Is colony collapse disorder just the visible part of a "global pollinator crisis"? The answer is surprisingly murky. To help answer the question, scientists have created an inexpensive, nationwide wild bee monitoring program
Colletes bees are nicknamed "polyester bees" because they enclose their broods in a cellophanelike material that keeps out water and fungi....[More]
01. Polyester Bees
Colletes bees are nicknamed "polyester bees" because they enclose their broods in a cellophanelike material that keeps out water and fungi.
Colletes mitchilli, from the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
02. Cuckoos
Several bee genera—including Nomada , Sphecodes and Coelixys —are klepto-parasites, more alluringly known as "cuckoo bees." Instead of collecting pollen to provide for their young, cuckoos lay their eggs in other bees' nests....[More]
02. Cuckoos
Several bee genera—including Nomada, Sphecodes and Coelixys—are klepto-parasites, more alluringly known as "cuckoo bees." Instead of collecting pollen to provide for their young, cuckoos lay their eggs in other bees' nests. Once hatched, cuckoo larvae kill the hosts' young and eat their provisions.
Human sweat is nectar for sweat bees, and they slurp it up for its salt content. Agapostemon sweat bees show off their flashy green and blue colors....[More]
03. Sweat Bees
Human sweat is nectar for sweat bees, and they slurp it up for its salt content. Agapostemon sweat bees show off their flashy green and blue colors. Some species nest communally: up to 24 females will share a nest but raise their offspring independently. Some Lassioglossum sweat bees line their nest entrances with lactone secretions. Each individual has its own chemical signature that helps it to recognize its nest when returning from foraging.
Agapostemon virescens, from the Packer Collection at York University
Anthophora bees dig tunnels in soil. Some species' tongues can extend up to 2.5 centimeters in length, longer than the rest of their bodies, allowing them to pollinate deep flowers....[More]
04. Miners
Anthophora bees dig tunnels in soil. Some species' tongues can extend up to 2.5 centimeters in length, longer than the rest of their bodies, allowing them to pollinate deep flowers. In some species, several males snooze on the same flower, clasping the plant with their jaws.
Female Anthidium bees have five or more sharp teeth that they use to harvest hairs from the leaf surface, which they use to build their nests....[More]
05. Wool Carders
Female Anthidium bees have five or more sharp teeth that they use to harvest hairs from the leaf surface, which they use to build their nests.
Honeybees ( Apis mellifera ) pollinate crops commercially. Populations have tanked for decades, causing much concern for this exotic species. ...[More]
06. Honey Bees
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) pollinate crops commercially. Populations have tanked for decades, causing much concern for this exotic species. An import from Europe, they often cannot pollinate as efficiently as native New World bees. Because they live in large colonies, honeybees are more manageable in apiaries than are native species, which tend to be solitary.
The buzz of these insects vibrates flowers into releasing their pollen. Bumblebees are one of a handful of native bees that form colonies, boast a queen and can grow to populations numbering around a thousand....[More]
07. Bumble Bees
The buzz of these insects vibrates flowers into releasing their pollen. Bumblebees are one of a handful of native bees that form colonies, boast a queen and can grow to populations numbering around a thousand. Several species are in decline and one, Bombus franklini, is listed as a "species of concern" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
These bees bore into wood to create nests. In some species of small carpenter bees ( Ceratina ), daughters or sisters may cooperate to raise the next generation....[More]
09. Carpenters
These bees bore into wood to create nests. In some species of small carpenter bees (Ceratina), daughters or sisters may cooperate to raise the next generation. The genus contains a few unusual species that can reproduce without males in a process called parthenogenesis. Large carpenters (Xylocopa) lay fewer eggs than other bees, but their eggs are the largest of any insect—at 1.5 centimeters in diameter, each one is half the size of the adult bee.
A Hylaeus bee does not carry pollen or nectar externally, as other bees do; instead, it hides it in its crop. The only genus of bees native to Hawaii, they also turn up in other parts of North America....[More]
11. Masked Bees
A Hylaeus bee does not carry pollen or nectar externally, as other bees do; instead, it hides it in its crop. The only genus of bees native to Hawaii, they also turn up in other parts of North America. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation lists 18 Hylaeus species as "critically imperiled"; seven of them bear the label "critically imperiled and possibly extinct."
Hylaeus ornatus, from the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory
[Less]
[Link to this slide]
12. Small Leaf Cutters
Osmia count as important pollinators of fruit crops such as apple, cherry, pear and plum. In pollinating an acre of apple trees, just 250 Osmia bees can do the job of 10,000 to 25,000 honeybees....[More]
12. Small Leaf Cutters
Osmia count as important pollinators of fruit crops such as apple, cherry, pear and plum. In pollinating an acre of apple trees, just 250 Osmia bees can do the job of 10,000 to 25,000 honeybees.
