Bees! Tiny little winged providers of both stings and sweet, sweet honey! Also, apparently, tiny little supercomputers in their own right! (no, really!). There’s just one problem with bees. They appear to be dying out. There have been plenty of theories as to why this is so, and the latest comes to what seems like a rather obvious conclusion.
The theories have run from some kind of disgusting fungus/virus hybrid to our mobile phone signals being the cause for their rapid and untimely demise.
Science Daily reports that the rapid decline in bee populations may in fact be down to the use of particular insecticides that infest both the soil when used on crops as well as being released into the air in clouds of talc for up to two years after planting. The idea is that the insecticides are able to float around the crops evenly and stick to the seeds. It’s just that they appear to be sticking to the bees as well. One thing that bees are good at is transporting tiny grains of.. well, anything, although the bees would really rather prefer pollen if given the choice — and this would explain why bee colonies far and wide are dying out. After all, who could predict that chemicals designed to kill insects would kill insects?
[Science Daily via Slashgear]
Image via wherethebeesat
John
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:14 PMWasn’t this issue settled a few weeks back and it was due to some parasite fly laying eggs inside the bees.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/05/scientists_parasite_zombie_bees/
Timmahh
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:25 PMThere are many different reasons killing off bees in different parts of the world, but the biggest killer was not known till now (apparently) somehow I doubt the answer will be so easy to instate!
John
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:18 PMAfter all, if it were due to pesticide why aren’t Australian bees effected?
We’re making lots of money exporting bees to the US and other effected countries.
Blake
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 6:40 PMI smell conspiracy brewing!
Scott
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 8:41 PMNo that was me. sorry, I had curry for lunch.
Mick
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 9:57 PMApiarists in Australia inform canola growers nearby that they have hives in the area, the growers let them know if they are spraying and the apiarist shifts the bees to safety to avoid the chemical. The registered insecticides in Aus dont have a residual much longer than a week.
Im an agronomist and have helped many apiarists doing this and its very successful.
Brad
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 2:07 AMWhat about systemic pesticides? Pesticides that are within the plants themselves. Watch “Vanishing of the Bees”…..
Greg
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:22 PMWish the same could be said for wasps.
I have spent waaay too much time recently killing wasps..
I’m starting to run out of lynx deoderant, and my lighter is running out of gas …..
Timmahh
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:31 PMWithout Bees we will quickly lose a massive range of foods that require pollination and end up with mainly tubers and such. In china there is a province that grows pears by the ton and they hand fertilise all of their crops. That would never work in western countries.
John
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:40 PMBig tomato glass houses in northern NSW they hand pollinate, so I guess it does work in western countries too :)
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2011/s3395681.htm
Timmahh
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 6:00 PMOk smartass lets see you pollinate an entire crop of apples or oranges or any large plantation that use bees!
Sean
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 6:58 PMMany tomatoes aren’t pollinated by bees. Commercial varieties self pollinate and in a greenhouse with no wind to vibrate the pollen off they need a hand. Hence vibrating wands.
alien
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:37 PMone word: MONSATO
two more words: Super bees
Have a look at what this sinister company has in plan for the bee population of the world….
Doo
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 4:34 AM+1!
Josh
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 4:54 PMJust as a side note, the word Apocalypse does not apply to mass genocide or anything like that. Apocalypse literally means “the lifting of the veil” and is normally associated with a great change in human understanding, the first of which is widely regarded to be when Adam and Eve sampled fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and succumbed to their raw human instincts, depending on what you believe. Anyway the title of this article should probably be Bee-acide or Bee-Mageddon.
Alex Kidman
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 6:11 PMLiterally in the original Greek, sure. But its general English meaning applies to events of mass devastation, and I think it fits in fine in the headline as it is.
Then again, I may be biased… or perhaps bee-ased.
christian
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 9:04 PMi prefer bee-mageddon
Namarrgon
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 5:26 PMI thought pesticides had been previously ruled out because there were colony collapses that had occurred in areas far removed from pesticide use. Has this been addressed? The article didn’t mention it.
Prometheus
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 7:42 PMWe’re ruining our planet so darn fast, it’ll soon be impossible to reverse the damage & no business cares! All they care about is their stupid short term profits which are all “executive bonuses.”
Fuck you very much, Monsanto! Burn in something similar to hell, maggots!
Brad
Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 2:10 AMAgreed, could there be any more sinister company than monsanto. And now they are looking to genetically modify bees as well! They’ve just quietly acquired bee researchers Beeologics…