely on honeybees to transport
pollen from flower to flower, effecting fertilization and allowing production of fruit and seed. The amazing versatility of the species is worth an estimated $14 billion a year to the United States economy.

Honey bees are responsible for approximately one third of the United States crop pollination including almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, pumpkins, cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. Investigators are exploring a range of theories, including viruses, a fungus and poor bee nutrition. They are also studying a group of pesticides that were banned in some European countries to see if these are somehow affecting the bees’ innate ability to find their way back home. It has been noted that to give bees energy while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup.

There are no tell-tale bee corpses inside colonies or out in front of hives, where bees typically deposit their dead nest mates.

Experts are speculating that it may be the consequence of a new infection, or of several diseases simultaneously, leading to a fatally compromised immune system. It is also possible that severe stress brought on by crowding, inadequate nutrition or perhaps the combined effects of prophylactic antibiotics and miticides sprayed by beekeepers to ward off infections. Another particularly sad possibility is that accidental exposure to a new pesticide may cause non-lethal behavioral changes that interfere with the ability of honeybees to orient and navigate; brain-damaged foraging bees may simply get lost on their way home and starve to death away from the hive.

Honeybees contribute to our food chain in more ways than any other animal species. They are vital to alfalfa and clover, which is processed into hay to feed beef and dairy cattle.

The public does not recognize the magnitude of the threat that these mysterious events present but we should be more than alarmed. Scientists have been observing how one species after another is disappearing from our planet but never before has one with such a direct bearing on food production been threatened. Extinction of a species doesn't just affect the group that disappears - it tends to alter much more.

Earth's biodiversity is being overtaken by a mass extinction which, if allowed to proceed unchecked, could well eliminate between one quarter and one half of all species.
Norman Myers

Bees do make excellent biological geiger counters. They are especially valuable perennial mobile biomonitors of the local environment. Foraging honey bees fly and crawl into flowers and inspect many substrates and openings. As such, they come in contact with naturally-occurring materials in the environment as well as manmade pollutants including heavy metals and pesticides. Pollen and these exotic materials stick to their hairy bodies and are carried back to the nest cavity where they often become incorporated into the beeswax, pollen and honey stores. Thus, with their wide foraging range and collecting activities, they are natural monitoring agents for investigating the ebb and flow of floral resources and toxic substances within the environment. At least one researcher has effectively used honey bees to collect pollutants including heavy metals, radionuclides and pesticides, which are concentrated within their nests and can be subsequently analyzed using modern chemical analytical instrumentation.[i]

This reporting of “colony collapse disorder (CCD)” is a very interesting lesson in science. Either scientists have lost their ability to think intuitively[ii] or the media is again demonstrating its dishonesty by refusing to publish essential but unpopular information that threatens incoming advertising dollars. Though it is not reasonable to assume that any single factor is responsible, it is a glaring error to omit from the equation the rising tide of mercury on the land, water and air to which both we and honey bees are exposed. Most beekeepers affected by CCD report that they use antibiotics and miticides in their colonies, though the lack of uniformity as to which particular chemicals are used makes it seem unlikely that any single such chemical is involved. Yet when one chemical weakens a biological system, another can come in with a killer blow.

The decline of honeybee populations has brought the agricultural community to the brink of a pollination crisis.

Scientists have already studied mercury levels in the head, abdomen and thorax of bees (Apis mellifera) from 20 bee populations coming from industrially contaminated areas with a dominant load of mercury (10 populations) as well as from uncontaminated areas. The following mercury levels were found in bees from the contaminated area: heads 0.029-0.385 mg/kg, thorax 0.028-0.595 mg/kg and abdomen 0.083-2.255 mg/kg. Mercury levels in samples from uncontaminated areas ranged from 0.004 to 0.024 mg/kg in the heads, from 0.004 to 0.008 mg/kg in the thorax and from 0.008 to 0.020 mg/kg in the abdomen. In honey samples from the contaminated and uncontaminated areas mercury levels ranged from 0.050 to 0.212 mg/kg and from 0.001 to 0.003 mg/kg, respectively.[iii] Researchers have also demonstrated heavy metal accumulation in honey suggested that honey may be useful for assessing the presence of environmental contaminants.[iv]

Because of their experimental traceability, recently sequenced genome and well-understood biology, honey bees are an ideal model system for integrating molecular, genetic, physiological and socio-biological perspectives to advance our understanding of converging environmental stresses. Honey bees have the highest rates of flight muscle metabolism and power output ever recorded in the animal kingdom. Researchers believe that it is likely that changes in muscle gene expression, biochemistry, metabolism and functional capacity may be driven primarily by behavior as opposed to age, as is the case for changes in honey bee brains.[v] Even at low levels of exposure, mercury can permanently damage the brain and nervous system and cause behavioral changes in people. Mercury is a harsh neurological poison that affects neurological tissues throughout the animal kingdom and it is very possible that it is affecting the sensitive brains of honey bees.

When gilial progenitor stem cells in the brain were exposed to 5 to 6 parts per billion (ppb) of mercury, these cells stop dividing and simply shut down! These cells are absolutely crucial in building the brain in infancy and beyond.

Professor Mark Noble
University of Rochester NY

Power plants are the largest unregulated source of mercury emissions, releasing 48 tons of mercury into the air annually in the United States alone. Oil, fertilizers, pesticides and the countless other chemicals, byproducts and debris that enter our water, air and land continually afflict species worldwide and produce damaging, long-lasting effects. Mercury is however one of the most prevalent and powerful poisons, and it manages to infiltrate everything.

Mercury pollution is making its way into nearly every habitat in the U.S., exposing countless species of wildlife to potentially harmful levels of this neurological toxin.

“From songbirds to alligators, turtles to bats, eagles to otters, mercury is accumulating in nearly every corner of the food chain,” says Catherine Bowes, Northeast Program Manager for the National Wildlife Federation and principal author of a recent report on the issue. “This report paints a compelling picture of mercury contamination in the U.S., and many more species are at risk than we previously thought. Fish, long thought to be the key species affected by mercury, are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Global decline of amphibians has been a hot issue in recent years among both the scientists who study them and the general public. A paper by University of Georgia researchers in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry suggests that atmospheric deposition of mercury in aquatic habitats has the potential to have significant impacts on amphibians in the larval stage of development.[vi]

The National Wildlife Federation report, Poisoning Wildlife: The Reality of Mercury Pollution, is a compilation of over 65 published studies finding elevated levels of mercury in a wide range of wildlife species. The report highlights mercury levels in fish, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians living in freshwater, marine, and forest habitats from across the country. The accumulation of mercury in fish has been well-understood for years, leading 46 states in the U.S. to issue consumption advisories warning people to limit or avoid eating certain species of fish. However, scientists have recently discovered that mercury accumulates in forest soils, indicating that wildlife that lives and feeds outside aquatic habitats are also at risk of exposure to mercury.

“Scientific understanding of the extent of mercury contamination in wildlife has expanded significantly in recent years,” says Dr. David Evers of the Biodiversity Research Institute, wildlife toxicologist and leading researcher in this field. “We are finding mercury accumulation in far more species, and at much higher levels, than we previously thought was occurring. This poses a very real threat to the health of many wildlife populations, some of which are highly endangered.”

The scientific studies compiled in the report show mercury in a wide variety of species:

Freshwater Fish: Brook Trout, Walleye, Yellow Perch, Rainbow Trout, Northern Perch, Largemouth Bass

Birds in Aquatic Habitats: Bald Eagle, Great Egret, Wood Stork, Northern Shoveler, Common Loon, Red-winged Blackbird, White Ibis, Common Tern, Belted Kingfisher

Birds in Forest Habitats: Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo, Louisiana Waterthrush, Bicknell’s Thrush, Carolina Wren, Prothonotary Warbler

Mammals: Florida Panther, Indiana Bat, Mink, River Otter, Raccoon

Reptiles, Amphibians, Invertebrates: Two-lined Salamander, Snapping Turtle, Crayfish, American Alligator, Bullfrog

Marine Life: Tiger Shark, Sperm Whale, Striped Bass, Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Narwhal, Polar Bear, Beluga Whale, Ringed Seal

It is understandable that those who are at the helm of our system do not want to create a massive scare by creating an association between a disaster in agriculture (via the collapse in bee colonies) and the tremendous rise in mercury that the government is trying to suppress. This book, The Rising Tide of Mercury and Other Toxic Chemicals, (coming at the end of 2007 from IMVA Publications), will clearly demonstrate the threat of mercury which is now taking on gigantic proportions, and how virtually no one is effectively dealing with the crisis. What good is it for Europe to eliminate the use of mercury from the continent when it is being spilled into the environment in huge amounts by the United States, China and India? Mercury circles the globe just as radiation from nuclear accidents and the use of deleted uranium weapons does.

It is very possible that the honey bees are being affected in advance of other species in a massive way but it has already been demonstrated by scientists that humans, especially children, are also being seriously affected neurologically by mercury in the air. (See Chapter on Mercury in the Air and rising rates of autism.) The United States is being hit simultaneously by two increasing waves of mercury pollution: one could be responsible for triggering the collapse in bee populations, and the other long-standing issue of constant large tonnage being released each and every day.

The increasing occurrence and intensity of wildfires due to climate change is worsening mercury pollution in North America according to a new study from researchers at Michigan State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the Canadian Forest Service. Wildfires are releasing mercury long since sequestered in Northern wetlands and will without doubt add to health problems in both humans and animals.

Industry puts out more than carbon monoxide into the air, tons of mercury are put out into the air each and everyday.

A 2002 study from the University of Santa Cruz, California illuminates the mechanisms of a second pathway where mercury is increasing. This study found that mercury from coal emissions in China ends up in rainwater on the California coast.[vii] Atmospheric mercury travels around the globe as a gas and must be oxidized into charged ions that will attach themselves to water molecules before they are washed out as rain. Ozone, abundant in industrial and urban smog, plays a key role in this oxidative process. When the gaseous mercury blows into San Francisco Bay from Asia, the local smog is there waiting to "enrich" it and set in motion the process of introducing more mercury into the food chain via rain onto surface waters. With China and India putting up new dirty coal fired plants at a furious rate it is literally raining mercury in the United States and all over the world. By 2020, the United States will emit almost one-fifth more gases that lead to global warming than it did in 2000, increasing the risks of drought and scarce water supplies, and of course, though no one is talking about it, mercury emissions will continue to rise.

Scientists from the University of Quebec who have been studying the Amazon basin since 1992, measured riverbank sediments for mercury levels in small increasing increments and discovered that the most recent sediments contained 1.5 to 3 times the amount of mercury compared to those of 40 years earlier. The timing of the mercury increases fits well with the huge colonization of the area initiated during the 1960s by Brazil's National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform. Through this program, tens of thousands of families relocated from the poorer regions of northeastern Brazil to the Amazon basin. Most of these families turned to farming, and cleared more than 2.5 million hectares of Amazon forest using "slash and burn" methods. While most people are aware of the perils of deforestation in terms of global warming and depletion of protective ozone, only now are scientists beginning to understand that the consequent erosion of soils contributes to worldwide mercury contamination. "When you have forest cover, this mercury is extremely stable in the soils," explains one of the researchers. "There is hardly any release to the aquatic ecosystem. The mercury is bound to clay, organic matter, humic acids, and so on."[viii] Without the forest cover, exposed soil is washed into waterways as regularly as it rains. Once in contact with bacteria in the rivers, inorganic mercury is converted to methyl mercury and thereby introduced into the food chain.

Mercury continues to appear in places and via means that scientists could not have predicted. Two studies in the March 15, 2002 issue of Environmental Science and Technology describe the phenomenon of "mercury sunrise," an event first described in 1998 in the Arctic north. During a span of only five months during the polar spring each year, the northern-most coast of Alaska receives more than twice the amount of mercury that would usually fall during an entire year on the northeastern coast of the US. This phenomenon also occurs on the southern polar region, and researchers estimate that as much as a hundred tons of mercury are dumped on both poles annually.[ix]

It has been clear since the infamous 1950s case of women in Minimata, Japan who gave birth to children with severe birth defects because of mercury-tainted fish in their diet, that exposure to high levels of mercury can be harmful. Subsequent studies have revealed that even low-level mercury exposure threatens normal development of the fetus. Problems with vision, hearing, language and motor skills are typical of mercury-related neurological damage. Some recent studies indicate that men with elevated mercury levels may suffer more heart attacks. Animal studies suggest that low-level mercury exposure produces autoimmune diseases and other immune system anomalies.[x] The mercury is there but the recent publicity about this issue is centered on how safe it is to eat mercury contaminated fish!

Because mercury is everywhere - in our water, foods, air, soil, vaccines and dental amalgam - it needs to be factored into ALL disease etiologies.

Are we next? Will humans start to fall like the bees? It is very possible, more likely than not, that top federal health officials have already previewed the looming disaster but cruelly refuse to face the public with the truth. It is either that or they are the most ignorant medical scientists in the universe. Instead of warning humanity and directing the government’s efforts to reduce and even eliminate mercury, as the European Union is setting out to do with earnest, health officials each and every year, at an increasingly frantic pace, are warning of hundreds of millions of deaths from influenza and the bird flu. Never once will you hear them quote research that indicates that mercury toxicity increases the frequency and intensity of influenza symptoms and could be one of the root causes of death from the flu. We know that mercury is rising in threatening concentrations, it is a scientific fact. Yet the United States government is doing practically nothing to stop mercury pollution. To the contrary, a hundred and fifty new coal fire plants are on the drawing board.

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What do you think?


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/156/424142341_44799c1f9d.jpg?v=0

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LMH's Report

From: earthfiles

March 16, 2007 Washington, D. C. - In my previous February 23, 2007, Earthfiles and Coast to Coast AM news updates about the mysterious honey bee disappearances, I interviewed a Pennsylvania honey beekeeper who has had nearly 2,000 of his 2900 hives disappear – a 60% loss to date. That is David Hackenberg of Hackenberg Apiary in Pennsylvania. He said he had never seen so many deserted hives that were also left alone by predator moths and beetles. That’s why he suspects some kind of pesticide is getting into the flower pollen and nectar and poisoning the hives. He contacted Penn State’s bee experts to investigate. But to date, there is no answer.

And bees are still disappearing in massive numbers. One Midwestern beekeeper had 13,000 healthy, full hives in mid-November 2006. Those bees began disappearing in mid-December and now he's lost 96% of them. He's facing bankruptcy. This week, one Ohio beekeeper opened up his hives after the winter to find 80% were empty. Over the past six months, massive disappearances of honey bees have been reported in at least 24 states; internationally in Poland and Spain; and it’s still unknown how many more honey bees will be gone as more northern hives are opened this spring in North America and Europe. Right now, dozens of scientists are trying to find out what is causing what they call “colony collapse disorder,” or CCD.

I talked with Penn State entomologist Diana Cox-Foster, Ph.D., who has analyzed some bees found in deserted hives. Dr. Cox-Foster has seen as many as five different viruses and unidentified fungi in the bees. She says that is two times more pathogens than she’s ever seen before in honey bees. The implication is that something has seriously damaged their immune systems, leaving the honey bees more vulnerable to disease than before. But what could that be?

So far, there are still no answers, but there is a long list of possibilities, which include pesticides and genetically modified crops, also known as GMOs or GMs. Scientists say there is no direct evidence that genetically modified crops are linked to honey bee die-offs. But I have been learning that not much is known about the accumulating impact of pesticides on insects, animals and even people when you consider in this modern world how many combinations of pesticides are used. One pesticide by itself might not destroy honey bees. But what happens when farmers spray herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and rodenticides on land that also has genetically modified crops with pesticides built-in?

The United States grows nearly two-thirds of all genetically engineered crops. Last year about 130 million acres were planted with GMs. Much of the soy, corn, cotton and canola have had a gene inserted into their DNA to produce pesticides systemically throughout the plants created and patented by Monsanto. Monsanto also produces genetically modified crops designed not to die when herbicides are sprayed on them. In a perfect biotech world, only the weeds would be killed. But Mother Nature has a way of outwitting human designs. So, now the weeds are becoming resistant to the herbicide sprays and frustrated farmers are putting on more and more poisons.

One American plant pathologist who is very concerned about the herbicide-resistant weeds is Doug Gurian-Sherman, Ph.D., now a senior scientist in the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C. Previously between 1995 and 2000, Dr. Gurian-Sherman was a staff scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency where he evaluated risks and safety of pesticides and genetically modified crops. I asked him what effect accumulating pesticides might have on honey bees.
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New Problem: Herbicide-Resistant Weeds in
Genetically Engineered Crops

Doug Gurian-Sherman, Ph.D., Plant Pathologist, Senior Scientist in the Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, and previous Staff Scientist, Environmental Protection Agency, evaluating risks and safety of pesticides and genetically modified crops, Washington, D. C.: “It’s hard to know what the implications are for bees, but one of the two main genetically engineered crops and the one most widely planted in the U. S. and around the world are herbicide-tolerant crops – especially herbicide-tolerant soybeans. At least half of the soybeans in the U. S. are resistant to a particular type of pesticide called glyphosate. The trade name of the most common type is called Roundup.

