Bee decline threatens our dinner and the countryside

[Lisa]

move over peek oil, we have another disaster

Bee decline threatens our dinner and the countryside

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/08/2007
Page 1 of 3

Bees are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. This could not only have a devastating impact on our food supplies, but could also turn our brightly-coloured meadows into grey hinterlands. Jimmy Lee Shreeve reports


Threatened: More and more bees are disappearing
"This year, right now, it feels very bleak," said Ben Darvill, a conservation researcher at the University of Stirling and co-founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. He was talking about the serious decline in bees over recent years, which is now coming to a head, what with large and unprecedented losses of bees in Europe, the US and other parts of the world.

"It's urgent and we need to do something about it now," he continued. "But all too often people notice the importance of something when it's not there - when it's too late."

Before speaking to Darvill I'd been sitting outside on my homemade garden bench having an early lunch, bees buzzing merrily all around me. What with its long grasses and wildflowers my garden is something of a haven for bees and other insects.

If I'm honest they benefit from my laziness. I rarely mow the lawns and allow weeds and whatever seeds the birds and breeze bring in to grow as nature intended - with wild abandon.

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But as Darvill told me about the plight of our bees I realised with a shudder that many of the things we take for granted - the colourful blazes of wildflowers in our meadows, even much of the food on our plates - would not be around if it wasn't for them.

It's easy to forget that bees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the flowering crops we rely on for food. Among them: apples, nuts, pears, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers and cucumbers. Along with citrus fruit, peaches, kiwis, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and melons.

Crops like oilseed rape (increasingly used in biofuels), alfalfa, peas, runner beans and broadbeans also rely on visits by bees and other pollinating insects to improve the quality and quantity of fruits and seeds produced.

It's hard to believe that one small creature can be so important to our food supply. But as Brian Latham, chair of the Leeds Beekeepers Association, points out: we've become almost terminally disconnected from the natural world we live in and how it feeds us.

"We get our food from supermarkets and think little more about it," he says. "Very few of us are as aware as our grandparents were of the connection between what's on our dinner plates and the intricate workings of nature."

Albert Einstein was well aware of this connection. When it came to bees, he put it in no uncertain terms: "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."

Chillingly, more and more bees are disappearing off the face of the Earth. In some areas of the UK honeybee numbers have dropped by as much as 80 per cent, while bumblebees across the country have declined by 60 per cent since 1970.

In both cases this is largely due to loss of wild habitats, intensive farming and overuse of pesticides and herbicides. The simple truth is that bees need flowers, and there are very few flowers to be found in the farmed countryside these days.

In the USA, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) - where whole colonies disappear or die - has caused a devastating loss of honeybees. Since it broke out last autumn, declines of between 30 per cent and 90 per cent of honeybee populations in at least 27 states have been recorded. There have also been reports of CCD in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.

One beekeeper in London found over half of his hives mysteriously abandoned, leading many to speculate that CCD has broken out here. But the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is adamant it is not occurring in Britain.

Echoing the concerns of beekeepers across the country, Tim Lovett, chairman of the British Beekeepers Association, warns that it would be "foolhardy in the extreme" for the government to ignore the possible emergence of CCD in Britain.

More on pages 2 and 3.

[CaptainChewbacca]

So, its a DISEASE that is wiping out the bee colonies? I know they've been disappearing for some time now, but that it could be a disease is, well, shocking.

[Master of Cards]

So, its a DISEASE that is wiping out the bee colonies? I know they've been disappearing for some time now, but that it could be a disease is, well, shocking.

It sounds like a over lapping thing where the people can't figure out what when wrong so they lump them together. They don't say what CCD is so I assume its like what e call the stomach flu and mental dieses by their symptoms not by whats causing them.

[Duckie]

Gentlemen.

We have reached PEAK BEE.

The Doompocalypse awaits!

[Edi]

At the start of summer, we had record numbers of wasps, bees and bumblebees around here. As of a three weeks ago, almost all of them had vanished throughout the country, a decline of 60 to 80 percent depending on species and locality. It's possible it's casued by some kind of disease or parasite that came from some part of the world with some shipment of foodstuffs and can be spread by humans into the environment. I hope this is temporary.

[Keevan_Colton]

Here I'd put it more with fucked up weather patterns. The fruit on the trees in my garden have all turned and fallen...in July...they normally dont fall until towards the end of september.

We had the problem with the hedgehogs earlier in the year too, waking up from hibernation before their food sources existed...and another problem with some butterflies relating to a disconnect between hatching times and the flowering times of food sources.

Of course the notion that the climate is changing is all a liberal lie by the folks working for the UN in black helicopters.

[Pollux]

Well, fuck.

