Honey Bees More In Peril Than Ever

[jimmy olsen]

Malthusian Doom is Upon Us!

http://www.techinsider.io/honey-bee-colony-collapse-data-2016-5

Something disturbing is happening to honey bee colonies that scientists can't yet explain

Kevin Loria and Skye Gould

Honey bees are nearly as essential to our food system as crops themselves.

Depending on how the research is conducted, pollinators are needed to produce approximately one-third of the food we eat (more, according to some estimates). Bees also contribute about $17 billion to the US agricultural industry each year. And it'd be extremely hard and expensive to get your hands on coffee without them, making them a key part of the global economy.

So it's unfortunate to note that, according to newly released survey data, honey bees are in serious trouble.

Bees have struggled in general for years, facing problems that wreak havoc on populations like colony collapse disorder.

But a new report from the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), a group of leading researchers funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, is particularly disturbing.

Below is what the researchers have found since they first started tracking bee colony losses in 2007.

The total losses of colonies (yellow) are trending upward year-over-year:

GRAPH

"When we started the survey, we focused on winter losses as winter is generally seen as the most stressful time of the year for bees," Nathalie Steinhauer, the survey coordinator and a Ph.D. candidate in entomology at the University of Maryland, tells Tech Insider in an email.

But they started tracking things more closely to assess the effects of different beekeeping practices and became aware of some disturbing information as a result.

"High levels of summer losses came as a surprise for us," Steinhauer writes.

These trends are a big deal for several reasons.

For one, summer losses are now as bad as winter losses, but summer is when bees are supposed to thrive, flying from flower to flower with abundant food and beautiful weather.

But the data also show that, despite recent efforts to cut back on the use of certain pesticides — and a White House-inspired push to cut winter colony losses to 15% over the next ten years — overall losses seem to be just as bad as they've been, if not worse (the 2015-2016 data set is not yet complete).

In the Washington Post, Chelsea Harvey writes that there's more and more of an understanding that bee colony losses are being driven by multiple factors, especially pesticide use, disease, and environmental problems.

That losses are so high in the summer indicates that whatever is killing bees is causing serious trouble even when there should be fewer problems for the pollinators.

It's still a little too soon to tease out a full trend for what's happening to bee populations from this data, according to Steinhauer.

But according to the USDA, these annual colony losses need to be knocked down to about 18.7% if they are to be manageable.

If not, we may need to say goodbye to a whole lot of delicious food and a sizable chunk of the world economy.

[Jaron]

Who cares..we have synthetic honey now.

[Martinus]

Shouldn't Malthusian doom involve naked mole rats?

[Eddie Teach]

Who cares..we have synthetic honey now.

According to the article, no bees, no coffee.   

[lustindarkness]

So stupid humans did not watch (and learn from) The Bee Movie?

[Eddie Teach]

I learned why Seinfeld hasn't gotten more voice acting gigs.

[Grey Fox]

Apparently Bees in Quebec are doing fine.

[alfred russel]

Other news that Tim will never bring you:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/honey-bees-recovering-in-california.html

[jimmy olsen]

Shouldn't Malthusian doom involve naked mole rats?

More like these rats.

[11B4V]

No shortage of bees here. I have rhoadies, several types of lilac, a good size Acacia Wright tree, this year has been the most bees I have seen out here yet. Freaks the daughter out with the constant buzzing during the day.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Other news that Tim will never bring you:

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/honey-bees-recovering-in-california.html

That article is five years old.

[mongers]

Still not seen a honey bee in the garden this year; saw one in Wales a few weeks ago and the other evening stopped a few miles up the valley and noticed some going into a tree crevasse, but here none. 

[Grinning_Colossus]

I saw a honeybee in Massachusetts last week. Stepped on the fucker.