[ Editor’s Note: Roundup C3H8NO5P is the brand name of a systemic, broad-spectrum herbicide produced by the biotech corporation, Monsanto. It is the most used herbicide in the world, and the top-selling agrichemical of all time. An herbicide is a pesticide used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often based on plant hormones. Herbicides used to clear waste ground are nonselective and kill all plant material with which they come into contact. The Roundup Herbicide has been linked to amphibian deaths in water contaminated with Roundup runoff.

Herbicides are widely used in agriculture and in landscape turf management. They are applied in total vegetation control (TVC) programs for maintenance of highways and railroads. Smaller quantities are used in forestry, pasture systems, and management of areas set aside as wildlife habitat.

Monsanto developed and patented the glyphosatemolecule in the 1970s, and marketed Roundup from 1973 onward. Monsanto retained exclusive rights in the United States until its U.S. patent expired in September 2000. Then Monsanto maintained a predominant marketshare in countries where the patent expired earlier.



The active ingredient in Roundup is the isopropylamine salt of glyphosate. Glyphosate's mode of action is to inhibit an enzyme involved in the synthesis of the amino acids tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine. It is absorbed through foliage and translocated (moves through plant sap) to growing points. Weeds and grass will generally re-emerge within one to two months after usage. Because of this mode of action, it is only effective on actively growing plants. Roundup is not effective as a "pre-emergence herbicide." Monsanto also produces seeds which grow into plants genetically engineered to be tolerant to glyphosate which are known as Roundup Ready crops. The genes contained in these seeds are patented. Such crops allow farmers to use glyphosate as a post-emergence pesticide against both broadleaf and cereal weeds. Soy beans were the first Roundup Ready crop, which was produced at Monsanto's Agracetus Campus located in Middleton, Wisconsin. Current Roundup Ready crops include corn, sorghum, cotton, soy beans, canola and alfalfa. ]

What this genetically engineered trait does is allow a farmer to spray the herbicide right on the crop, which would have killed the crop, would kill the soybeans, prior to introduction of this gene. The gene comes from a type of bacteria that is found in the soil and it makes the plant immune to the herbicide.

The consequence of this is that glyphosate and Roundup, which is sold by Monsanto - the same company that also sells the seed of the type of soybeans that are immune or resistant to the herbicide - that herbicide has become the most widely used herbicide in the world. The consequence of that is you have one particular herbicide used on a tremendous amount of acreage in the U. S. and elsewhere, especially Argentina and Brazil.

As any biologist would expect, when you have such tremendous pressure on weeds to try to survive this herbicide, some of the weeds that are resistant are selected for and all their competition is killed off. The resistant weeds then proliferate and can no longer be controlled by glyphosate. So, now you have a situation where the use of this herbicide has gone up and on probably millions of acres, other herbicides are having to be used as well as glyphosate in order to control the resistant weeds.

So, what we’ve been seeing in the past few years is the overall level of herbicide use increasing and it will almost inevitably continue to increase. And in this case, it’s causing the rise of these resistant weeds and the increased use of herbicides and potentially may be harming amphibians to boot.

AND THE HONEY BEES. WITH THE CREATION OF THESE FRANKENSTEIN CROPS AND FRANKENSTEIN WEEDS, ISN’T EMERGING A MAJOR QUESTION ABOUT ACCUMULATION? NO ONE REALLY KNOWS THE ANSWER TO HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH FOR EARTH LIFE? AND THAT THE PILING ON OF HERBICIDES NOW AGAINST RESISTANT WEEDS, MADE RESISTANT THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED HERBICIDES, YOU ARE INCREASING PESTICIDES OUT THERE IN THE WORLD WITH UNKNOWN CONSEQUENCES?

Well, certainly. When the Environmental Protection Agency registers pesticides, it does quite a bit of testing. But even if that testing does reveal potential risks and has a lot of value, it certainly also has substantial limits. One of those limits is that we often don’t have a good handle on how the interaction between different pesticides can effect organisms. That is not really tested by EPA.

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More Articles Here (http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1223&category=Environment)

[lastconundrum]

This isn't a wake up call, this is the fire alarm going off in your bedroom. If the bees disappear it doesn't mean that we'll just have a few shortages in some fruits and nuts; bees are essentail for alfalfa pollination. If the alfalfa goes so does our beef "industry"; you can't produce the amount of beef consumed with grass or any other substitute. Get ready for meatless days ending in "y". :31:

Of course, this may all be the ramblings of a self-centered carnivore. If the amphibians are disappearing and the bees are disappearing (in winter? where did they go?) then we could be next. :1zhelp:

[Delphine]

Collapse of Honey Bees in U. S., Canada and 9 European Countries

Latest from earthfiles.com

April 6, 2007 London, England - When hives in Toronto and Saskatchewan, Canada, were opened up in the last week of March, at least 40% had either disappeared – or in another twist of the mystery – in some Canadian hives, thousands of bee bodies were found dead.

In addition to the United States and Canada, in Europe at least nine countries are now reporting massive disappearances of honey bees – similar to the Colony Collapse Disorder that has affected American beekeepers since the fall of 2006. The European countries reporting bee disappearances are:

1) Spain
2) Poland
3) Greece
4) Croatia
5) Switzerland
6) Italy
7) Portugal
8) Germany
9) And England.

To everyone’s surprise, in the U. K. where genetically modified crops have been resisted and beekeeping is on a smaller scale with less pesticide use than in the United States, honey beekeepers in London who opened hives the end of March found at least half of their hives empty.



© 2007 by Linda Moulton Howe

"We’re seeing that some beekeepers have lost fairly high levels
of bees over the winter – one beekeeper as high as 90% loss."
- Brent Halsall, Pres., Ontario Beekeepers Assoc., Canada

[Alpha]

This isn't a wake up call, this is the fire alarm going off in your bedroom. If the bees disappear it doesn't mean that we'll just have a few shortages in some fruits and nuts; bees are essentail for alfalfa pollination. If the alfalfa goes so does our beef "industry"; you can't produce the amount of beef consumed with grass or any other substitute. Get ready for meatless days ending in "y". :31:

Of course, this may all be the ramblings of a self-centered carnivore. If the amphibians are disappearing and the bees are disappearing (in winter? where did they go?) then we could be next. :1zhelp:

Last, it's not only a wake up call, but perhaps one of the most insidious plots of them all....take a look at this!!!

Ecological Apocalypse: Why Are All The Bees Dying?
GM, toxic chemicals, chemtrails destroying eco-system, threatening very survival of humanity

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The alarming decline in bee populations across the United States and Europe represents a potential ecological apocalypse, an environmental catastrophe that could collapse the food chain and wipe out humanity. Who and what is behind this flagrant abuse of the eco-system?

Many people don't realize the vital role bees play in maintaining a balanced eco-system. According to experts, if bees were to become extinct then humanity would perish after just four years.

"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man," said Albert Einstein.

Others would say four years is alarmist and that man would find other food sources, but the fact remains that the disappearance of bees is potentially devastating to agriculture and most plant life.

Reports that bee populations are declining at rates of up to 80% in areas of the U.S. and Europe should set alarm bells ringing and demand immediate action on behalf of environmental organizations. Experts are calling the worrying trend "colony collapse disorder" or CCD.

"Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent," reports AFP.

"Approximately 40 percent of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in my 30 years of beekeeping," apiarist Gene Brandi, from the California State Beekeepers Association, told Congress recently.

The article states that U.S. bee colonies have been dropping since 1980 and the number of beekeepers have halved.

Scientists are thus far stumped as to what is causing the decline, ruling out parasites but leaning towards some kind of new toxin or chemical used in agriculture as being responsible. "Experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor," reports Germany's Spiegal Online.

Bee populations throughout Germany have simultaneously dropped 25% and up to 80% in some areas. Poland, Switzerland and Spain are reporting similar declines. Studies have shown that bees are not dying in the hive, something is causing them to lose their sense of orientation so that they cannot return to the hive. Depleted hives are not being raided for their honey by other insects, which normally happens when bees naturally die in the winter, clearly suggesting some kind of poisonous toxin is driving them away.

"In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the insects' immune system may have collapsed."

A study at the University of Jena from 2001 to 2004 showed that toxins from a genetically modified maize variant designed to repel insects, when combined with a parasite, resulted in a "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" than normal.

"According to Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a professor at the University of Halle in eastern Germany and the director of the study, the bacterial toxin in the genetically modified corn may have "altered the surface of the bee's intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain entry -- or perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know."

Kaatz was desperate to continue his studies but funding was cut off.

While we are lectured by government to change our lifestyle and cough up more taxes for the supposed peril of man-made global warming, an environmental catastrophe that could eliminate the human race in the figurative blink of an eye is looming.

Why are major environmental groups and lobbyists ignoring this mammoth threat to our very existence? Where is Greenpeace?

The hyperbole surrounding man-made global warming is swallowing up all the attention while real dangers like the rapid die-off of bee populations and its link to GM food is largely shunned by governments and activist foundations.

Is it a stretch to hypothesize that government mandated spraying of crops with deadly chemicals as well as toxic substances contained in chemtrails could be part of a deliberate program to eliminate the bee population? Or is this just another example of big business flagrantly abusing the eco-system in order to drive up profits?

The elite have publicly stated their desire to significantly reduce world population on numerous occasions. Just yesterday we featured a story about a British Government Ministry of Defence report that postulated on the future use of bio-weapons to thin the human population in under 30 years.

Making bees all but extinct would be a swift and plausibly deniable method of enacting global population reduction long dreamed of by the maniacal sociopaths that control the world.

Either way, this issue represents an overwhelming threat to the food chain and an environmental crime of the highest order, for which the perpetrators need to be brought up on charges of accessories to genocide, should a deliberate effort to endanger the food chain be proven, and the chemicals responsible immediately banned.

Please circulate this article to environmental groups and demand they investigate who and what is killing our bees!

-------------------------

Also see: Monsanto At it Again! - Genetically Modified/Engineered Food! (http://www.imaginativeworlds.com/forum/showthread.php?p=139537#post139537) :angryfire

[Alpha]

Now this is something that isn't being talked about.....very plausible as a contributory factor IMHO.....microwave radiation!!

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."

The case against handsets

Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing. But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.

Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.

Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells, suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant texting.

Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely ignored by ministers.

[Project]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Go to work, come home.
Go to work, come home.
Go to work -- and vanish without a trace.
Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why.
The phenomenon was first noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees have also been reported in Europe and Brazil.
Commercial beekeepers would set their bees near a crop field as usual and come back in two or three weeks to find the hives bereft of foraging worker bees, with only the queen and the immature insects remaining. Whatever worker bees survived were often too weak to perform their tasks.
If the bees were dying of pesticide poisoning or freezing, their bodies would be expected to lie around the hive. And if they were absconding because of some threat -- which they have been known to do -- they wouldn't leave without the queen.
Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, according to Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.
"They're the heavy lifters of agriculture," Pettis said of honeybees. "And the reason they are is they're so mobile and we can rear them in large numbers and move them to a crop when it's blooming."
Honeybees are used to pollinate some of the tastiest parts of the American diet, Pettis said, including cherries, blueberries, apples, almonds, asparagus and macadamia nuts.
"It's not the staples," he said. "If you can imagine eating a bowl of oatmeal every day with no fruit on it, that's what it would be like" without honeybee pollination.
Pettis and other experts are gathering outside Washington for a two-day workshop starting on Monday to pool their knowledge and come up with a plan of action to combat what they call colony collapse disorder.
"What we're describing as colony collapse disorder is the rapid loss of adult worker bees from the colony over a very short period of time, at a time in the season when we wouldn't expect a rapid die-off of workers: late fall and early spring," Pettis said.
Small workers in a supersize society

The problem has prompted a congressional hearing, a report by the National Research Council and a National Pollinator Week set for June 24-30 in Washington, but so far no clear idea of what is causing it.
"The main hypotheses are based on the interpretation that the disappearances represent disruptions in orientation behavior and navigation," said May Berenbaum, an insect ecologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
There have been other fluctuations in the number of honeybees, going back to the 1880s, where there were "mysterious disappearances without bodies just as we're seeing now, but never at this magnitude," Berenbaum said in a telephone interview.
In some cases, beekeepers are losing 50 percent of their bees to the disorder, with some suffering even higher losses. One beekeeper alone lost 40,000 bees, Pettis said. Nationally, some 27 states have reported the disorder, with billions of bees simply gone.
Some beekeepers supplement their stocks with bees imported from Australia, said beekeeper Jeff Anderson, whose business keeps him and his bees traveling between Minnesota and California. Honeybee hives are rented out to growers to pollinate their crops, and beekeepers move around as the growing seasons change.
Honeybees are not the only pollinators whose numbers are dropping. Other animals that do this essential job -- non-honeybees, wasps, flies, beetles, birds and bats -- have decreasing populations as well. But honeybees are the big actors in commercial pollination efforts.
"One reason we're in this situation is this is a supersize society -- we tend to equate small with insignificant," Berenbaum said. "I'm sorry but that's not true in biology. You have to be small to get into the flower and deliver the pollen.
"Without that critical act, there's no fruit. And no technology has been invented that equals, much less surpasses, insect pollinators."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/22/vanishing.bees.reut/index.html

This is really worrying... what a bellwether bees and insects are...

[Mcnowhere]

I heard the President of the BC Hive Association on CBC last week He said that he feels that there is some worry in BC with the fact that hobby bee keepers have lost 90% of their bees but that commericial beekeepers have only lost 30% of their's. The reason is that commercial keepers are more experienced with fighting disease and mites that attack bees. His theory about the US is that the bees there have become resistant to anitbiotics to kill a viral mite. He said that Canada doesn't use antibiotics on the same scale. He seemed to be playing the whole thing down although he said he was concerned with the cell phone theory and thought there might be something to that.

[Project]

they have no freakin clue as always

[Mcnowhere]

they have no freakin clue as always
The bees will bounce right back, I have no doubt.

[Alpha]

I heard the President of the BC Hive Association on CBC last week He said that he feels that there is some worry in BC with the fact that hobby bee keepers have lost 90% of their bees but that commericial beekeepers have only lost 30% of their's. The reason is that commercial keepers are more experienced with fighting disease and mites that attack bees. His theory about the US is that the bees there have become resistant to anitbiotics to kill a viral mite. He said that Canada doesn't use antibiotics on the same scale. He seemed to be playing the whole thing down although he said he was concerned with the cell phone theory and thought there might be something to that.

I'm not sure what they know McNo and if they did, would they really tell the truth?

This is very serious on a global scale.

******************************

10 Million Bees have Vanished in Taiwan.


Source: Reuters

Taiwan's bee farmers are feeling the sting of lost business and possible crop danger after millions of the honey-making, plant-pollinating insects vanished during volatile weather, media and experts said on Thursday.

Over the past two months, farmers in three parts of Taiwan have reported most of their bees gone, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. Taiwan's TVBS television station said about 10 million bees had vanished in Taiwan.
A beekeeper on Taiwan's northeastern coast reported 6 million insects missing "for no reason", and one in the south said 80 of his 200 bee boxes had been emptied, the paper said.

Beekeepers usually let their bees out of boxes to pollinate plants and the insects normally make their way back to their owners. However, many of the bees have not returned over the past couple of months.


Possible reasons include disease, pesticide poisoning and unusual weather, varying from less than 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) to more than 30 degrees Celsius over a few days, experts say.

"You can see climate change really clearly these days in Taiwan," said Yang Ping-shih, entomology professor at the National Taiwan University. He added that two kinds of pesticide can make bees turn "stupid" and lose their sense of direction.
As affected beekeepers lose business, fruit growers may lack a key pollination source and neighbors might get stung, he said.


Billions of bees have fled hives in the United States since late 2006, instead of helping pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees also have been reported in Europe and Brazil.


The mass buzz-offs are isolated cases so far, a Taiwan government Council of Agriculture official said.

But the council may collect data to study the causes of the vanishing bees and gauge possible impacts, said Kao Ching-wen, a pesticides section chief at the council.
"We want to see what the reason is, and we definitely need some evidence," Kao said. "It's hard to say whether there will be an impact."
*****************************

"Hard to see if there will be in impact"....oh come on!!! :banghead:

[Delphine]

they have no freakin clue as always

LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE RIGHT ON THAT, PROJECT......


Earthtimes.org
Fungus May Be Behind the Loss of Bees
Posted on : 2007-04-27


Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco have revealed that a fungus may be behind the problems plaguing the bee population in the United States. The same fungus had caused havoc among bees in Europe and Asia as well.