These bees rely on plants in the squash family (including pumpkins, watermelons and gourds) for several parts of their life cycle. Squash flowers provide Peponapis mating territories, sleeping places for males, and pollen and nectar for young....[More]
13. Squash Bees
These bees rely on plants in the squash family (including pumpkins, watermelons and gourds) for several parts of their life cycle. Squash flowers provide Peponapis mating territories, sleeping places for males, and pollen and nectar for young. Some species have expanded their ranges to follow the agricultural propagation of squash plants.
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
If we collectively allow the bees to become extinct, we are so through. Has anyone entertained the thought that the tragedy of Industrial Agriculture might just have something to do with it? That, ensconced in Industrial Agriculture, is the massive application of pesticides, fungicides, insecticides and some other kind of "cide" that escapes me just now. They don't call 'em "pesticides" and "insecticides" for no reason. The Powers That Be have genetically altered our fruit & vegetable plants and trees to the point where nothing is made by Mother Nature anymore - and did they really expect that not to cause a blowback? I'd venture to say that since their imperative is money, money, money; that they didn't even entertain the thought of how their experimentation would affect anything but their own pockets. The run-off has contaminated the water supplies of rural communities, and the products that are available in any market USA today contains very little nutrition or variety. It's the epitome of "The Illusion of Choice" in action.
It's not nice to try and fool Mother Nature - it's wrong, it's not normal or natural, it's making people sick .... and now, it's probably extinguishing the bee population worldwide. Like Wild Bill Hickok would say, "You called it."
It's a positive to read such a well thought out article in Scientific American.
As an amateur 'bug guy', I've witnesse no decline in native bee populations here in western Canada. Non-native honeybees get 'the press' but their demise is not necessarily a negative for the environment.
Bees are such a large and diverse group of insects that generalizations about their numbers can be somewhat meaningless. Also, 'more' of a species does not necessarily mean 'better'. It can mean that some other variable is out of whack.
I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, "Industrial Agriculture" (aka, Monsanto) has an answer - buy the bee research... http://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html
It's not as simple as just pesticides. Hives have continued to thrive in some heavy use areas, and wild bees are doing well in areas when honey bees are declining. Transporting hives by the hundreds per truck across the continent has increased the spread of bee parasites. Than in some areas pollution may be the culprit. This is a complex problem with no one cause.
Maybe a different approach - say it IS critical and he needs a Billion Dollars just to Startup - now he's speaking Washington Words. Someone should help, or we'll all have to learn to eat dirt.
Thanks for such a nuanced treatment of a complex subject. For all the concern about crop pollination, though, it seems as though very few resources have been put into studying the vast number of other insects that also pollinate—in many cases, far more efficiently than bees do. An interesting take on this appeared in the August 2008 issue of Gourmet (full disclosure: I edited the story). http://tinyurl.com/69f5qp
Cultivated hives are naturally feeling the effects of parasites, insecticides and environmental change more then wild hives. Multiple hives are kept in very close proximity to each other and transportation increases the import of disease.
Bee keeping was big business where I live on the Big Island of Hawaii. I say was, because all the large be keepers I know have just recently lost their entire business do to three new parasites that mysteriously appeared all at once, just a couple of years ago. Prior to that, Hawaii's bees and in particular the queens were the healthiest and gentlest bees in the world. The pressing question here in the industry is how did this happen practically overnight. Some speculate it was purposely introduced by some big business that has a reason to prevent natural pollination. A similar plight is happening in the coffee industry.
Certain companies are now proposing new rules to force coffee growers to plant only bore beetle resistant plants that were genetically modified and can only be cloned, because of beetles that were introduced just a few years ago too. They even proposed cutting down existing plantations and forcing farmers to implement these new rules. This would effectively lower the price of Hawaiian Coffee to Columbian prices, because the Specialty Coffee Association of America, which sets the price, will not allow GM coffee to be rated or compete in international coffee tasting championships.
I believe the destruction of the bee populations is following the same crooked rules as the coffee industry and will soon be followed with mechanical pollinators and factory produced seed stock that was designed to replace naturally pollinated food seeds which is a big industry here in Hawaii.
There is a testing facility on Molokai that is funded by Monsanto to do exactly that in an environment that can be most easily controlled should these experiments go wild, without threatening the whole country.
I am unaware of any major studies on wild bees here, but certainly it has become necessary.
Ha, ha! The mad scientist sits at home counting dead bees to see how many are alive. And it is so 'normal' nobody sees the insanity of it.