I hope you like potatoes and cabbage.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

It appears that it is most likely caused by the introduction of new Nicotine-based pesticides which were implemented to reduce harm to people and birds from pesticides, ironically enough, and the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup to be fed to bees to supplement their winter supply stocks. The interaction of these two recent developments appears to be proximate cause of these die-offs. Fortunately it's easily remedied, but it goes to show how fucking stupid we are about the environment.

[Dooey Jo]

I hope this is temporary.

Except for the wasps. Would anyone really miss those fuckers?

[Drooling Iguana]

Why're the killer bees taking so long to get here, anyway? We could really use them right about now.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Why're the killer bees taking so long to get here, anyway? We could really use them right about now.

They stopped, for some reason. Nobody really knows why, but I remember the whole 'They'll take over california in 3 years' scare.

[Max]

I hope this is temporary.

Except for the wasps. Would anyone really miss those fuckers?

I'm confused, are you going to miss wasps over fuzzy gentle bumblybees?

[FSTargetDrone]

Why're the killer bees taking so long to get here, anyway? We could really use them right about now.

They stopped, for some reason. Nobody really knows why, but I remember the whole 'They'll take over california in 3 years' scare.

Heh. I remember this from years ago, too. I was pretty young at the time and thought I'd have to spend my springs and summers indoors!

We have some flowers outside out apartment and just after I looked at this thread yesterday I actually noticed a few honey bees visiting the flowers.

I wonder if this issue would be helped by everyone setting out lots of flowering plants?

[Mange]

It was reported this morning that the bee death has struck Sweden as well.

[Dooey Jo]

I hope this is temporary.

Except for the wasps. Would anyone really miss those fuckers?

I'm confused, are you going to miss wasps over fuzzy gentle bumblybees?

No damnit. I hope it's temporary, except for the wasps, who can stay dead for all I care.

It was reported this morning that the bee death has struck Sweden as well.

It's anecdotal, but I have only seen three wasps this summer, and not very many bees. We have plenty of bumblebees though, and they seem to live under our house...

[NoXion]

I've seen a wasp or two and a couple of bumblebees the past week here in the UK.

[Hillary]

A very slow spring for bees and wasps in my garden in London. However, both have become much common in recent weeks.

I rather suspect, as Keevan does, that it is the weather that is responsible. It didn't rain at all in April, which is normally very wet, and rained non-stop in May, June and July (which are normally drier). Temperature-wise, it has also been much colder than normal. It has, however, warmed up in the last couple of weeks and more insects are in evidence.

Incidentally Gnats/mosquitos/midges (call them what you want) have been noticeable by their absence this year.....until the weather got back on track in the last week or so and now they're fucking everywhere.

Wasps do actually have some use - in spring and early summer they help control grubs and maggots by collecting them for the nest. In August, their work is done and they go on a sugar hunt (they especially love beer )

[Mange]

It's anecdotal, but I have only seen three wasps this summer, and not very many bees. We have plenty of bumblebees though, and they seem to live under our house...

I've only seen two wasps myself.

They've downplayed the 'bee death' (or Colony Collapse Disorder) here in Sweden, but the Swedish Board of Agriculture says that about a thousand bee keepers have been affected. The Varroa mites has been identified by some bee keepers here as the cause of the disease (which, according to an article, are also suspected to be the cause in the US and elsewhere).

[andrewgpaul]

I think all the bees are here. The tree outside my kitchen window was hoaching with the little fuzzy blighters earlier in the year. Plus, I rescued one from the floods in the south of England last month

[Elaro]

From a rough analysis of the presence of bees in my hometown of Pointe-Claire (West of Montreal), I can say that bees do, in fact, still live and fly around. However, I don't know if their numbers are abnormal, because I didn't observe them last year.

Also, I second the motion to let wasps burn in Hell. Bloody bastards stung me one too many times!

[Lisa]

Wasps also go after other insects... so as long as they leave me alone outside and stay out of my house, it's all good.

[Spin Echo]

Anyone know if the firefly population is on the decline? We used to see massive numbers of fireflies in the woods behind my parent's house. The past couple summers we've only seen a few. I thought it was just some local environmental upset, but this makes me wonder if it's a more widespread phenomenon.

[Battlehymn Republic]

I smell another "Global" dystopia epic in the making!

[Dartzap]

What a load of codswallop. I've been running away from loads of bee's for the last few weeks....

[Hillary]

I think all the bees are here. The tree outside my kitchen window was hoaching with the little fuzzy blighters earlier in the year. Plus, I rescued one from the floods in the south of England last month

You too. Mrs Hillary insisted we fish a bee out of the local duckpond, placed it on some clover and stood over it whilst it recovered enough to fly away.