The Apiary Inspectors of America says that more than 25 percent of the bee population comprising over 2.4 million bee colonies has been lost over the last few years. Affected bees become disoriented and fail to return to their hives.

Many conspiracy theories were being floated around including one pointing the finger at Osama bin Laden! :bigeyes2: :laughing: However scientists have also attributed the so-called “colony collapse disorder,” to the explosion in use of mobile phones.

Now researchers are leaning toward a fungal parasite called Nosema ceranae as being responsible for the tragedy that has befallen the bee population.

Diana Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University said the pathogen was one of the many being studies for possible role in the annihilation of bees. "By itself, it is probably not the culprit … but it may be one of the key players," she added.

Dr Cox-Foster was behind the organization of a meet of 60 bee researchers on Monday as scientists struggle to find the cause of the CCD. "We still haven't ruled out other factors, such as pesticides or inadequate food resources following a drought," she said. "There are lots of stresses that these bees are experiencing," and it may be a combination of factors that is responsible.

But UC biochemist Joe DeRisi said the fungal link is very preliminary and it would be wrong to assume they had discovered the problem.

[Dera]

SNOPES.COM on the subject of Einstein and bees:

Did Albert Einstein predict that if something eliminated bees from our planet, mankind would soon perish?

Check it out: http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp

[VOguy]

Art said something on a past show about the bees possibly being affected by RF, and in specific, the signals cellular phones give off. That tripped my trigger and I had to write to him with this comment...


If the bee deaths are linked to RF, here is some fodder for concern.

- Nextel has purchased 2 GHz frequencies from TV broadcasters, and has migrated them up a few mHz to implement "new wireless services", much like cellular services. (Search for "nextel 2 ghz migration")

- The move by Congress to push DTV, with the end of analog being 2/17/2009, is born from the auction of channels 54 to 69 to new wireless services. (A good article is at http://www.cato.org/tech/tk/040930-tk.html on this). Many of these will be wireless video services, and Internet linked services.

Then there are more digital services coming on, such as IBOC (FM) and 8VSB digital TV which both carry a lot of power density.

So there may be a link which not only proves true with bee deaths, but as more wireless services come on it could impact not only more bees, but bird and other insects.

What would be interesting is if Linda Howe could correlate bee loss to metro areas, vs low RF areas. Pahrump vs Duckworth NV. Lima OH vs Plaza ND, or Moab UT, where there is not a lot of local UHF RF.

Can you imagine how we both would feel if there was a link to bee death due to 80 meter transmissions. I shutter at the thought!

73s & best to you, Airyn, and the cats!

[Alpha]

Art said something on a past show about the bees possibly being affected by RF, and in specific, the signals cellular phones give off. That tripped my trigger and I had to write to him with this comment...

An excellent theory VOguy....thanks for sharing this not only with us, but with Art! :notworthy

Warm http://bestsmileys.com/welcome/18.gif to Imaginative Worlds BTW....we're delighted to have you!! :)

I don't know whether we'll ever get the true answer to what is happening with the bees. Your added theory could certainly be applied as you say, not only to the bees, but the migration of birds, the beaching of whales, dolphins etc., relative to their apparent confusion and inability to navigate/migrate.

Perhaps the increased and over bombardment of all the varied frequencies, in addition to the "frankensteination" of species, seeds etcs all all contributory factors. That said, I'm sure one factor is more responsible than all....will be interesting to see how this unfolds relative to disclosure.

I hope that Einstein's comments and pseudo prediction doesn't prove to be true. This is very serious and needs to be remedied globally asap.

[Mcnowhere]

I wonder howthe lack of bee pollination will effect wildlife who live on berries and other plants?

[Alpha]

I wonder howthe lack of bee pollination will effect wildlife who live on berries and other plants?

I'm sure it will have a tremendous impact Mcno.

Any living thing that required pollination will be affected. I wonder how many other insects are responsible for pollination and what the ratio is to them and the bees in proportion to importance?

I'll try to do some digging on that, however if anyone knows, please do post it here.

[VOguy]

I hope that Einstein's comments and pseudo prediction doesn't prove to be true. This is very serious and needs to be remedied globally asap.

Just a personal observation on this.

1). The amount of RF signals, and their power density, is up all over North America. It's the worse in big cities. In some cases the signal levels approach a level where with some playing around, you can light several LEDs and make a night light. From an electrical standpoint that is about 2.2v at 60 milliamps.

2). Around some of the radar and high power broadcast stations I've noted that little yellow and black finches have been dying. Many ecologists claim that birds are running into towers. (see www.towerkill.com). But having looked at the dead birds, and believing that most birds don't fly into stationary objects, I can't help but wonder if it's the signals.

3) Most commercial TV station transmitting powers are between 750,000 and 5,000,000 watts. The frequencies that cause cellular (not associated with phones) heating is around 100 mHz, while meat is cooked at about 2450 MHz which happens to be. If you are nearby a 3,000 watt FM station antenna, the human symptom is something like flu. Prolonged exposure will cause vomiting and your whole body to ache like a migraine. So, what does it do to "little" bodies?

4) Finally, around where I work (broadcasting and radar), I've noticed only Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa virginica and Xylocopa micans) all over the place. However, even on the young apple trees that are budding, there are not the traditional Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) flying around. Here it is May, and I've not seen one this year.

Radiation heats cells, and especially focuses (excuse the pun) on the fluids in the body, such as the aqueous humor within the eyes. Since bees use a different frequency of light level, and they have liquid in their bodies and eyes, it's possible that they are affected like humans.

I think that whomever stumbled on the idea that cellular phones, RF, and IR are doing something to the bees may be spot on the money. The question is, how do we prove it. Remote view the bees?

As someone who has several family members who depend on the bees for their wheat, sunflower, and corn crops, I'm concerned as I see they have questioned this as late as last year during the harvest.


Thanks for the welcome, Alpha! I'm happy to be among you all.... or is that "ya'all" :silly:

[Captain Beyond]

All good points VOguy. Not to mention the military frequencies, HAARP, etc. Cellphones, microwaves everywhere, waves of every kind permeating everything and everyone.

I'm kinda wondering when all the television broadcasts go digital in a year or 2, what will be the outcome? Does the government want these frequency bands for other purposes?

CB

[Mcnowhere]

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Einstein

So how much do you wanna bet that this crisis will be left until the 11th hour and millions of people and other forms of life will have perished before something meaningful is done? I have no doubt that it will be left until it reaches a crisis stage and they will have reaped a few more years of billions of dollars out of cell phone subcsribers. :rocketwho

We are sinking faster than the Titanic with this and global warming! Deeeepressing! :scared1:

[lastconundrum]

Linda Moulton Howe at www.earthfiles.com had some reports on colony collapse disorder. One thing she mentioned was that beekeepers were reporting that scavanger beetles and other bees were not trying to steal the honey from abandoned hives. That sounds to me like there was some kind of poisonous substance that the bees picked up from nectar and concentrated in the honey. I believe we'll eventually find that some new agricultural chemical is responsible for the bee deaths.

One thing I don't understand, though; how can thousands of bees _disappear_ in a closed-off hive in the middle of winter?

[VOguy]

I'm kinda wondering when all the television broadcasts go digital in a year or 2, what will be the outcome? Does the government want these frequency bands for other purposes?

CB

Without looking at the FCC documents, the first outcome will be that all the U.S. TV stations will be in channels 7 to 52. 53 to 69 will be sold to bidders for a variety of services. Not too many broadcasters are wanting 2-6 because of the propagation factors. Digital transmissions on 2-6, or low-band, does not work well.

53-69 will be sold to a variety of bidders. There is interest from the wireless Internet groups, Homeland Security, cellular phone, and even some companies that want to experiment with a picture-phone technology so you can see the person you're talking to.

Nextel and some other groups are looking at a wireless Internet with overlap that will allow people to stay connected on their portable computers as they drive down the highway. (Scares the hell out of me that someone is using a computer as they are driving).

DTV really got started in the mid/late 90s under the reign of FCC Commissioner Reed Hundt. Under his leadership the FCC conducted the first spectrum auction in U.S. history. In its first two years of auction authority the agency raised almost $20 billion for the national treasury.

All analog TV stations will be shut off by February 17, 2009. On the morning of February 17th, the only stations that will be on the air will be digital.

At a seminar I attended two months ago it was interesting to note that most stations in the medium to small markets will not be prepared to be on digital 100%.

VOguy

[VOguy]

That sounds to me like there was some kind of poisonous substance that the bees picked up from nectar and concentrated in the honey. I believe we'll eventually find that some new agricultural chemical is responsible for the bee deaths.

If it is a chemical, then we should be able to not only tell what it is, but where it was manufactured. For example, in the stuff called "Roundup" which people use to kill weeds and the grass in the cracks of the sidewalk, we can detect the chemical Glyphosate. So that would be a link, and somewhat of a smoking gun.

I would have thought that someone would have done this already .... or has the testing been performed and the results suppressed.

I wonder if Linda could find a good forensic scientist to take numerous hive samples and then get the data needed to rule it in or out.

VOguy

PS: Just a thought on a previous post, but if it's found that RF (radio/TV) signals are hurting the bees, any bets if the government will shut off all the transmitters to protect the bees?

[Mcnowhere]

I vote no because we all know that anything that could be done to protect the environment is "inconvenient"!

[VOguy]

I think you are right, Mcnowhere. If the gov has to deal with a bad economy, then damn the bees.

[Alpha]

I don't know how many of your caught RCH on with Art this past Saturday, however here's an article that supports what he was saying.

Odd that organic bee farmers are not experiencing problem or loss :thinking:

No ORGANIC Bee losses

"Sharon Labchuk is a longtime environmental activist and part-time organic beekeeper from Prince Edward Island. She has twice run for a seat in Ottawa's House of Commons, making strong showings around 5% for Canada's fledgling Green Party. She is also leader of the provincial wing of her party. In a widely circulated email, she wrote:

I'm on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.

Her email recommends a visit to the Bush Bees Web site at Here (http://bushfarms.com/bees.htm), Michael Bush felt compelled to put a message to the beekeeping world right on the top page:

Most of us beekeepers are fighting with the Varroa mites. I'm happy to say my biggest problems are things like trying to get nucs through the winter and coming up with hives that won't hurt my back from lifting or better ways to feed the bees.

This change from fighting the mites is mostly because I've gone to natural sized cells. In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't for a long time, the foundation in common usage results in much larger bees than what you would find in a natural hive. I've measured sections of natural worker brood comb that are 4.6mm in diameter. What most people use for worker brood is foundation that is 5.4mm in diameter. If you translate that into three dimensions instead of one, it produces a bee that is about half as large again as is natural. By letting the bees build natural sized cells, I have virtually eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite problems. One cause of this is shorter capping times by one day, and shorter post-capping times by one day. This means less Varroa get into the cells, and less Varroa reproduce in the cells.

Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue?

These are important questions to ask. It is not an uncommonly held opinion that, although this new pattern of bee colony collapse seems to have struck from out of the blue (which suggests a triggering agent), it is likely that some biological limit in the bees has been crossed. There is no shortage of evidence that we have been fast approaching this limit for some time.

We've been pushing them too hard, Dr. Peter Kevan, an associate professor of environmental biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, told the CBC. And we're starving them out by feeding them artificially and moving them great distances. Given the stress commercial bees are under, Kevan suggests CCD might be caused by parasitic mites, or long cold winters, or long wet springs, or pesticides, or genetically modified crops. Maybe it's all of the above...

Article Received from Lancifer

[Alpha]

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” Einstein

So how much do you wanna bet that this crisis will be left until the 11th hour and millions of people and other forms of life will have perished before something meaningful is done? I have no doubt that it will be left until it reaches a crisis stage and they will have reaped a few more years of billions of dollars out of cell phone subcsribers. :rocketwho

We are sinking faster than the Titanic with this and global warming! Deeeepressing! :scared1:

I agree McNo....not only to the revenue with cell phone subscribers, but all the $$ to be made with inflated product prices, medical costs of people who are no longer able to eat properly....all this and at the same time, reduce the global population in a horrible way ( via starvation) which has always been part of the plan!! :angryfire

[Mcnowhere]

A bumblebee landed on my window sill this past weekend. I was thrilled! I almost called the news!:biglaugh:

[Alpha]

A bumblebee landed on my window sill this past weekend. I was thrilled! I almost called the news!:biglaugh:

I hear you McNo....I almost dance everytime I see one as well

I've seen all kinds so far this spring...let's hope that's a good sign!!

[Judee]

I'm hoping that the bees are just pissed off at the treatment they've been receiving in exchange for all their hard work! Hopefully they have just decided to leave the 'city' life and go out and 'make it on their own'. Heck, they have been sprayed with poison, fed crap after all their precious resources have been taken away from them, and trucked hither and yon constantly stressing them. Who the heck wouldn't leave conditions like that? It is indeed interesting that the 'hobby' bee keepers haven't noticed this colony collapse syndrome, nor have the organic bee keepers. That alone should tell someone something! I'm happy to say that my bees are here out in the country, even the big bumble bees. :veryhappy

[VOguy]

Just a thought.... nut as the equator gets hotter, and the northern areas get warmer, could the bees be migrating north?

[Delphine]

Pesticides, Pathogen May be Killing Bees

Associated Press
Fri Jun 15, 3:52 PM ET

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Scientists investigating a mysterious ailment that has killed many of the nation's honeybees are concentrating on pesticides and microorganisms as possible causes of the disorder, and some beekeepers are refusing to place their hives near chemically treated fields.

Scientists from Penn State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are leading the research into the disease, which has killed tens of thousands of bee colonies in at least 35 states.

The die-off has threatened the livelihood of commercial beekeepers and strained fruit growers and other farmers who rely on bees to pollinate more than 90 flowering crops, including apples, nuts and citrus trees.

After months of study, researchers cannot tie the ailment to any single factor. But scientists are focused on a new, unnamed pathogen found in dead bees, and on the role of pesticides, said Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in the university's entomology department.

David Hackenberg was the first beekeeper to report the disorder to Penn State last fall after losing nearly 75 percent of his 3,200 colonies.

He has rebuilt his business to 2,400 colonies but now asks growers whether they use the chemicals because he is convinced the bees are being harmed by pesticides, especially a type called neonicotinoids.

"I'm quizzing every farmer around," Hackenberg said. "If you're going to use that stuff, then you're going to have go to somebody else."

If bees continue to die, he said, Hackenberg Apiaries may have to raise prices to replace dead hives. The business charges about $90 a hive to "lease" bees in fields. Replacing a hive with new bees costs $120.

Neonicotinoids do not contain nicotine — the addictive drug found in tobacco — but they are named after it because they target nerve cells in a similar way.

Bayer Crop Science is one of the nation's top producers of neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been on the market since 1994. But company spokesman John Boyne said neonicotinoids are not the cause of the honeybees' demise.

"We have done a significant amount of research on our products, and we are comfortable this it is not the cause," Boyne said. He said "a number of nonchemical causes may be to blame."

Beekeeper Jim Aucker, of Millville, was left with just 240 of his 1,200 hives earlier this spring after the illness struck. He's back up to nearly 600 hives now and is convinced pesticides are playing a role after finding chemicals that had been sprayed on crops in the dead hives.

"Whether it's 100 percent the cause, I'm not sure, but I'm positive it's not helping," Aucker said. He doesn't plan to return to fields where he thinks there might be a pesticide problem.

Daniel Weaver, president of the American Beekeeping Federation, said he is not surprised some beekeepers are avoiding fields with pesticides.

"I try to limit my association to growers that I know will be responsible" he said, referring to farmers who avoid applying pesticide while the bees are flying. "Of course, I can't escape it completely."

But he also cautioned that the bees' immune systems may have been weakened for reasons unrelated to pathogens or pesticides, such as mites.

Reports from other beekeepers varied in mid-June — a time when bee colonies are supposed to be thriving. Some beekeepers said they are losing bees, while others are holding steady or growing colonies again.

Hackenberg said he even tried to disinfect many of his hives by sending them through a giant radiation machine in Mulberry, Fla., run by a private firm that typically treats pharmaceuticals and food products.

But he fears what might happen if his bees fall ill again. As he worked with a thriving hive on a hill above his house, his cell phone rang with a caller asking about lining up bees for 2008.

"Yeah, we sell bees," he said, "if we're still in business next year."

[lastconundrum]

An answer? Maybe... http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43163/story.htm

[blackeyes]

Interestingly enough I've been finding more bees on the grill of the trucks than I've ever seen before. I'm not kidding. Hundreds of bees. My theory is they are lost. The extraordinary amount of UV radiation due to the thinning Ozone layer is like shinning a one million candle spot light into their faces. The simply can't see. Hence can't eat and the moss is just a form of decay. Just my opinion.