But then it all comes down to money, doesn't it. And money can't buy me love. :)
***
I asked a honeybee keeper what he feeds his bees over winter and he told me sugar, pure white sugar - the cheapest. I asked him if that was a nutritious replacement for the honey they would normally eat and he didn't reply - the answer is obvious.
And, with the additional loads on the bee's referred to above - and the sinister interventions alluded to, the learned scientists ask why the bees are dying? It's all that 'learnin' I think, gums up the mind.
Unfortunately, based on the current system of regulated greed, we are going to finish plundering the store before we realize we need a value system more profound than money to survive in a global society.
I have a vegetable garden in Michigan's upper peninsula. There are no apis mellifera here. My garden is pollinated by bumble bees, minor bees, and at least one other pollinator. I have never had trouble with having my crops pollinated.
I and my wife have been Bee Keepers for nearly a decade. We always have been interested in Beekeeping and when we heard of the great amount of bees virtually vanishing either by desease or pesticides or whatever we thought that NOW is a great time to get hands on info. The cost is minimal ( unless your the type who wants all the pricy gizmoes) less than a hundred dpllars for about 15,000 or 3 lbs of bees. The fact is we have learned alot about these little pollinators and though we've lost a colony or two in the past 10 years we've learned that "good pest management" is crucial. It is an investment of your money but it's extremely important that they are an investment to ALL OUR FUTURES. Our APIARY (bee hives) have been doing great and the type we care for are BUCKFAST and ITALIAN Honeybees and with proper care they will grow in numbers and provide a generous amount of honey. Bees also are benificial in helping cure certain cancers so these small but powerful creatures provide more than just pollination tho thats what we hear more of. Invest and care for one of the only insects that god put on earth that allows humans to help and manage them. BeeMan of MO.
12. thenewgreen
in reply to schism0011:51 AM 5/13/12
If only we could train these guys: http://hubski.com/pub?id=5516 to target Monsanto executives.
There have been studies that pin the use of pesticides specific to GMO technology with the decline of the Bee population. While I think Monsanto is as bad as an organization gets (think Dr. Evil... but worse) there are other factors such as climate change that are to blame.
I'm no scientist, but i´ve got a sudden idea: When the beekeepers extract the honey, they replace it whit "mane made sugar" right ? What if the problem came from that ? What if the bees "need to keep" there own honey in order to survive (like in agriculture where you leave a field alone to re-invigorate)/ OR, the man made contains something that the bees get sick off ??? Just and idea ;D
There are an estimated 1600 species of bees native to California. With the general decline of honeybees in Berkeley, where I live, native bees have taken over as pollinators for many of my flowers and fruit trees. More than a decade ago Berkeley banned the spraying of pesticides (other than B.T.) and the honeybees are making a comeback. I have a hive of long duration in a chimney that vents the burned gas from my furnace and hot water heater. I think the bees like the extra warmth. They have swarmed twice in the last ten years and this year are buzzing around my chimney, looking for the food they need. My garden supplies lots of that and they seem to be contented in their location. California has the most diverse food production of any State in the Union, and native bees are more and more the pollinators that are effective. I have asked the organic food producers about their pollinators, and they say native bees for the most part, but those farthest from spray drift have seen an increase in honey bee populations.
I agree with the theory that "Bleached white sugar may not bee the best for the bee's" but as a bee keeper we try to aide the bee's with what the regulators advise. Most if not every " Bee Keeper" does not remove "ALL" of the honey ,most of the honey is left for the colony to feed off of thru the cold or winter time. The sugar water is set in the hives to feed them when necter is not available and is primarily used for the building of the Comb so either the Queen lays her eggs in the comb or the workers fill the comb with pollen or necter and thru thier natural drying system the necter is transformed into honey. Nature has it's way of keeping them in check through other insects that can harm or destroy a hive or even over-population which makes the hive seek a less populated area called upscounding. Then comes MAN and thier extensive way of making sure thier crops are not eating by other insects, unfortunately Bees are effected and usually the bees bring back to the hives the same deadly chemicals that kill every other "Pest" in the fields. The area we live in the farmers around us have visited us to assure us the chemicals they are using are not harmful to the pollinators and the farmers are excited that we have an APIARY with nearly 200,000 Bee's close to where they are farming , the farmers even left several plots of land for us to plant a pollination food plot for our Bee's and are antisipating our Bee's will pollinate thier crops when they begin to mature. A win- win for both the farmers and the Bee's. They agree that " Our Future Flies On The Wings of Pollinators", Bee Man of Mo.