[MuseNoir]

This made me very happy..... :D

Last weekend I noticed a lot of honey bees in my backyard all around my capecod honeysuckle!

That honeysuckle bush is really tall - about 10 feet high. I mostly leave it alone because there are a lot of hummingbirds that feed from it and this spring there was a nest of bluejays inside. I got to watch them grow up all summer, and they are still coming around every once in a while.

The bees have been around it all week - not in a swarm, not in a scary way - just kind of hanging out around the flowers.

I will try to get some pictures!

[blackeyes]

I just wanted to toss in the fact I've seen a lot of bees here in the great green north. Weird though that most of my sightings are around buildings and trucks. I'm assuming bees are looking to start new colonies. Something you'd see when bees are on the move. I wonder how many other southern insects will be heading to cooler grounds.

[Alpha]

Anyone heard or read anymore on this topic lately?

Seems like it's fallen of the radar once again.

Thanks McNo for your post today that made me think about this! :)

[Mcnowhere]

Anyone heard or read anymore on this topic lately?

Seems like it's fallen of the radar once again.

Thanks McNo for your post today that made me think about this! :)

Your welcome Alpha. This bees subject is very important to me. It's not getting anywhere near the attention that it should. This far out weighs terrorism in my head. I suspect though, that scientist are desparately trying to figure it out. As Einstein said...to paraphrase...we only have 4 years of survival after we lose our honeybees.

[Judee]

Some answers...?

Date: Mon 9 Jun 2008
Source: Institute of Science in Society (ISIS) [edited]
<http://www.i-sis.org.uk/honeybeePesticideBan.php>


Germany's emergency ban
-----------------------
The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL)
suspended the registration of 8 neonicotinoid pesticide seed treatment
products used in oilseed rape and sweetcorn. A few weeks after honeybee
keepers in the southern state of Baden Wuerttemberg reported a wave of
honeybee deaths linked to one of the pesticides, clothianidin (1,2).
Professor Joe Cummins had warned specifically against this class of new
pesticides (3) (Requiem for the Honeybee, SiS 34), widely used in dressing
seeds and in sprays, and "highly toxic to insects including bees at very
low concentrations." His contribution to ISIS' Briefing in the European
Parliament in June 2007 (4) (Scientists and MEPs for a GM free Europe, SiS
35) drew attention to the danger of sub-lethal doses of neonicotinoids and
Bt biopesticides in GM [genetically modified] crops, which could act
synergistically with pathogenic fungi in causing colony collapse disorder
in the honeybee, and resulted in a question to the European Commission by
German MEP (Member of the European Parliament) Hiltrud Breyer (5)
(Emergency Motion on Protecting the Honeybee, SiS 35), shortly after she
had submitted an emergency motion to ban the neonicotinoids.

Unequivocal evidence of pesticide poisoning
-------------------------------------------
Walter Haefeker, president of the European Professional Beekeepers
Association, reporting to Chemical and Engineering News said (1),
"Beekeepers in the region started finding piles of dead bees at the
entrance of hives in early May [2008], right around the time corn seeding
takes place."

"It's a real bee emergency," Manfred Hederer, president of the German
Professional Beekeepers' Association told The Guardian (2), "50-60 per cent
of the bees have died on average and some beekeepers have lost all their
hives."

The incriminating evidence was so convincing that a press release from the
Julius Kuehn Institute (JKI), the German federal agricultural research
agency, stated: "It can unequivocally be concluded that a poisoning of the
bees is due to the rub-off of the pesticide ingredient clothianidin from
the corn seeds."

Tests on dead bees showed that 99 per cent had a build-up of clothianidin
(sold in Europe under the trade name Poncho) produced by Bayer CropScience,
approved for use in Germany in 2004, and with some restrictions in the US
in 2003.

The pesticide was applied to the seeds in advance of being planted or
sprayed while in the field. The company blamed an application error by the
seed company, which failed to use a substance that glues the pesticide to
the seed, resulting in the chemical getting into the air. Bayer spokesman
Dr Julian Little told the BBC Farming Today that misapplication is highly
unusual. It transpired that this year's [2008] corn seed in Baden
Wuerttemberg was coated with a double dose to counteract a corn beetle
infestation (2). Unusual circumstances yes, but the lethal effect of the
pesticides has been suspected for a long time.

Beekeepers had pointed the finger for a long time
-------------------------------------------------
According to the report in The Guardian (1), a group of beekeepers from
North Dakota in the United States is taking Bayer CropScience to court
after losing thousands of honeybee colonies in 1995, during a period when
oilseed rape in the area was treated with imidacloprid. A third of
honeybees were killed by what has since been dubbed colony collapse disorder.

Imidacloprid is Bayer's best-selling pesticide sold under the name Gaucho
in France, but has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers in that
country since 1999, when a third of French honeybees died following its
widespread use; the ban on its use in sweetcorn was imposed 5 years later.
A few months ago, the company's application for clothianidin was rejected
by French authorities.

Bayer has always maintained that imidacloprid is safe for bees if correctly
applied. "Extensive internal and international scientific studies have
confirmed that Gaucho does not present a hazard to bees," said Utz Klages,
a spokesman for Bayer CropScience. Last year (2007), Germany's Green MEP,
Hiltrud Breyer tabled an emergency motion calling for this family of
pesticides to be banned across Europe while their role in killing honeybees
is thoroughly investigated. Her action follows calls for a ban from
beekeeping associations and environmental organisations across Europe.

As Cummins pointed out (3), these pesticides are nerve poisons and inhibit
the brain enzyme acetylcholine esterase. Sub-lethal levels of the
pesticide, which fails to kill the bee will nevertheless impair its ability
to return to the hive. Furthermore, these and other pesticides also impair
the bee's immune system, leaving it much more susceptible to attacks by
parasitic fungi and other disease agents (6, 7) (Parasitic Fungi and
Pesticides Act Synergistically to Kill Honeybees? SiS 35, Mystery of
Disappearing Honeybees, SiS 34).

[WolfPa]

Jeez, We got so many here I can't get out my front door without being harased.

[Alpha]

This is reassuring to read. I hope that it helps what I feel is a critical situation globally.

From: greenrightnow.com


Germany and France Ban Pesticides Linked To Bee Deaths; Geneticist Urges U.S. Ban


June 23rd, 2008 · 1 Comment

By Shermakaye Bass

In light of recent European bans of a pesticide linked to Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), at least one key beCredit: Texas A&M Universitye expert is calling for a ban of the same pesticide in the United States.

“In the United States, drastic action is needed,” says Canadian geneticist Joe Cummins, explaining that U.S. farmers and beekeepers shouldn’t have to wait for more evidence or for an air-tight explanation for the complex syndrome, which threatens one in every third bite of food in the United States. Now most apiarists and scientists realize that pesticides are a factor in CCD, he says.

Cummins’ remarks, in an interview with GreenRightNow, come less than a month after Germany’s ban of clothianidin, a pesticide commonly used to keep insects off of corn crops. Germany banned the pesticide after heaps of dead bees were found near fields of corn coated in the pesticide, and in response to scientists who report that the insecticide severely impairs, and often kills, the honeybees that corn and other crops depend on for pollination.

The German government took the extraordinary action to protect bees and other essential pollinators, stating that there is now enough compelling evidence connecting the chemical to Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in that country.

The ban also will likely fuel the European debate over genetically modified food, which involves treating crop seeds to resist harm from pesticide treatments. Critics of such modified foods say they are harming the environment, and have unknown human consequences, for little or no crop gain. Some scientists in Europe have called for their ban.

Bee Colony Collapse has been threatening bees, and the crops they serve, around the world for the past several years.

In other parts of Europe, including France, studies of other pesticides have shown they are negatively impacting bee behavior – and contributing to the collapse of entire bee colonies. France has outlawed the use of the pesticide imidacloprid — which like clothianidin is classed as a “neonicotinoid.” Imidacloprid has been linked to disoriented behavior in honeybees – and may help explain why many CCD cases result in abandoned hives.

“I think the Environmental Protection Agency would be well advised to put an immediate emergency ban on the neonicotinoid seed-treatment pesticides. I would say on all pesticides,” says Cummins.

The ban in Germany, and Cummins’ call for a U.S. ban, should be no surprise to the EPA. The agency’s own fact sheet on clothianidin shows that it has known of the dangers to bees since it conditionally approved the chemical in 2003.

Article Continues Here (http://www.greenrightnow.com/2008/06/23/germany-and-france-ban-pesticides-linked-to-bee-deaths-geneticist-urges-us-ban-would-save-the-bees/)

[Judee]

An update...


UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, APIS - UK: PESTICIDES SUSPECTED
************************************************** **
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

[1]
Date: 1 Oct 2008
Source: Organic in Form [edited]
<http://www.organicinform.org/newsitem.aspx?id=3D588>


Call to DEFRA to save bees
--------------------------
A group of insect-killing agrochemicals known as neonicotinoids, that
are widely used in UK farming, have now been banned in 4 European
countries because they are thought to be killing bees. Italy has just
joined Germany, Slovenia and France in banning them.

The Soil Association has today written to Hilary Benn, DEFRA
Secretary of State, urging him to ban the products in the UK with
immediate effect. There is worldwide concern at widespread,
unexplained and devastating deaths of honey bees over the last 2
years. Bee keepers have reported potentially catastrophic loss of
bees from their hives ranging anywhere from 30-90 percent. Britain's
beekeepers have reported that close to one in 3 hives have failed to
make it through last winter. This "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD) is
not just a problem for beekeepers and farmers, but for consumers as
well, since bee pollination is essential for crop production.

The products implicated in bee deaths, clothianidin, imidacloprid,
fipronil and thiamethoxam, are approved to kill insects on a wide
range of crops in the UK including very widely grown oilseed rape,
barley, and sugar beet. They are also cleared for use in ornamental
plant and hop production.

Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director, says, "It is
typical of the lax approach to pesticide regulation in the UK that we
look like being one of the last of the major farming countries in the
EU to wake up to the threat to our honey bees and ban these nasty
sprays. We want the Government to act today to remove this threat to
Britain's honey bees."

Since their introduction by Bayer CropScience in the USA in 2003,
these neonicotinoid products have been linked to the devastating loss
of millions of honey bees in a number of countries. Germany banned
the pesticides after beekeepers in the Baden-Wurttenberg region
reported that two thirds of their bees died in May [2008] following
the application of clothianidin (Poncho Pro). In 1995 beekeepers in
North Dakota took Bayer to court when a third of their bees were
killed by imacloprid. In France, a third of the honey bee population
was killed after widespread use of imidacloprid.

Organic farming relies on a number of techniques to avoid the use of
sprays that kill insects, including not growing the same or similar
crops every year, and encouraging natural predators of insect pests
(like wild birds, ladybirds and lacewings).

--
Communicated by
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

******
[2]
Date: Tue 30 Sep 2008
Source: Getwokingham - The Wokingham Times [edited]
<http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/lifestyle/food_and_drink/s/2036346_bees_disaster_threatens_the_honey_harvest>


Bees disaster threatens the honey harvest
-----------------------------------------
Einstein predicted that if honey-bees were to become extinct, human
society would follow in 4 years. And lo and behold, the world's bee
population seems to be dying and no-one really knows why. Across the
globe, crops are not being pollinated and honey harvests are depleted.

In the UK, Stuart Bailey, chairman of Rowse Honey, said recently: "By
Christmas [2008] there will be no English honey in the supermarkets. I'm
absolutely sure, because we're just not getting the honey in from the
beekeepers. So we will have to import more in from abroad. That's
tragic. Imagine if that were a permanent scenario: if there are no
British honey-bees, there'll be no British honey on the shelves."

Concerned what the dying bees mean for our planet, online discussion
boards warn: "The bees are showing us something here, it is a clear warning."

Another says: "For many fruit crops, bee loss is a big, big deal.
Gardeners and those with backyard landscapes, please grow bee habitat,
and do it without pesticides, both for honeybees and for native bees."

Should we be worried? No, says Jon Davey, chairman of Reading and
District Beekeepers' Association, but the situation is serious. In
his view, the decline of the nation's -- not to mention the world's --
bee population is something Mother Nature can rectify, with a little
help from her faithful servant, the apiarist. "Bees go back to the
age of the dinosaur. We don't know why some things happen," he says.
For example, there are a lot of bumble-bees around this year. We don't
know why. "Why honeybees are disappearing, who knows? It's not good
but I should think the bees will survive providing there are
beekeepers to help them."

Problem is, wild bees producing hives of amber nectar in the woods
are long gone in the UK, rather dating AA Milne's honey-scoffing bear
Winnie the Pooh [published in the 1930s], says Davey.

Which means we are reliant on beekeepers because not only do bees
supply us with nutritious honey, they form an integral link in the
ecosystem.

Crops such as wheat are pollinated by the wind but apples, pears,
raspberries, cherries, strawberries, blackcurrants, broad and runner
beans and oilseed rape need bees for survival.

The largest threat to bees are varroa mites, a parasite introduced to
Europe and the USA when docile bees were imported from Thailand 15 years ago.

Beekeepers, along with providing secure housing, help bees deal with
the mite "with varying success," says Davey, and make sure they are
healthy. But add to this 2 dismal summers, meaning bees have not
produced enough honey to keep them going over the winter, and the
situation becomes more serious.

Berkshire beekeepers -- most of who are amateur or semi-professional
-- do their bit by attending seminars such as the disease recognition
and varroa management day held by regional bee inspector Ian Homer.
Thankfully, most members are dedicated to what is seen in this
country as a left-field hobby.

Davey is committed more than most, for it's his number that gets handed
out by Reading Borough Council when people call in to report errant
beehives in roofs and such like.

But to solve the problem of our depleted bee population, more
research is needed, says Davey. There is no doubting bee-keepers'
passion for providence (Davey started to keep bees as a solution to
runner beans which refused to germinate), but without more knowledge,
they are limited in what they can do.

There is no doubt British honey will be in short supply by Christmas
[2008], but Davey, who used to work in the trade, says it is highly
unlikely shops will have none at all, because Rowse, Hartley's and
Gale's -- the big 3 British suppliers -- import it from all over the
world, then blend and package it for supermarkets.

However, the world's big producers of honey, the USA and Argentina,
have also suffered large losses. The former dropped its yield by 36
percent on last year due to colony collapse disorder (CCD), a
mysterious disappearance linked to the blood-sucking varroa mite,
lethal viruses, malnutrition, pesticides, and a lack of genetic
diversity. And in Argentina there was a 27 percent decrease in the
harvest, boosting the price of honey by up to 60 percent.

You can expect to pay around GBP 3 [USD 5.30] for a jar of Berkshire
honey, a creeping-up in price partly the result of the bee crisis but
largely due to the European ban on the import of Chinese honey in 2002.

In the UK, a survey by the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA)
revealed that nearly one in 3 of the 240 000 honey-bee hives did not
survive this winter and spring.

BBKA president Tim Lovett says: "Average winter bee losses due to
poor weather and disease vary from between 5 and 10 percent, so a 30
percent loss is deeply worrying. This spells serious trouble for
pollination services and honey producers."

BBKA is calling on the Government to pour GBP 8 million [USD 14 145
647] over 5 years into researching honey-bee losses and improving bee
health, small change if you consider the value of bees to pollination
-- the boost in crop production -- was GBP 165m [USD 291 753 971] in
the UK. Currently, GBP 200 000 [USD 353 641] a year is spent on
research and Defra [UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs] allocates GBP 1.3 million [USD 2 298 667] for bee health. The
only response to those calls has come from Rowse, which earlier this
month committed GBP 100 000 [USD 176 820] for honey-bee health
research over the next 3 years.

[Byline: Alison Hepworth]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Susan Baekeland

[Divinorumus]

Space mites are after the humans too, so beware. Many people have mistaken this space mite attack as this morgellons disease thing. Wait, you'll see it's true, there is a connection between this bee thing and this so-called morgellons disease thing and eventually the bird flu thing too. Beware, these mites will spread the next devastating plague across the planet once they hook-up with the birds, the sick birds. They are already almost everywhere that is unprotected now (sometimes they spray for them, you know, chemtrails). This is all by no coincidence. They come from space and are the thickest within the dark rift ~ which we are passing through right now. There is a bigger picture to be realized within all of this yet ~ a lot bigger, and that's what many are sensing and instinctively feeling now too. Big change is coming. Be ready. Stock up on melamine free un-infested honey while/if you still can. And don't let them space mites bite you either. :bigglasses:

[Alpha]

An update from LMH.


U. S. Honey Bee Deaths Increase Again

The reports that I have gotten from beekeepers is that
about 30% of the healthy colonies that have gone to California -
for this 2010 almond pollination to fulfill pollination contracts -
have died in two or three weeks” - Jerry Hayes, Asst. Chief,
Apiary Inspection, Florida Dept. of Agriculture


February 18, 2010 Gainesville, Florida -



The mysterious disappearance of hundreds of European honey bee colonies in Pennsylvania was first reported in late fall 2006. Since then, the baffling “empty hive” syndrome called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been reported in many parts of the world.