Thank you for the amazing photos of these rare bees. I have a vitex tree in my yard that has dozens of bees of all types each day. Maybe I can identify some of them now.
Where Do the Presidential Candidates Stand on Environment and Energy?
Science in an Election Year
Could Re-Wilding Avert the 6th Great Extinction? [Slide Show]
Does Congress Get a Passing Grade on Science?
Living in a Landscape of Fear: How Predators Impact an Ecosystem
It’s Time to Rethink America’s Corn System
Does cloud seeding work?
16 Comments
Add CommentIf we collectively allow the bees to become extinct, we are so through. Has anyone entertained the thought that the tragedy of Industrial Agriculture might just have something to do with it? That, ensconced in Industrial Agriculture, is the massive application of pesticides, fungicides, insecticides and some other kind of "cide" that escapes me just now. They don't call 'em "pesticides" and "insecticides" for no reason. The Powers That Be have genetically altered our fruit & vegetable plants and trees to the point where nothing is made by Mother Nature anymore - and did they really expect that not to cause a blowback?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'd venture to say that since their imperative is money, money, money; that they didn't even entertain the thought of how their experimentation would affect anything but their own pockets. The run-off has contaminated the water supplies of rural communities, and the products that are available in any market USA
today contains very little nutrition or variety. It's the epitome of "The Illusion of Choice" in action.
It's not nice to try and fool Mother Nature - it's wrong, it's not normal or natural, it's making people sick .... and now, it's probably extinguishing the bee population worldwide. Like Wild Bill Hickok would say, "You called it."
It's a positive to read such a well thought out article in Scientific American.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs an amateur 'bug guy', I've witnesse no decline in native bee populations here in western Canada. Non-native honeybees get 'the press' but their demise is not necessarily a negative for the environment.
Bees are such a large and diverse group of insects that generalizations about their numbers can be somewhat meaningless. Also, 'more' of a species does not necessarily mean 'better'. It can mean that some other variable is out of whack.
I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, "Industrial Agriculture" (aka, Monsanto) has an answer - buy the bee research...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html
It's not as simple as just pesticides. Hives have continued to thrive in some heavy use areas, and wild bees are doing well in areas when honey bees are declining. Transporting hives by the hundreds per truck across the continent has increased the spread of bee parasites. Than in some areas pollution may be the culprit. This is a complex problem with no one cause.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe a different approach - say it IS critical and he needs a Billion Dollars just to Startup - now he's speaking Washington Words.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSomeone should help, or we'll all have to learn to eat dirt.
Thanks for such a nuanced treatment of a complex subject. For all the concern about crop pollination, though, it seems as though very few resources have been put into studying the vast number of other insects that also pollinate—in many cases, far more efficiently than bees do. An interesting take on this appeared in the August 2008 issue of Gourmet (full disclosure: I edited the story). http://tinyurl.com/69f5qp
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCultivated hives are naturally feeling the effects of parasites, insecticides and environmental change more then wild hives. Multiple hives are kept in very close proximity to each other and transportation increases the import of disease.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBee keeping was big business where I live on the Big Island of Hawaii. I say was, because all the large be keepers I know have just recently lost their entire business do to three new parasites that mysteriously appeared all at once, just a couple of years ago. Prior to that, Hawaii's bees and in particular the queens were the healthiest and gentlest bees in the world. The pressing question here in the industry is how did this happen practically overnight. Some speculate it was purposely introduced by some big business that has a reason to prevent natural pollination. A similar plight is happening in the coffee industry.
Certain companies are now proposing new rules to force coffee growers to plant only bore beetle resistant plants that were genetically modified and can only be cloned, because of beetles that were introduced just a few years ago too. They even proposed cutting down existing plantations and forcing farmers to implement these new rules. This would effectively lower the price of Hawaiian Coffee to Columbian prices, because the Specialty Coffee Association of America, which sets the price, will not allow GM coffee to be rated or compete in international coffee tasting championships.
I believe the destruction of the bee populations is following the same crooked rules as the coffee industry and will soon be followed with mechanical pollinators and factory produced seed stock that was designed to replace naturally pollinated food seeds which is a big industry here in Hawaii.
There is a testing facility on Molokai that is funded by Monsanto to do exactly that in an environment that can be most easily controlled should these experiments go wild, without threatening the whole country.
I am unaware of any major studies on wild bees here, but certainly it has become necessary.
Ha, ha! The mad scientist sits at home counting dead bees to see how many are alive. And it is so 'normal' nobody sees the insanity of it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut then it all comes down to money, doesn't it. And money can't buy me love. :)
***
I asked a honeybee keeper what he feeds his bees over winter and he told me sugar, pure white sugar - the cheapest. I asked him if that was a nutritious replacement for the honey they would normally eat and he didn't reply - the answer is obvious.
And, with the additional loads on the bee's referred to above - and the sinister interventions alluded to, the learned scientists ask why the bees are dying? It's all that 'learnin' I think, gums up the mind.
Unfortunately, based on the current system of regulated greed, we are going to finish plundering the store before we realize we need a value system more profound than money to survive in a global society.
But, but, where's the data? :)
I have a vegetable garden in Michigan's upper peninsula. There are no apis mellifera here. My garden is pollinated by bumble bees, minor bees, and at least one other pollinator. I have never had trouble with having my crops pollinated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI and my wife have been Bee Keepers for nearly a decade. We always have been interested in Beekeeping and when we heard of the great amount of bees virtually vanishing either by desease or pesticides or whatever we thought that NOW is a great time to get hands on info. The cost is minimal ( unless your the type who wants all the pricy gizmoes) less than a hundred dpllars for about 15,000 or 3 lbs of bees. The fact is we have learned alot about these little pollinators and though we've lost a colony or two in the past 10 years we've learned that "good pest management" is crucial. It is an investment of your money but it's extremely important that they are an investment to ALL OUR FUTURES. Our APIARY (bee hives) have been doing great and the type we care for are BUCKFAST and ITALIAN Honeybees and with proper care they will grow in numbers and provide a generous amount of honey. Bees also are benificial in helping cure certain cancers so these small but powerful creatures provide more than just pollination tho thats what we hear more of. Invest and care for one of the only insects that god put on earth that allows humans to help and manage them. BeeMan of MO.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismight help to leave a wild flower or two (weeds) out there for them instead of cutting down every last one of them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf only we could train these guys: http://hubski.com/pub?id=5516 to target Monsanto executives.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere have been studies that pin the use of pesticides specific to GMO technology with the decline of the Bee population. While I think Monsanto is as bad as an organization gets (think Dr. Evil... but worse) there are other factors such as climate change that are to blame.
Fact remains, without bee's we are all f_c_ed.
I'm no scientist, but i´ve got a sudden idea:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen the beekeepers extract the honey, they replace it whit
"mane made sugar" right ?
What if the problem came from that ?
What if the bees "need to keep" there own honey in order to survive (like in agriculture where you leave a field alone to re-invigorate)/ OR, the man made contains something that the bees get sick off ???
Just and idea ;D
There are an estimated 1600 species of bees native to California. With the general decline of honeybees in Berkeley, where I live, native bees have taken over as pollinators for many of my flowers and fruit trees. More than a decade ago Berkeley banned the spraying of pesticides (other than B.T.) and the honeybees are making a comeback. I have a hive of long duration in a chimney that vents the burned gas from my furnace and hot water heater. I think the bees like the extra warmth. They have swarmed twice in the last ten years and this year are buzzing around my chimney, looking for the food they need. My garden supplies lots of that and they seem to be contented in their location. California has the most diverse food production of any State in the Union, and native bees are more and more the pollinators that are effective. I have asked the organic food producers about their pollinators, and they say native bees for the most part, but those farthest from spray drift have seen an increase in honey bee populations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree with the theory that "Bleached white sugar may not bee the best for the bee's" but as a bee keeper we try to aide the bee's with what the regulators advise. Most if not every " Bee Keeper" does not remove "ALL" of the honey ,most of the honey is left for the colony to feed off of thru the cold or winter time. The sugar water is set in the hives to feed them when necter is not available and is primarily used for the building of the Comb so either the Queen lays her eggs in the comb or the workers fill the comb with pollen or necter and thru thier natural drying system the necter is transformed into honey. Nature has it's way of keeping them in check through other insects that can harm or destroy a hive or even over-population which makes the hive seek a less populated area called upscounding. Then comes MAN and thier extensive way of making sure thier crops are not eating by other insects, unfortunately Bees are effected and usually the bees bring back to the hives the same deadly chemicals that kill every other "Pest" in the fields. The area we live in the farmers around us have visited us to assure us the chemicals they are using are not harmful to the pollinators and the farmers are excited that we have an APIARY with nearly 200,000 Bee's close to where they are farming , the farmers even left several plots of land for us to plant a pollination food plot for our Bee's and are antisipating our Bee's will pollinate thier crops when they begin to mature. A win- win for both the farmers and the Bee's. They agree that " Our Future Flies On The Wings of Pollinators", Bee Man of Mo.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you for the amazing photos of these rare bees. I have a vitex tree in my yard that has dozens of bees of all types each day. Maybe I can identify some of them now.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this