Some beekeepers have lost nearly 100% of their bees.



Even though nicotine-based pesticides and lack of plant and pollen diversity are high on the culprits list, there is still no single smoking gun answer. The truth appears to be a combination of assaults on soils, plants and air that weaken and kill pollinators in the 21st Century
.
In California, almond growers depend upon honey bees to pollinate their $2 billion a year industry. There are more than 500,000 acres of almond trees that require 1.3 million honey bee colonies to pollinate all those flowers in order to produce more than a billion pounds of almond seeds. But in January 2010, after Florida beekeepers transported their healthy honey bees to the California almond orchards, 30% of the bees were dead within two to three weeks. And no one knows why.



Recently I asked Jerry Hayes for a current update on the American honey bee decline in the mysterious colony collapse disorder that continues to kill.


Interview:


Jerry Hayes, Assistant Chief, Bureau of Plant and Apiary Inspection, Division of Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture, Gainesville, Florida:



“I was on a conference call with beekeeping industry leaders and leaders of the almond industry in California. This is the time of year when almond bloom is about to take place and hundreds of thousands of colonies are brought in to pollinate that crop. The reports that I have gotten from beekeepers is that about 30% of the healthy colonies that have gone to California - for this 2010 almond pollination to fulfill pollination contracts - have died in two or three weeks. The bees that were brought to California, the beekeepers had selected so they were proper strength and worthy of a pollination fee. So, the beekeepers selected those, took them to California and within a few weeks, the bees were dead on the ground there. So, unfortunately it’s the same song that even after all these years, honey bee health is suffering for some reason.


AND NO ONE UNDERSTANDS WHY? ......................


Article Continues (http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1672&category=Environment)

[Alpha]

Looks like this is spreading with no end in sight....:scared1:


90% Die-Off of Commercial Honey Bees
on Vancouver Island, B. C., Canada.

“The amount of bees that have been lost is just phenomenal.
It's the biggest catastrophe to kill bees on the Island ever.”


Some theories are that the 2009 summer heat wave reduced the amount of nectar food available to bees and varoa mite attacks weakened the bees' immune systems.

But the truth is that scientists still have no definite answer for the death and disappearance syndrome of honey bees called Colony Collapse Syndrome. CCD was first reported in Pennsylvania in the fall of 2006, and spread around the Northern Hemisphere.

Recently the most devastated bee populations on Vancouver Island have been Nanaimo and the mid-Island, while American beekeepers since January have seen at least 30% of their healthy honey bees trucked to California for almond pollination die mysteriously, many in only two or three weeks.

Full Article (http://www.earthfiles.com/)

[Judee]

I still find it interesting that wild populations of honey bees, and colonies kept by individuals on a non-commercial basis, are doing well. Shouldn't that send some kind of a message to the huge commercial bee keepers that truck their colonies hither, thither, and yon all around the continent??? :banghead:

[Alpha]

I still find it interesting that wild populations of honey bees, and colonies kept by individuals on a non-commercial basis, are doing well. Shouldn't that send some kind of a message to the huge commercial bee keepers that truck their colonies hither, thither, and yon all around the continent??? :banghead:

I hear you....my gut and current best CBT is that the GM modified seeds/plants are the largest culprit.....here's an article I stumble across today....


Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder Finally Explained: Too Many Chemicals


(NaturalNews) A combination of toxic chemicals and pathogens are probably to blame for colony collapse disorder in honeybees, according to a study conducted by researchers at Washington State University.

Researchers conducted careful studies to uncover contributors to the disorder, in which seemingly healthy bees simply vanish from a hive, leaving the queen and a handful of newly hatched adults behind.

"One of the first things we looked at was the pesticide levels in the wax of older honeycombs," researcher Steve Sheppard said.

The researchers acquired used hives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, finding that they had "fairly high levels of pesticide residue."

When bees were raised in these hives, they had "significantly reduced longevity," the researchers said.

Prior research by scientists from Pennsylvania State University found unprecedentedly high levels of two pesticides in every sample of honeycomb or foundation wax tested, as well as lower levels of 70 other pesticides.

The pesticides found in the highest concentrations were fluvalinate and coumaphos, used to eradicate the bee pest varroa mites, which have themselves been suggested as a cause of colony collapse.

"We do not know that these chemicals have anything to do with colony collapse disorder, but they are definitely stressors in the home and in the food sources," said Penn State researcher Maryann Frazier. "Pesticides alone have not shown they are the cause of [colony collapse disorder]. We believe that it is a combination of a variety of factors, possibly including mites, viruses and pesticides."

The Washington State researchers uncovered another potential cause, which likely interacts with chemicals to contribute to colony collapse: the pathogen Nosema ceranae, which entered the United States around 1997 and has since spread to bee hives across the country. The pathogen attacks bees' ability to process food and makes them more susceptible to chemicals and other infections.

"What it basically does is it causes bees to get immune-deficiency disorder," said beekeeper said Mark Pitcher of Babe's Honey. "So it's actually causing the bees to almost get a version of HIV."

Sources for this story include: www.ens-newswire.com (http://www.ens-newswire.com/).

Full Article (http://www.naturalnews.com/028429_colony_collapse_disorder_chemicals.html) Wonder if LMH will get into this topic tonight? :thinking:

Without our bees, pollinators, humanity is doomed, as Einstein stated:


Einstein on Bees

Albert Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination … no more men!” He wasn’t an entomologist, but entomologists around today agree that the sudden and mysterious disappearance of bees from their hives poses serious problems!


Bits and pieces of information about farmers’ concerns for bee disappearance (or colony collapse disorder) in 24 states around the U.S. have bubbled up to the surface, over the last year and a half, but hardly any large-scale media attention has been drawn to this potentially serious problem.



Recently bees have gone missing from hives around Europe as well. The East Coast of the U.S. is reporting a 70% loss in commercial bee hive habitation, the West Coast 60%; these figures are staggering.


An article in The Independent (http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/%20wildlife/article2449968.ece) discusses a theory that cell phone radiation seriously interferes with bees’ ability to navigate through the air.


Regardless of the cause, the implications of this phenomenon are enormous – and it is alarming how rapidly this is occurring. From a NYT article on 2/27/07: “…one study says that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in US, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts.”


MORE ON BEES (http://globalclimatechange.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/more-on-bees/)
Link to Article (http://globalclimatechange.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/einstein-on-bees/)

[Dark Skies]

The declining bee population is a story that's been talked about here on IW for some time.

Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee Catastrophe

Guardian UK (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/02/food-fear-mystery-beehives-collapse)


Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

more...

US scientists have found 121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax and pollen, lending credence to the notion that pesticides are a key problem. "We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies," said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS's bee research laboratory.

A global review of honeybee deaths by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reported last week that there was no one single cause, but pointed the finger at the "irresponsible use" of pesticides that may damage bee health and make them more susceptible to diseases. Bernard Vallat, the OIE's director-general, warned: "Bees contribute to global food security, and their extinction would represent a terrible biological disaster."

The pesticide contamination says it all.

[Judee]

US scientists have found 121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax and pollen, lending credence to the notion that pesticides are a key problem. "We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies," said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS's bee research laboratory.

The above is exactly bang on! It's not one simple thing. It's a combination of nasty things that have been happening to the bees. And the bee keepers have been feeding corn syrup! How dumb is that??? Corn syrup from GM corn I'm sure!! :yell: Feed 'em crap; ship them from heck to kingdom come; expose them to insecticides and fungicides in the fields; throw in a few mites that they can't ward off due to weakened immune systems... What the heck do these people expect damn it!? :disgust:

[Alpha]

This topic just makes me want to scream and cry.....I feel Mother Earth crying about this as well :screama:

No one here in NA seems to be talking about this much at all. If our bees do face extinction, so does everything else on this planet......



Bee numbers plummet as billions of colonies die across the world


The world faces a future with little meat and no cotton because of a catastrophic collapse in bee colonies, experts have warned.


Many vital crops are dependent on pollination by honeybees, but latest figures show a third failed to survive the winter in the U.S.


More than three million colonies in America and billions of bees worldwide have died since 2006.

Pesticides are believed to be a key cause of a crisis known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CDD), damaging bee health and making them more susceptible to disease.


But scientists do not know for certain and are at a loss how to prevent the disaster. Other potential factors include bloodsucking parasites and infections
.
Some experts believe bees are heading for extinction.


The number of managed honeybee colonies in the U.S. fell by 34 per cent last winter, according to a survey by the country’s Agricultural Research Service, and some commercial beekeepers have reported losses of more than 60 per cent over a year.....................


Full Article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1270698/Bees-face-extinction-billions-colonies-die-worldwide.html)


I spoke to a nursery owner who is a friend of mine yesterday, not too far away from me. He has a bee colony on his property and fortunately he told me his bees are still healthy and thriving. For how long?....:sigh1:


Monsanto needs to be annihilated!!! :rocketwho

[Alpha]

LMH has a new update on her site regarding CCD and the bees.

Snips below:


U. S. Honey Bee Industry Struggles with 34% Colonies Loss

.............

Back in the winter of 2006-2007, Pennsylvania commercial beekeeper Dave Hackenberg reported a 60% loss of his honey bees and he meant gone - no bees at all in most of his colonies.

That began the first scientific investigation of what came to be known around the world as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Where did the bees go? Why didn't the bees return to their hives?

After five years of serious research, apiary specialists still don't have a final answer to those questions. But the new AIA survey shows that honey bees are under assault from a wide range of problems beyond CCD.


“Responding beekeepers (to the AIA survey) attributed their losses to:

- Starvation 32%
- Weather 29%
- Weak fall colonies 14%
- Varroa and other mites 12%
- Poor queens 10%
- CCD 5%

A total loss of 33.8% of managed honey bee colonies was recorded. This compares to total losses of 29%; 35.8%; and 31.8% recorded respectively in the winter surveys of 2008-2009; 2007-2008; 2006-2007.

All told, the rate of loss experienced by the industry is unsustainable.”................


Full Report (http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1706&category=Environment)

[VOguy]

Let us pray that some numbnuts doesn't suggest genetically modified bees.

I just think if we could clean up this planet, much of the wildlife destruction would cease.

[Judee]

Let us pray that some numbnuts doesn't suggest genetically modified bees.

I just think if we could clean up this planet, much of the wildlife destruction would cease.

Nothing else to be said Sir VO!! :notworthy

[Alpha]

This certainly could be having a huge effect, not only on the bees, but on all living creatures....



Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee (http://www.infowars.com/mobile-phones-responsible-for-disappearance-of-honey-bee/)


Their disappearance has caused alarm throughout Europe and North America where campaigners have blamed agricultural pesticides, climate change and the advent of genetically modified crops for what is now known as ‘colony collapse disorder.’ Britain has seen a 15 per cent decline in its bee population in the last two years and shrinking numbers has led to a rise in thefts of hives.


Now researchers from Chandigarh’s Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee’s navigation senses.


They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.


After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.


The queen bee in the "mobile" hive produced fewer than half of those created by her counterpart in the normal hive.
They also found a dramatic decline in the number of worker bees returning to the hive after collecting pollen. Because of this the amount of nectar produced in the hive also shrank................


Article Continues (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7778401/Mobile-phones-responsible-for-disappearance-of-honey-bee.html)

[Alpha]

LMH's most recent report on this.....

Bee Expert Says Cell Phones Are Not Cause of Honey Bee Collapse (http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1734&category=Environment)


..................
Then TV news and other media such as U. K.'s Telegraph headlined, “Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bees.” But cell phones are not the smoking gun, say American bee experts.
The problem is that U. S. scientists, who have been studying the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) disappearance of honey bees since 2007, have never found hard evidence that microwaves from towers and cell phones are linked to the sudden collapse of honey bees. Apiary experts even looked at microwaves early on in their research. One simple fact is that cell phone towers and mobile cell phones have been around since 1956, when the first fully automatic mobile phone system called Mobile Telephone System A (MTA) was developed by Ericsson and commercially released in Sweden..........


Full Article and Update at link above.

[Judee]

UK Bee Industry Abuzz with Mite Resistant Breed

A British beekeeper says he has managed to isolate and breed a strain of bees resistant to the parasite that has been gradually wiping out populations of the vital insect worldwide.

Full Story:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67O4SN20100825

[Alpha]

Would be wonderful if they could find the cause and cure for our pollinators.

http://content.yieldmanager.com/ak/q.gif Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery?

It has been one of the great murder mysteries of the garden: what is killing off the honeybees (http://www.nytimes.com/info/bees/?inline=nyt-classifier)?

Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food.



Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two.



A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One (http://www.plosone.org/home.action).



Exactly how that combination kills bees remains uncertain, the scientists said — a subject for the next round of research. But there are solid clues: both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather, and both do their dirty work in the bee gut, suggesting that insect nutrition is somehow compromised.............


Dr. Bromenshenk’s team at the University of Montana and Montana State University in Bozeman, working with the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (http://www.ecbc.army.mil/) northeast of Baltimore, said in their jointly written paper that the virus-fungus one-two punch was found in every killed colony the group studied. Neither agent alone seems able to devastate; together, the research suggests, they are 100 percent fatal..........


Full Article (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html?_r=1)

[Judee]

My personal opinion is that there are multiple things going on, and at the base of the problem is stress, caused by transporting the bees hither and thither around the country(s). Add to that, poor food for the bees. Man takes all the honey that the bees would use as a food source throughout winter months, and feeds them crap like corn syrup. And then we have the fact that commercial bees are placed in huge fields with only one source of pollen. The bees are stressed, malnourished, and develop weakened immune systems. Then along comes mites, fungus, or a virus, and the colony cannot survive as it's too weak to defend itself.

Why don't these fools ask themselves one question...? Why aren't wild bees affected? Wild bees on my property are thriving in abundance, and I can walk through the woods and find bee colonies high up in trees with honey dripping down the trunk. We have treated commercial bees very poorly, and we are reaping what we have sown. My two cents... :sour:

[Alpha]

This will make you cry and scream at the same time :17:


http://vimeo.com/16570483


The documentary film, Vanishing of the Bees, narrated by Ellen Page, takes a piercing investigative look at the economic, political and ecological implications of the worldwide disappearance of the honeybee

Directors George Langworthy and Maryam Henein present not just a story about the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder, but a platform of solutions, encouraging audiences to be the change they want to see in the world.

Let's hope there is a solution and that we find it soon....damn Monsanto!! :angryfire

[Judee]

Bees facing a poisoned spring

Michael McCarthy: New kind of pesticide, widely used in UK, may be helping to kill off world's honeybees.

A new generation of pesticides is making honeybees far more susceptible to disease, even at tiny doses, and may be a clue to the mysterious colony collapse disorder that has devastated bees across the world, the US government's leading bee researcher has found. Yet the discovery has remained unpublished for nearly two years since it was made by the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory.

The release of such a finding from the American government's own bee lab would put a major question mark over the use of neonicotinoid insecticides – relatively new compounds which mimic the insect-killing properties of nicotine, and which are increasingly used on crops in the US, Britain and around the world.

Bayer, the German chemicals giant which developed the insecticides and makes most of them, insists that they are safe for bees if used properly, but they have already been widely linked to bee mortality. The US findings raise questions about the substance used in the bee lab's experiment, imidacloprid, which was Bayer's top-selling insecticide in 2009, earning the company £510m. The worry is that neonicotinoids, which are neurotoxins – that is, they attack the central nervous system – are also "systemic", meaning they are taken up into every part of the plant which is treated with them, including the pollen and nectar. This means that bees and other pollinating insects can absorb them and carry them back to their hives or nests – even if they are not the insecticide's target species.

Read Full Story:
http://trc1.emv2.com/HS?a=ENX7CqhychC-8SA9MKLOIePnGHxKD8tTiPcStGb5lw8W0bBhOG5mpqVsje_HxH DbxlKg

[Alpha]

More on Bayer being the culprit and cause of all of this. LMH is talking about this right now on C2C....


Leaked EPA Document Says Bayer's Clothianidin Kills Honey Bees

Update U.K. House of Commons
has proposed ban on nicotine-based pesticides.

On January 25, 2011, 36 MPs in the U. K. House of Commons motioned to immediately suspend the licenses for all neonicotinoid pesticides used in Great Britain. By the end of March 2011, the process to put teeth into an actual law banning nicotine-based pesticides could be a groundbreaker in the struggle to give honey bees a chance to live in an environment freer from poisons and more balanced to support life, not death.

Early Day Motion EDM 1267: “That this House is gravely concerned by the contents of a recently leaked memo from the U.S. Environmenalt Protection Agency whose scientists warn that bees and other non-target invertebrates are at risk from a new neonicotinoid pesticide and that tests in the U.S. approval process are insufficient to detect the environmental damage caused; acknowledges that these findings reflect the conclusions of a 2009 Buglife report that identified similar inadequacies in the European approval regime with regard to neonicotinoids; notes reports that bee populations have soared in four European countries that have banned these chemicals; and therefore calls on the Government to act urgently to suspend all existing approvals for products containing neonicotinoids and fipronil pending more exhaustive tests and the development of international methodologies for properly assessing the long-term effects of systemic pesticides on invertebrate populations.”.....................


Article Continues (http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1808&category=Environment)

Write, call, do whatever you can do to get this to stop!!

[quote]
Tom Theobald and his beekeeper colleagues around the United States urge all concerned citizens to immediately email, phone, or hard mail EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to protest the EPA's unprofessional silence and disregard to America's honey beekeepers, organizations and emergency appeal to honor EPA's own internal office concern that previous registrations of clothianidin for Bayer were not based on sound science and clothianidin should be banned from from use in the United States as U.K. lawmakers are now trying to ban its use in Great Britain.


Lisa P. Jackson,
EPA Administrator
Ariel Rios Building, MC 1101A
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue N. W.
Washington, D. C. 20004

Headquarters Phone Number: 202-564-4700
General EPA Headquarters: 202-272-0167

email: jackson.lisa@epa.gov
[/quqote]

[Alpha]

If this is true, they deserve a fate worse than death :angryfire



Leaked document: EPA knowingly approved bee-killing pesticide

NaturalNews) A Colorado beekeeper recently obtained a leaked document revealing that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knows a popular crop pesticide is killing off honey bees, but has allowed its continued approval anyway. Despite opposition from its own scientists, EPA officials first gave the a-okay to Bayer CropScience's toxic pesticide clothianidin in 1993 based on the company's own flawed safety studies. But now it has been revealed that the EPA knew all along about the dangers of clothianidin and decided to just ignore them.............

And the leaked document, which was written by the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, explains clearly that "[c]lothianidin's major risk concern is to nontarget insects (honey (http://www.naturalnews.com/honey.html) bees)" and that "[a]cute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic (http://www.naturalnews.com/toxic.html) on both a contact and an oral basis." The letter was in response to a request from Bayer (http://www.naturalnews.com/Bayer.html) to have clothianidin approval expanded for use on cotton and mustard in addition to its other approved uses.

So if clothianidin poses a significant threat against honey bees, and the EPA (http://www.naturalnews.com/the_EPA.html) has known about this all along, why was it ever approved in the first place? And if Bayer's original safety (http://www.naturalnews.com/safety.html) studies have been shown to be contradictory to actual science (http://www.naturalnews.com/science.html), why has the EPA failed to go after Bayer for falsifying safety data? Apparently those who make the final decisions at the EPA (http://www.naturalnews.com/EPA.html) have no actual interest in the truth and would rather cater to corporate interests at the expense of public health.........

Full Article (http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_EPA_pesticides.html#ixzz1AAJmrnIH)

[Judee]

The EPA bows to a master called Bayer. The people be damned!! :rant:

[Alpha]

:17:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMHwImEdApQ

In 1923, Rudolf Steiner predicted that the practice of artificial queen bee-breeding would bring about the demise of the honeybee. Now, pesticides, herbicides, and genetically engineered plants exacerbate the problem, and the current bee crisis confirms Steiner's dire predictions. SIFFtv sits down with Director Taggart Siegel and Producer Jon Betz to discuss their film.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekoeQodrVoM

QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis from Taggart Siegel, director of THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.



Industry’s war on nature: ‘What are the bees telling us?’ (http://www.infowars.com/industrys-war-on-nature-what-are-the-bees-telling-us/)

April 11, 2011

While industries continue to pollute the planet with their toxic chemicals, toxic waste and toxic spills, Earth’s pollinators sing a swan song that leaves no doubt as to the folly of modern civilization. Our ability to hear and appropriately respond to the crisis of declining pollinators will determine humanity’s survival.


“In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian scientist, philosopher and social innovator, predicted that in 80 to 100 years honeybees would collapse.” Queen of the Sun
Steiner believed the industrialization of bees would lead to their demise. It looks like he was right. In the past two decades, the United States has lost 100-300 billion bees, and the problem has spread to Europe and beyond. But several factors above industrialized beekeeping operations contribute to this massive die-off.
Pollinators are further sickened by lack of a diverse diet from the tens of millions of monoculture acres. By ingesting genetically modified crops, pollinators also ingest GM microbes, to their detriment. By and far, though, agrochemicals contribute most to pollinator decimation. In a last ditch effort to save the hive, some bees seal off hive cells (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/04/honeybees-entomb-hives) that contain inordinate amounts of pesticide. But even these hives eventually die.


Bolstering industry’s multi-factor assault on nature, the ubiquitous communications industry adds electromagnetic pollution (http://www.em3e.com/pdf/en/bees_birds_mankind_ulrich_warnke.pdf), causing bees (and birds) to lose their ability to navigate. Taking advantage of weakened, disoriented bees, exotic pathogens like the Varroa mite, imported via globalized trade, suck the remaining life out of them. And, so, we see the collapse of the honeybee and North American bats (http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57608/#ixzz0wRBgYANa).


Much of this we learn in Taggart Siegel’s part philosophical love story, part documentary, Queen of the Sun: What are the bees telling us (http://www.queenofthesun.com/)? Theatrically released on March 25, the award-winning film is further supported by a newly released report from the United Nations Environment Programme, Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators (http://www.unep.org/dewa/Portals/67/pdf/Global_Bee_Colony_Disorder_and_Threats_insect_poll inators.pdf).


A sure way to collapse an ecosystem is to decimate a keystone species – one from which the entire localized web of life radiates. Pollinators contribute nearly ten percent to the global food economy, or about $218 billion USD (€153 billion) a year. Of the 100 or so crop species that provide 90% of the world’s food, bees pollinate 71 of them, according to UNEP’s report. Among the 20,000 known bee species worldwide, the honeybee, Apis mellifera, is most important, contributing between $33 and $82 billion annually (€22.8 to €57 billion).


So while we are witnessing the planet’s sixth extinction spasm (popularly detailed in Ed Wilson’s The Diversity of Life), it is the bee that garners our deserved attention.


“Bees are the legs of plants,” Michael Pollan explains in Queen of the Sun. They co-evolved so that the sessile organism feeds the aerial one in exchange for propagation. That mutualism supports much of life today. Without pollinators, crops will collapse. As crops collapse, myriads of species, including humans, will starve.


When pollinators go, so will flowering plants. The chain reaction collapse can easily then lead to the end of the Age of Mammals. This would be similar to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. The “terrible lizards” will have outlasted us by 100 million years. Only about half of all species survived that last extinction spasm – notably alligators and crocodiles. But human survival is hardly guaranteed if 40% of our food sources vanish.


While gators and crocs can go a year or more without eating – and this survival mechanism vastly contributes to the species’ longevity – humans cannot...........


Full Article (http://www.infowars.com/industrys-war-on-nature-what-are-the-bees-telling-us/)
I'll put the entire doc up as soon as I can find it...if

anyone finds it first, please go for it first.

[Alpha]

This is an interview with the producers of the documentary "The Vanishing of the Bees"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMVQxAIL30A


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JD9yZsB-1U&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz9pyACrSFM&feature=related

[Alpha]

Another tragic example of humans messing with the ecosystem on this planet :17:

Tens of millions of Florida bees mysteriously drop dead in one day, beekeepers blame pesticides (http://www.infowars.com/tens-of-millions-of-florida-bees-mysteriously-drop-dead-in-one-day-beekeepers-blame-pesticides/)


Ethan A. Huff,
Natural News (http://www.naturalnews.com/033781_honey_bees_pesticides.html)
Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Authorities have already ruled out disease, including the infamous “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD), as the cause of a recent honeybee holocaust that took place in Brevard County, Florida. The UK’s Daily Mail reports that up to 12 million bees from roughly 800 apiaries in the area all dropped dead at roughly the same time around September 26 — and local beekeepers say pesticides are likely to blame.


CCD is the term often used to describe the inexplicable mass die-off of honeybees around the world, which typically involves honeybees leaving their hives and, for whatever reason, never finding their way back home. Mass die-offs associated with CCD often occur at seemingly random locations around the world, and typically involve a gradual process of disappearance and eventual colony collapse — and the dead bees are typically nowhere to be found.


But the recent Florida event involved hundreds of colonies from 30 different sites in a one-and-a-half mile radius literally dropping dead all at the same time and leaving their carcasses behind, which is why authorities have dismissed CCD as the cause. Based on the appearance of the dead bees, as well as the synchronous timing of their deaths, pesticide sprayings appear to be the culprit in this case.


“I’m a pretty tough guy, but it is heart wrenching,” said Charles Smith of Smith Family Honey Company to News 13 in Orlando. His family’s company lost an estimated $150,000 worth of bees in the recent die-off. “Not only is it a monetary loss here, but we work really hard on these bees to keep them in good health.”


The Florida die-off coincides with a recent county-wide mosquito eradication effort, during which helicopters flew over various parts of the county and sprayed airborne pesticides. Officials, of course, deny that this taxpayer-funded spraying initiative had anything to do with the bee genocide, though.
“The fact that it was so widespread and so rapid, I think you can pretty much rule out disease,” said Bill Kern, an entomologist from the University of Florida (UF) toFlorida Today. “It happened essentially almost in one day. Usually diseases affect adults or the brood, you don’t have something that kills them both.”

Many of the beekeepers who lost their hives in the mass killing raised their bees to sell to American farmers, who then used them to pollinate food crops. Because of their massive losses, many of these beekeepers could end up losing their entire beekeeping businesses.


Sources for this story include:



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art… (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044764/The-mysterious-honeybee-apocalypse-Up-12-million-bees-dead-dying-Florida-knows-why.html)
http://www.floridatoday.com/article… (http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20110930/NEWS01/309300018/Mysterious-south-Brevard-bee-kill-confounds-costs-keepers)
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news…

(http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-honey-bees-killed-millions-poisoned-20110930,0,7448149.story)

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/033781_honey_bees_pesticides.html#ixzz1Ztp8WbXV

[Judee]

Yeah, like the bees don't already have enough problems, right? Will the total stupidity of man never end? :sigh:

[Alpha]

If there is any truth to this and there may be, this is pure evil!!

Whistleblower: Monsanto Wants to Kill The Bees To Make Way For Its Super-Bee (http://imaginativeworlds.com/forum/showthread.php?23490-Whistleblower-Monsanto-Wants-to-Kill-The-Bees-To-Make-Way-For-Its-Super-Bee)

[Alpha]

Not related to CCD, however this is interesting IMO.

Bees have personalities — and we can change them

Honey bees drones actually have a large spectrum of personalities. Scientists found that some are homebodies, some are explorers, and no matter what they are, we can change them.

There are some scientific studies for which the results don't matter so much as the method of inquiry. For example, when people hear that a team led by the University of Illinois has discovered that honey bees have personalities — and how to change those personalities — the results of the study can be safely pushed aside while people focus on the question, "How in the world do you figure out that bees have personalities?"


The first step is defining what a "personality" is. Science has done this before with both octopuses (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18640-hdtv-reveals-brainy-octopus-has-no-personality.html) and humans (http://io9.com/5797153/how-i-accidentally-conducted-experiments-on-a-human). The defining trait of personality is a consistent response to similar stimuli in different contexts. People (who do have personalities) do not respond to one barking dog by cowering in a corner and respond to an out-of-control horse by running up to it. Octopuses, who do not have personalities have shown that one day they will run from a strange object while another day they will investigate it.


Honey bees hives are filled with self-sacrificing drones who, under the right circumstances, don't have a care for their lives, let alone personal preferences. Still, there are differences. Certain bees, while gathering food, tended to range farther and explore more than other drones. They did this consistently, but that alone wasn't enough to convince the researchers that they had personalities. Then the hives grew until they had overgrown their homes. The colony had to split. Before the split could happen, intrepid bees had to go out in search of new nest sites. By necessity, these couldn't be too close to the other hives, or they two populations would compete. The most novelty-seeking worker bees responded to the crisis, scouting out new areas to nest, searching far beyond the scope of the regular hive.


Once researchers found bees that had novelty-seeking personalities, they took a look at their biological make-up, finding genes expressed differently depending on the bee's tendency to seek out new horizons. They then starting tinkering with the various biological that determined personalities in the bees. Glutamate and octopamine increased novelty-seeking behavior, making bees reckless. Decreasing dopamine, however, tended to lessen the chemical reward for each risk and inhibited the behavior.


So yes, as soon as we found out that bees had personalities, we found a way to brainwash them. Even eerier than that, their more adventurous biological make-up matches with the biological make-up of our more adventurous human beings. Chemically brainwashing a bee isn't that different from brainwashing a human being.

Article (http://io9.com/5891073/the-science-of-brainwashing-bees)

[Judee]

Fascinating Alpha. But reading between the lines, the implications for using this discovery for the control of humans makes me shudder. Of course, that's already been done hasn't it?

[Alpha]

:bump: for tonight's Earthfiles report from Linda Moulton Howe on C2C AM.

Mar. 29 - 30, 2012 - Linda Moulton Howe - Strange Sounds, Fukushima, Bees - UFO Propulsion, Robert Farrell (http://imaginativeworlds.com/forum/showthread.php?24056-Mar-29-30-2012-Linda-Moulton-Howe-Strange-Sounds-Fukushima-Bees-UFO-Propulsion-Robert-Farrell)

[Alpha]

Autism and Disappearing Bees: A Common Denominator? (http://imaginativeworlds.com/forum/showthread.php?24094-Autism-and-Disappearing-Bees-A-Common-Denominator)

[Alpha]

Related:

USDA Admits Exterminating Birds, Crops, and Bees (http://imaginativeworlds.com/forum/showthread.php?24154-USDA-Admits-Exterminating-Birds-Crops-and-Bees)

[Alpha]

Evil, evil and MORE EVIL!!! :rant:

Blamed for Bee Collapse, Monsanto Buys Leading Bee Research Firm (http://www.infowars.com/blamed-for-bee-collapse-monsanto-buys-leading-bee-research-firm/)


Anthony Gucciardi
Infowars.com
Thursday, April 19, 2012


Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. Recently banned from Poland (http://naturalsociety.com/poland-ban-monsantos-genetically-modified-maize/) with one of the primary reasons being that the company’s genetically modified (http://naturalsociety.com/genetically-modified-foods/) corn may be devastating the dying bee population, it is evident that Monsanto is under serious fire for their role in the downfall of the vital insects. It is therefore quite apparent why Monsanto bought one of the largest bee research firms on the planet.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/files/2010/10/bee.jpg


It can be found in public company reports hosted (http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/company-report?symbol=MON) on mainstream media that Monsanto scooped up the Beeologics firm back in September 2011. During this time the correlation between Monsanto’s GM crops and the bee decline was not explored in the mainstream, and in fact it was hardly touched upon until Polish officials addressed the serious concern amid the monumental ban. Owning a major organization that focuses heavily on the bee collapse and is recognized by the USDA for their mission statement of “restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination” could be very advantageous for Monsanto.


In fact, Beelogics’ company information states that the primary goal of the firm is to study the very collapse disorder that is thought to be a result — at least in part — of Monsanto’s own creations. Their website states (http://www.beeologics.com/aboutUs.asp):

While its primary goal is to control the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) infection crises, Beeologics’ mission is to become the guardian of bee health worldwide.



What’s more, Beelogics is recognized by the USDA, the USDA-ARS, the media, and ‘leading entomologists’ worldwide. The USDA, of course, has a great relationship with Monsanto. The government agency has gone to great lengths to ensure that Monsanto’s financial gains continue to soar, going as far as to give the company special speed approval (http://naturalsociety.com/usda-to-give-monsantos-new-gmo-crops-special-speedy-approval/) for their newest genetically engineered seed varieties. It turns out that Monsanto was not getting quick enough approval for their crops, which have been linked to severe organ damage (http://www.enveurope.com/content/23/1/10) and other significant health concerns.

Steve Censky, chief executive officer of the American Soybean Association, states it quite plainly. It was a move to help Monsanto and other biotechnology giants squash competition and make profits. After all, who cares about public health?
“It is a concern from a competition standpoint,” Censky said (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-24/genetically-modified-crops-to-get-faster-approval-usda-says.html) in a telephone interview.



It appears that when Monsanto cannot answer for their environmental devastation, they buy up a company that may potentially be their ‘experts’ in denying any such link between their crops and the bee decline.
This post first appeared at Natural Society (http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-bee-collapse-buys-bee-research-firm/)


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[Judee]

Talk about an admission of guilt!! It's no coincidence that the commercial bees are dying off, and the wild honey bees are thriving! A couple of weeks ago, I walked outside, and was instantly surrounded with the breathtaking odor of wild honey. Thousands and thousands of bees filled every single tree that was in bloom. The bee problem is man made, no doubt about it! And yes Alpha, Monsanto is evil.

[Alpha]

Linda Moulton Howe's latest reports:

Legal Petition Asks EPA to Ban Nicotine-Based
Pesticide Clothianidin. Click for report.

(http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1972&category=Environment) http://www.earthfiles.com/images/news/H/HoneyBeePurpleHeadline.jpg

- Purdue Univ. Reports Clothianidin At “Unprecedented Levels”
in U. S. Is “Highly Toxic to Honey Bees.” Click for report.

(http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1973&category=Science)

“Neonicotinoid insecticides in 2012 will be in
nearly 200 million acres of annual U. S. crops. ... 2 or 3 billionths of a gram
of clothianidin - if it is fed to the bees in sugar solution - is a lethal dose.”
- Christian Krupke, Ph.D., Entomologist, Purdue Univ.

http://www.earthfiles.com/images/news/B/BeesCornClothianidin.jpg

Honey bees fly through Indiana corn tassels accumulating
clothianidin-contaminated pollen on their bodies.
Clothianidin is a neurotoxin that in tiny amounts
kills honey bees. Image by Peacebeefarm.

[Judee]

Government tyranny: Illinois Department of Agriculture secretly destroys beekeeper's bees and 15 years of research proving Monsanto's Roundup kills bees

Sunday, May 20, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
http://www.naturalnews.com/035920_beekeeper_Illinois_raid.html

(NaturalNews) An Illinois beekeeper with more than a decade's worth of expertise about how to successfully raise organic, chemical-free bees is the latest victim of flagrant government tyranny. According to the Prairie Advocate, Terrence "Terry" Ingram of Apple River, Ill., owner of Apple Creek Apiaries, recently had his bees and beehives stolen from him by the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDofA), as well as more than 15 years' worth of research proving Monsanto's Roundup to be the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) destroyed.

It began last summer when Ingram, who teaches children about natural beekeeping, gave a sample of his honeycomb to IDofA inspector Susan Kivikko (http://www.agr.state.il.us/programs/bees/inspectors.html) at a beekeeper's picnic. Ingram explained that his bees would not touch the comb, and asked Kivikko if it could be tested for chemical contamination.

Kivikko told him that IDofA does not test for chemicals, presumably because its policy is to actively promote them, and instead took the comb and had it tested for "foulbrood," a disease that Ingram says is greatly overblown. When the test allegedly came back positive, Kivikko proceeded to get the ball rolling on a witch hunt that would eventually lead to the illegal seizure and destruction of Ingram's personal property.

Not only did Kivikko, as well as her colleague Eleanor Balson and superior Steven D. Chard, break the law by trespassing Ingram's property on numerous occasions without a warrant, but they also committed numerous crimes by stealing his hives and equipment and destroying pertinent evidence before a hearing, which Ingram believes may have ultimately been rooted in a deliberate conspiracy by the state to hide the truth about Roundup, and subsequently steal his most vibrant bees.

IDofA appears to have targeted Ingram for his research linking Roundup to CCD
Of particular interest was Ingram's extensive research on Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which began several years ago when hundreds of Ingram's hives had died. He later determined that Roundup sprayings near his property were to blame, which prompted him to actively research the subject and closely monitor his hives in conjunction with this research from that point onward.

What he gathered, and subsequently taught to others, was concrete evidence that Roundup kills bees. He also used this information and his many years of experience to develop and refine ways of growing strong, chemical-free bees in spite of Roundup sprayings, a move that apparently upset IDofA, which operates primarily to serve the interests of chemical companies rather than the interests of the people.

"Is Illinois becoming a police state, where citizens do not have rights?" asked Ingram, who has been deliberately denied his rights, to the Prairie Advocate. "Knowing that Monsanto and the Department of Agriculture are in bed together, one has to wonder if Monsanto was behind the theft to ruin my research that may prove Roundup was, and is, killing honeybees."

Be sure to read the full Prairie Advocate story about Terry Ingram, which includes a video interview, here:
http://www.pacc-news.com/5-2-12/heart_ingram5_2_12.html

Sources for this article include:

http://www.pacc-news.com/5-2-12/heart_ingram5_2_12.html

http://www.agr.state.il.us/programs/bees/inspectors.html

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/Roundup.html

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035920_beekeeper_Illinois_raid.html#ixzz1vRMeRyqc

[Alpha]

The above is more than criminal and disgusting.

Sadly it's just another illustration that banks and large corporations own the guv'mnts, courts right up to the Oval Office. :rant:

[Judee]

The above is more than criminal and disgusting.

Sadly it's just another illustration that banks and large corporations own the guv'mnts, courts right up to the Oval Office. :rant:

There are a number of government agencies that have become little more than 'thugs' IMO. Fish and Wildlife has become very radical in its thinking and actions these days too. Homeland Security the same. But yes, like you said Alpha, that's because those agencies (and there's others) have become nothing less than an 'arm' of big Corporations. Things have gone too far and people have lost their rights.

[Judee]

10539 Like the poor damn bees haven't had enough problems!!!


EDIS Code: BH-20120926-36685-USA
Date&Time: 2012-09-26
Continent: North-America
Country: USA
State/Prov.: State of Washington,
Location: Seattle region,

Experts and citizen scientists are tracking the "zombie bee" infection across the country. The insects have a parasite that causes them to fly at night and lurch around erratically until they die. The infection is another threat to bees that are needed to pollinate crops, in addition to the mysterious ailment "colony collapse disorder." The infection is as grim as it sounds: "Zombie bees" have a parasite that causes them to fly at night and lurch around erratically until they die. And experts say the condition has crept into Washington state. "I joke with my kids that the zombie apocalypse is starting at my house," said Mark Hohn, a novice beekeeper who spotted the infected insects at his suburban Seattle home. Hohn returned from vacation a few weeks ago to find many of his bees either dead or flying in jerky patterns and then flopping on the floor. He remembered hearing about zombie bees, so he collected several of the corpses and popped them into a pl astic bag. About a week later, the Kent man had evidence his bees were infected: the pupae of parasitic flies. "Curiosity got the better of me," Hohn said. The zombie bees were the first to be confirmed in Washington state, The Seattle Times reported. San Francisco State University biologist John Hafernik first discovered zombie bees in California in 2008.rnrnHafernik now uses a website to recruit citizen scientists like Hohn to track the infection across the country. Observers also have found zombie bees in Oregon and South Dakota. The infection is another threat to bees that are needed to pollinate crops. Hives have been failing in recent years due to a mysterious ailment called colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly die. The life cycle of the fly that infects zombie bees is reminiscent of the movie "Alien," the newspaper reported. A small adult female lands on the back of a honeybee and injects eggs into the bee's abdomen. The eggs hatch into maggots. "They basically eat the insides out of the bee," Hafernik said. After consuming their host Relevant Products/Services, the maggots pupate, forming a hard outer shell that looks like a fat, brown grain of rice. That's what Hohn found in the plastic bag with the dead bees. Adult flies emerge in three to four weeks. There's no evidence yet that the parasitic fly is a major player in the bees' decline, but it does seem the pest is targeting new hosts, said Steve Sheppard, chairman of the entomology department at Washington State University. "It may occur a lot more widely than we think," he said. That's what Hafernik hopes to find out with his website, zombeewatch.org. The site offers simple instructions for collecting suspect bees, watching for signs of parasites and reporting the results. Once more people start looking, the number of sightings will probably climb, Hohn said.

[Alpha]

10539 Like the poor damn bees haven't had enough problems!!!


EDIS Code: BH-20120926-36685-USA
Date&Time: 2012-09-26
Continent: North-America
Country: USA
State/Prov.: State of Washington,
Location: Seattle region,

Experts and citizen scientists are tracking the "zombie bee" infection across the country. The insects have a parasite that causes them to fly at night and lurch around erratically until they die. The infection is another threat to bees that are needed to pollinate crops, in addition to the mysterious ailment "colony collapse disorder." The infection is as grim as it sounds: "Zombie bees" have a parasite that causes them to fly at night and lurch around erratically until they die. And experts say the condition has crept into Washington state. "I joke with my kids that the zombie apocalypse is starting at my house," said Mark Hohn, a novice beekeeper who spotted the infected insects at his suburban Seattle home. Hohn returned from vacation a few weeks ago to find many of his bees either dead or flying in jerky patterns and then flopping on the floor. He remembered hearing about zombie bees, so he collected several of the corpses and popped them into a pl astic bag. About a week later, the Kent man had evidence his bees were infected: the pupae of parasitic flies. "Curiosity got the better of me," Hohn said. The zombie bees were the first to be confirmed in Washington state, The Seattle Times reported. San Francisco State University biologist John Hafernik first discovered zombie bees in California in 2008.rnrnHafernik now uses a website to recruit citizen scientists like Hohn to track the infection across the country. Observers also have found zombie bees in Oregon and South Dakota. The infection is another threat to bees that are needed to pollinate crops. Hives have been failing in recent years due to a mysterious ailment called colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly die. The life cycle of the fly that infects zombie bees is reminiscent of the movie "Alien," the newspaper reported. A small adult female lands on the back of a honeybee and injects eggs into the bee's abdomen. The eggs hatch into maggots. "They basically eat the insides out of the bee," Hafernik said. After consuming their host Relevant Products/Services, the maggots pupate, forming a hard outer shell that looks like a fat, brown grain of rice. That's what Hohn found in the plastic bag with the dead bees. Adult flies emerge in three to four weeks. There's no evidence yet that the parasitic fly is a major player in the bees' decline, but it does seem the pest is targeting new hosts, said Steve Sheppard, chairman of the entomology department at Washington State University. "It may occur a lot more widely than we think," he said. That's what Hafernik hopes to find out with his website, zombeewatch.org. The site offers simple instructions for collecting suspect bees, watching for signs of parasites and reporting the results. Once more people start looking, the number of sightings will probably climb, Hohn said.

This is horrific Judee.

Most be some GMO parasites that we can thank Monsanto or other GM labs for :rocketwho

[maryals]

I agree with Alpha. It's just horrible!
Hopefully, the bees that survive all this, however few they may be, will be immune to whatever and will pass that immunity along.
If Mama Earth can survive that long :no:

Mary and Baby :tinfoil2:

[Judee]

COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER, APIS - USA: (CALIFORNIA) 2012, SUSPECTED
************************************************** ****************

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Date: Wed 30 Jan 2013
Source: EdHat Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Beekeepers Association
report [edited]
<http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=107958>


Massive honey bee die-off in Montecito
--------------------------------------
Last October [2012], Santa Barbara Bee Keeper's association [SBBA] was
called out to several backyard beekeepers' properties in response to
massive honey bee die-offs. Local amateur beekeeper, Carrie Kappel,
called SBBA when she noticed hundreds of dead and dying bees outside
her backyard beehive. "It was devastating to see the number of dead
bees outside the hive, and watch those in their death throes,
twitching and stumbling around in front of the hive, unable to fly. I
watched the whole hive go from healthy and vigorous to empty over a
few short weeks."

A total of 16 formerly healthy hives, with an average population of
30-60 000 bees each were lost. SBBA estimates about 750 000 bees died,
all within a 1.5 mile [2.4 km] radius. The Association submitted 4
test samples to Penn State University for a comprehensive pesticide
screening and just received the reports back from the USDA labs.

As SBBA leaders suspected, there were several commonly used pesticides
found in bee food stores, brood cells, and wax. These include
bifenthrin (found in hundreds of agricultural and household pesticide
products), chlorpyrifos (used on orchards, golf courses, and crops,
and banned from residential use), cyhalothrin (found in household and
commercial), and fipronil (used in over 50 products to control ants,
termites, fleas, and other insects). All of these chemicals are known
to be highly toxic to bees. Also found at low levels were 2 legal
miticides used by beekeepers to control mites. While this does not
prove that pesticides were behind the die-offs, it does point to them
as a possible factor.

According to Penn State Senior Extension Associate, Maryann Frazier,
"Honey bees across the country are being exposed to a great diversity
and sometimes high levels of pesticides. While the evidence associated
with the Montecito die-off is not conclusive, the symptoms of colony
deaths and detections of low levels of pesticides toxic to honey bees
are suspicious and cause for concern."

While SBBA is very upset about this loss, its leaders hope that by
spreading the word about the die-off, community members will become
more aware of the potential dangers of pesticides for honeybees and
other pollinators. The organization encourages pest control companies,
horticulturalists, landscape contractors, and homeowners to evaluate
the products that they are using and how they are being applied and
work to reduce risks to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

Honey bees have been in decline worldwide. Frazier notes, "We believe
that pesticide exposure is an important factor contributing to
pollinator decline and possibly colony collapse disorder (CCD)."
Colony collapse disorder has wiped out honey bee hives in the US and
elsewhere, threatening both the viability of commercial beekeeping and
the sustainability of the pollination services that honey bees provide
to agricultural crops, domestic gardens, and wild plants. Whatever the
cause of the Montecito die-off -- whether acute pesticide poisoning,
CCD, or other stresses -- it may be symptomatic of a general decline
in the quality of our environment for honey bees. "Honey bees and
other pollinators are getting hit hard, but there are things we can do
to reduce the threats to them," said SBBA president, Paul Cronshaw.

Pesticides applied to plants that are in bloom can be transferred to
the hive by bees foraging for nectar and pollen, and thus the
pesticides can impact the entire colony. SBBA urges Santa Barbara
community members to please speak with their gardener, pest control
company, and anyone else that may use these products to make sure that
they are being used properly. Commercial pesticides should only be
applied by registered, licensed pesticide applicators. They should be
applied carefully, according to the instructions on the label, and
only as needed, avoiding applying them to blooming plants and at times
when pollinators are active. "Working together, we can reduce both our
own exposures to pesticides, and also the honey bee's, so that she may
continue to help us feed the planet," says SBBA vice president, Todd
Bebb.

[byline: Todd Bebb]

--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail from HealthMap Alerts
<promed@promedmail.org>

[Recent research (see ProMED-mail posting no 20120330.1085129) has
suggested that pesticides were linked to the bee's colony collapse
disorder. Another interesting finding incriminates a virus (see
posting no 20120611.1164105), and a virulent strain in particular,
which is associated with the mite _Varroa destructor_. The whole
scenario appears complex and it is very likely that several factors
interact to cause colony collapse disorder.

[Alpha]

Global Disappearance of Bees

conspiracy theories (http://worldtruth.tv/category/conspiracy-theories/), News (http://worldtruth.tv/category/categories/news/), world truth (http://worldtruth.tv/category/world-truth/) April 9, 2013


http://worldtruth.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/07_bees_560x375.jpg (http://worldtruth.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/07_bees_560x375.jpg)
by Eddie Levin

If you haven't read my previous article titled "Up to 12 million Bees Found Dead in Florida and No one Knows Why" (http://worldtruth.tv/up-to-12-million-bees-found-dead-in-florida-and-no-one-knows-why/) click on the link.

I believe it was Albert Einstein that said that "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live". Basically his theory makes a lot of sense. No Bees, No Pollination! There is no question the bees are becoming extinct. Ask any “beekeeper” and they’ll tell you the same. I know there have been attempts at “alternative” Pollination but none have ever been successful. Only the Bees can do what GOD designed them to do.

Well for the last 7 years the bees worldwide have been disappearing and no one really knows why. The disorder has significantly affected bee populations since the 1970's with a sharp increase in losses since 2006. Now, as beekeepers return to their hives to prepare for spring pollination, they are finding that at least half of their bees are gone. This syndrome, named colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is characterized by the disappearance of adult honey bees from the hive, leaving the newborns to fend for themselves. The 2013 year now marks the highest loss on record with at least 50 percent of all European honeybees in the U.S. reported lost to CCD.

Silence of the Bees


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=_cU9ZunVl3o

http://worldtruth.tv/global-disappearance-of-bees/

[Alpha]

:17:

April 26 2013
Official EU research verifies bee holocaust caused by dangerous man-made poisons, Big Ag and Big Government do nothing

by Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) A class of insecticide chemicals commonly applied to rapeseed, also known as canola here in the U.S., as well as sugar beets, corn, and various other crops is killing off bee populations across the globe, and a prominent environmental watchdog group is now demanding that these insecticides be immediately pulled from the market. As reported by the U.K.'s Daily Mail, a report issued by the U.K.'s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) confirms that neonicotinoid insecticides are to blame for mass bee die-offs.

The declaration by this prominent government advisory group comes following the release of data out of the E.U. showing that neonicotinoids contain compounds that interfere with bees' central nervous systems, and thus cause them to become confused while pollinating. Eventually, bees affected by these chemicals lose their ability to navigate back to the hive, forgetting where they are and how to get home, which results in them starving and dying en masse.

Back in January, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) determined that neonicotinoids, which have been in use since the early 1990s, are directly responsible for triggering an epidemic of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) all around the world. The agency went on to express opposition to the further use of neonicotinoid insecticides, particularly with regards to plants that are attractive to bees. But the European Commission was ultimately unable to garner enough votes to successfully implement a two-year ban on the chemicals, which has prompted EAC to issue its own call for a ban.

"If farmers had to pollinate fruit and vegetables without the help of insects, it would cost hundreds of millions of pounds and we would all be stung by rising food prices," says Joan Walley MP, chair of EAC, referring to the devastating losses that will occur in the absence of pollinating bees (http://www.naturalnews.com/bees.html). "Defra (Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs) Ministers have refused to back EU efforts to protect pollinators and can't even come up with a convincing plan to encourage bee-friendly farming in the U.K."

UK, Germany primarily responsible for enabling continued 'armageddon' on bees

According to earlier reports, the European Commission was roadblocked in its attempt to protect bee populations by both the U.K. and Germany, which at the last minute failed to vote in favor of a two-year moratorium. The winners in the proposal's defeat, of course, are chemical companies like Syngenta and Bayer CropScience, both of which have a vested interest in neonicotinoids. The losers are not only bees, but the global population at large, which will suffer from crop failures and eventually starvation.

"Britain and Germany have caved in to the industry lobby and refused to ban bee-killing pesticides," Iain Keith from the non-profit environmental group Avaaz is quoted as saying by the U.K.'s Guardian. "[The] vote flies in the face of science and public opinion and maintains the disastrous chemical armageddon on bees, which are critical for the future of our food."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304249/Ban-pesticides-killing-bees-Plummeting-numbers-blamed-ministers-complacency.html)

http://www.guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/15/bee-harming-pesticides-escape-european-ban)

http://www.naturalnews.com/035652_pesticides_honey_bees_ban.html

Article (http://www.naturalnews.com/040088_bee_population_neonicotinoid_colony_collaps e.html)

[Judee]

This news is cause for celebration!! 11666


Bee-harming pesticides banned in Europe

EU member states vote in favour of continent-wide suspension of neonicotinoid pesticides
Damian Carrington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 April 2013



Europe will enforce the world's first continent-wide ban on widely used insecticides linked to serious harm in bees, after a European commission vote on Monday.

The landmark suspension is a victory for millions of environment campaigners concerned about dramatic declines in bees who were backed by experts at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). But it is a serious defeat for the chemical companies who make billions a year from the products and also UK ministers, who both argued that the ban will harm food production.

"Today's pesticide ban throws Europe's bees a vital lifeline, following a massive campaign backed by 2.6 million people," said Iain Keith, at Avaaz. "Europe is taking science seriously and must now put the full ban in place, to give bees the breathing space they need."

The vote by the 27 member states of the European Union to suspend the insect nerve agents was supported by most nations, but did not reach the required majority under EU voting rules. However, the hung vote hands the final decision to the European commission (EC) who will implement the ban. "It's done," said an EC source, indicating that a formal announcement on the ban is expected within weeks.

The EC argued that EFSA has provided "a strong, substantive and scientific case for the suspension", which it said was proportionate to the risk. Three neonicotinoids will be banned from use for two years on flowering crops such as corn, oil seed rape and sunflowers, upon which bees feed.

Bees and other insects are vital for global food production as they pollinate three-quarters of all crops. The plummeting numbers of pollinators in recent years has been blamed on disease, loss of habitat and, increasingly, the near ubiquitous use of neonicotinoid pesticides. A series of high-profile scientific studies has linked neonicotinoids - the world's most widely used insecticides - to huge losses in the number of queens produced and big increases in "disappeared" bees, those that fail to return from foraging trips.

Pesticide manufacturers and UK ministers argued that the science is inconclusive, but conservationists say the harm stemming from dying pollinators is even greater. In a private letter to Syngenta released to the Observer, the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, told the chemical company on 20 April that he was "extremely disappointed" by the proposed ban. He said that "the UK has been very active" in opposing it and "our efforts will continue and intensify in the coming days". Parliament's green watchdog, the environmental audit committee, investigated the issue of pollinators and concluded a ban was a necessary precaution and accused ministers of "extraordinary complacency".

Neonicotinoids have been widely used for more than decade and are used as seed treatments rather than sprays, meaning the insecticide pervades the growing plant, as well as its nectar and pollen. They are less harmful that some of the sprays they replaced, but scientific studies have increasingly linked them to poor bee health. Many, including the National Farmers' Union, accept that EU regulation is inadequate, as it only tests on honeybees and not the wild pollinators that service 90% of plants. The regulatory testing also only considers short term effects and does not consider the combined effects of multiple pesticides.

The chemical industry has warned that a ban on neonicotinoids would lead to the return of older, more harmful pesticides and crop losses. But campaigners point out that this has not happened during temporary suspensions in France, Italy and Germany and that the use of natural pest predators and crop rotation can tackle problems.

Christopher Connolly, a bee expert at the University of Dundee, said: "If neonicotinoids are not being replaced [with more harmful chemical], then absolutely I support the precautionary principle. I don't think that there is evidence that they would need to be replaced, but such decisions are not always evidence-based."

The use of neonicotinoids is also under attack in the US, where a coalition of beekeepers, environmental groups and food campaigners is suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency for failing to protect pollinators.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/29/bee-harming-pesticides-banned-europe

[Judee]

Researchers find high-fructose corn syrup may be tied to worldwide collapse of bee colonies
April 30th, 2013

(Phys.org) —A team of entomologists from the University of Illinois has found a possible link between the practice of feeding commercial honeybees high-fructose corn syrup and the collapse of honeybee colonies around the world. The team outlines their research and findings in a paper they've had published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Since approximately 2006, groups that manage commercial honeybee colonies have been reporting what has become known as colony collapse disorder—whole colonies of bees simply died, of no apparent cause. As time has passed, the disorder has been reported at sites all across the world, even as scientists have been racing to find the cause, and a possible cure. To date, most evidence has implicated pesticides used to kill other insects such as mites. In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence to suggest the real culprit might be high-fructose corn syrup, which beekeepers have been feeding bees as their natural staple, honey, has been taken away from them.

Commercial honeybee enterprises began feeding bees high-fructose corn syrup back in the 70's after research was conducted that indicated that doing so was safe. Since that time, new pesticides have been developed and put into use and over time it appears the bees' immunity response to such compounds may have become compromised.

The researchers aren't suggesting that high-fructose corn syrup is itself toxic to bees, instead, they say their findings indicate that by eating the replacement food instead of honey, the bees are not being exposed to other chemicals that help the bees fight off toxins, such as those found in pesticides.

Specifically, they found that when bees are exposed to the enzyme p-coumaric, their immune system appears stronger—it turns on detoxification genes. P-coumaric is found in pollen walls, not nectar, and makes its way into honey inadvertently via sticking to the legs of bees as they visit flowers. Similarly, the team discovered other compounds found in poplar sap that appear to do much the same thing. It all together adds up to a diet that helps bees fight off toxins, the researchers report. Taking away the honey to sell it, and feeding the bees high-fructose corn syrup instead, they claim, compromises their immune systems, making them more vulnerable to the toxins that are meant to kill other bugs.

More information: Honey constituents up-regulate detoxification and immunity genes in the western honey bee Apis mellifera, Published online before print April 29, 2013, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1303884110

Abstract
As a managed pollinator, the honey bee Apis mellifera is critical to the American agricultural enterprise. Recent colony losses have thus raised concerns; possible explanations for bee decline include nutritional deficiencies and exposures to pesticides and pathogens. We determined that constituents found in honey, including p-coumaric acid, pinocembrin, and pinobanksin 5-methyl ether, specifically induce detoxification genes. These inducers are primarily found not in nectar but in pollen in the case of p-coumaric acid (a monomer of sporopollenin, the principal constituent of pollen cell walls) and propolis, a resinous material gathered and processed by bees to line wax cells. RNA-seq analysis (massively parallel RNA sequencing) revealed that p-coumaric acid specifically up-regulates all classes of detoxification genes as well as select antimicrobial peptide genes. This up-regulation has functional significance in that that adding p-coumaric acid to a diet of sucrose increases midgut metabolism of coumaphos, a widely used in-hive acaricide, by ∼60%. As a major component of pollen grains, p-coumaric acid is ubiquitous in the natural diet of honey bees and may function as a nutraceutical regulating immune and detoxification processes. The widespread apicultural use of honey substitutes, including high-fructose corn syrup, may thus compromise the ability of honey bees to cope with pesticides and pathogens and contribute to colony losses.

http://phys.org/news/2013-04-high-fructose-corn-syrup-tied-worldwide.html#nwlt

[maryals]

Well I'm glad they're finding some answers, now I hope they do something about it!

Mary and Baby :tinfoil2:

[Judee]

This is freaking insanity!!! 11684


May 9, 2013 by Common Dreams
Ignoring Bee Crisis, EPA Greenlights New 'Highly Toxic' Pesticide
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer

Despite new findings that prove a heightened crisis in US bee populations and a recent ban in Europe on similar chemical applications, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to further endanger the population Monday by approving a "highly toxic" new pesticide.

The "EPA continues to put industry interests first to exacerbate an already dire pollinator crisis," writes the group Beyond Pesticides.

The agency granted sulfoxaflor, a product of the Dow Chemical Company, "unconditional registration" for use on vegetables, fruits, barley, canola, ornamentals, soybeans and wheat among others, despite the EPA's own classification of the insecticide as "highly toxic to honey bees."

According to the Washington Examiner, the EPA's studies on the chemical's long-term effect on bees proved to be "inconclusive due to some issues with the study designs" and thus the EPA has proposed simply reducing the amount applied.

As part of their decision, the EPA approved new language for the sulfoxaflor labels which reads, "Do not apply this product at any time between 3 days prior to bloom and until after petal fall," during heightened pollinator activity.

Further, they approved an additional 'advisory pollinator statement':

Notifying known beekeepers within 1 mile of the treatment area 48 hours before the product is applied will allow them to take additional steps to protect their bees. Also limiting application to times when managed bees and native pollinators are least active, e.g., before 7 am or after 7pm local time or when temperature is below 55oF at the site of application, will minimize risk to bees.

Though the EPA believes this advisory to be “robust” enough to protect pollinators, environmental advocacy groups such as Beyond Pesticides believe such statements "not only underscore the risks to bees" but prove to be unrealistic since systemic pesticides, including sulfoxaflor, "continue to exist in the plant (including pollen and nectar) for longer periods of time that well surpasses the recommended application intervals, and therefore expose bees to residues longer than suggested."

And, in addition to harming bees, sulfoxaflor has been known to cause tumors and carcinomas in mice and rats and has been classified as "suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential."

Dismissing these concerns, the EPA alternately points to the "need for sulfoxaflor by industry and agriculture groups to control insects no longer being controlled by increasingly ineffective pesticide technologies," proving the ongoing and harmful nature of unsustainable techniques such as pesticide sprays.

Following Europe's announcement last week that they would suspend the use of bee-harming neonicotinoids in an effort to combat the rampant colony collapse crisis, many hoped the US would announce similar reforms.

However, following this week's announcement, groups say it is clear the EPA will continue pursue an "irresponsible" and "counter-intuitive" agenda in regards to bee health and the environment.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/09-3

[Alpha]

This is freaking insanity!!! 11684


May 9, 2013 by Common Dreams
Ignoring Bee Crisis, EPA Greenlights New 'Highly Toxic' Pesticide
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer

Despite new findings that prove a heightened crisis in US bee populations and a recent ban in Europe on similar chemical applications, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to further endanger the population Monday by approving a "highly toxic" new pesticide.

The "EPA continues to put industry interests first to exacerbate an already dire pollinator crisis," writes the group Beyond Pesticides.

The agency granted sulfoxaflor, a product of the Dow Chemical Company, "unconditional registration" for use on vegetables, fruits, barley, canola, ornamentals, soybeans and wheat among others, despite the EPA's own classification of the insecticide as "highly toxic to honey bees."

According to the Washington Examiner, the EPA's studies on the chemical's long-term effect on bees proved to be "inconclusive due to some issues with the study designs" and thus the EPA has proposed simply reducing the amount applied.

As part of their decision, the EPA approved new language for the sulfoxaflor labels which reads, "Do not apply this product at any time between 3 days prior to bloom and until after petal fall," during heightened pollinator activity.

Further, they approved an additional 'advisory pollinator statement':

Notifying known beekeepers within 1 mile of the treatment area 48 hours before the product is applied will allow them to take additional steps to protect their bees. Also limiting application to times when managed bees and native pollinators are least active, e.g., before 7 am or after 7pm local time or when temperature is below 55oF at the site of application, will minimize risk to bees.

Though the EPA believes this advisory to be “robust” enough to protect pollinators, environmental advocacy groups such as Beyond Pesticides believe such statements "not only underscore the risks to bees" but prove to be unrealistic since systemic pesticides, including sulfoxaflor, "continue to exist in the plant (including pollen and nectar) for longer periods of time that well surpasses the recommended application intervals, and therefore expose bees to residues longer than suggested."

And, in addition to harming bees, sulfoxaflor has been known to cause tumors and carcinomas in mice and rats and has been classified as "suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential."

Dismissing these concerns, the EPA alternately points to the "need for sulfoxaflor by industry and agriculture groups to control insects no longer being controlled by increasingly ineffective pesticide technologies," proving the ongoing and harmful nature of unsustainable techniques such as pesticide sprays.

Following Europe's announcement last week that they would suspend the use of bee-harming neonicotinoids in an effort to combat the rampant colony collapse crisis, many hoped the US would announce similar reforms.

However, following this week's announcement, groups say it is clear the EPA will continue pursue an "irresponsible" and "counter-intuitive" agenda in regards to bee health and the environment.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/09-3

Yes, both criminal and insane!!!!!:rocketwho

Insanity: US Approves Bee Death Pesticide as EU Bans It
Sunday, May 12, 2013

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
http://naturalsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/bee-pesticides-epa-263x164.jpg

Corporate politics is business as usual inside the United States, as I am once again shocked to report the EPA has sided (http://beforeitsnews.com/r2/?url=http://rt.com/usa/new-pesticides-linked-bee-deaths-130/) with industry lobbyists over public health in approving a highly dangerous pesticide that the European Union recently decided to ban over fears of environmental devastation. Not only have neonicotinoid pesticides been linked repeatedly to mass bee deaths, also known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD (http://beforeitsnews.com/r2/?url=http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572)), but the continued use of such pesticides threatens other aspects of nature (and humans) as well.


What’s even more amazing is that the decision not only comes after the EU publicly discussed (http://beforeitsnews.com/r2/?url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22335520) the major dangers surrounding the use of the pesticides, but after the USDA released a report surrounding the continued honeybee deaths and the related effects — a report in which they detailed pesticides to be a contributing factor. Just the impact on the honeybees alone, and we now know that these pesticides are killing aquatic life (http://beforeitsnews.com/r2/?url=http://naturalsociety.com/study-insecticide-aquatic-insects-environmental/) and subsequently the birds that feed upon them, amounts to a potential $200 billion in global damages per year. We’re talking about the devastation of over 100 crops, from apples to avocados and plums.


And there’s countless scientists and a large number of environmental science groups speaking out on this. The EPA (http://beforeitsnews.com/r2/?url=http://www.epa.gov/) has no lack of information the subject. And sure, there are other contributing factors to bee deaths, there’s no question about that. We have an environment right now being hit with Monsanto’s Roundup even in residential areas, we have chemical rain, we have insane amounts of EMF — but it’s pretty clear that neonicotinoid pesticides are at least a major contributing factor. And beyond that, they have no place in the food supply to begin with.


The Pesticide Action Network (PAN (http://beforeitsnews.com/r2/?url=http://www.panna.org/)) details the EU ban that came right before the EPA acceptance of the death-linked pesticide:



“The EU vote comes after significant findings by the European Food Safety Agency that these pesticides pose an unacceptable risk to bees and their use should be restricted. Along with habitat loss and pathogens, a growing body of science points to neonicotinoid pesticides as a key factor in drastically declining bee populations.”
So why are they approving this pesticide to now pollute the United States in what potentially amounts to an even larger capacity than the EU? A move that will ultimately escalate the price of food worldwide due to the likely nature of continued bee deaths and subsequent crop impact? That’s the power of phony corporate science.


Source: http://naturalsociety.com/us-approves-bee-deathpesticide-as-eu-bans/ (http://beforeitsnews.com/r2/?url=http://naturalsociety.com/us-approves-bee-deathpesticide-as-eu-bans/)