Bees Are Dying, Scientists Have Found Out Why

[Nurb]

Good luck getting enough people to care about bees. We're screwed

 

[Foolery]

One of the chemicals they're talking about is Neonicotinoids, a known neurotoxin to insects. Not gonna lie, as someone who keeps bees, this kind of ridiculousness pisses me off. You have an insecticide that's been around for 50 years, and it takes you this long to declare that it's affecting the bees?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid

I would like to congratulate said scientists on discovering the source of every human problem ever: Lots of things. But in all seriousness this is sad/distressing. I'm somewhat curious if there's a way to attack the parasite, since it's unlikely the US is going to ban multiple pest/fungicides simultaneously.

Well, the natural solution to protect bees from parasites is start identifying bees and queens with excellent hygienic traits and raise more hives from them. There are bees that are able to clean off parasites from themselves. A lot of beekeeping is about selective breeding.

 

[Smiley Face]

I remember when Doctor Who found that the reason bee's were disappearing was because they were really aliens and they were leaving earth due to it's impending doom. Good times.

Truthfully, that's still what my money is on. I think all this pesticide nonsense is just something they've concocted to keep us distracted.

Just like global warming! ;P

The sad thing is that's probably what a lot of people are going to say. Hopefully enough countries manage to handle it soon. My guess is that American politics being what they are, the US won't be one of them - but hopefully that won't have too much of an impact on us here in Canada if we decide to tackle it.

 

[Scarim Coral]

So I guess we should try our best NOT to killed a lone bee when entering our home or in out area?

What is the reasons in the whole "no more bees mean doom for us all"? Yes I know bees make honey and most importantly collect pollent from plant to plant helping them grow but is there more to it than that?

 

[Dr. Crawver]

I thought we knew it was from chemicals? Just not which ones? Either way, we know now. And knowing is half the battle. Now we just need to actually do the hard part...

 

[Jupiter065]

It's nice to see this story finally start being picked up after more than a year. I guess Bayer (lead manufacturer of said pesticides and mult-bazillion dollar Big Evil Corp.) can only suppress it for so long.

 

[Doclector]

Yeah, this shit's bad. Hopefully, there's bee friendly alternatives, but if not, we're gonna have to take a cut to crops to avoid having no crops at all.

Been keeping tabs on this for the past few months, it is nothing new to me but is still just as disturbing. The EU has already taken steps against certain pesticides that independent studies show to be unsustainably decimating bee populations across the continent.

Is it possible that beekeepers in a managed enviroment could work to increase bee population? Effectively...mass produce bees?

 

[Weaver]

If plants cease to be pollinated basically all land life on earth will end, including humans. Go us!

 

[WanderingFool]

Yeah, this is pretty serious. Bee's don't just make delicious honey, they pollinate pretty much everything for us.

You know, when people say if bees die out, humanity would fallow... It makes me think that that would be good incentive to not fuck with bees... I think we gonna need to fix this PDFQ...

 

[nuba km]

Yeah, this is pretty serious. Bee's don't just make delicious honey, they pollinate pretty much everything for us.

actually from the insect pollinated plant bees to only a tiny fraction of pollination, well even less when it comes to honey bees (most bees are not hive animals).

Though we would end up with a limited supply of honey so I say by as much honey as you can (it never goes off) and wait for its price to sky rocket and re sell it.

 

[Callate]

Hopefully if the assessment is correct, we can mandate steps to take to turn the wave of CCD around. It's true that not all crops will be devastated if honeybees cease to pollinate, but enough will to make a serious dent in the modern commercial agriculture we depend on. And I don't particularly want to stop being able to get onions, lemons, limes, broccoli, tangerines...

 

[teqrevisited]

And now we must genetically engineer an army of vengeful killer bees bees that are immune to that parasite.

Science has unintentionally made the problem worse but it can ultimately fix it. Maybe not in the way I think of, though.

 

[xedobubble]

So I guess we should try our best NOT to killed a lone bee when entering our home or in out area?

What is the reasons in the whole "no more bees mean doom for us all"? Yes I know bees make honey and most importantly collect pollent from plant to plant helping them grow but is there more to it than that?

If bees go extinct, the primary pollinator of plant life is gone, which means a massive dropoff in the plant life that supports the entire ecosystem. That's bad. It also might mean global famine on an unprecedented scale. That's worse.

 

[omega 616]

There is nothing more cute than a big ol' bumble bee viewed through a nice HD screen .... but if that sucker is in my presence it can't die quick enough!

I guess the bee keeping scientists will end up kicking the "fuck the insects" scientists asses, all the while shouting "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?".

Bees are some bad ass mother fuckers!

Captcha: Numa numa ...been awhile since I thought about that!

 

[Miyenne]

This is something I've been following lightly for a long time. It's rather frightening.

I'm not a hippy or anything, but I'm fine with less pesticides and such for food. I understand that a certain quota has to be maintained, but less chemicals won't hurt anyone. Except maybe the farmers in their income...

I grow lots of my own vegetables. A spot on it? I either cut it off, or shrug and eat it anyways. Bugs on my plants, mould on the soil? Lots of natural ways to get rid of them that take very little effort.

A little more effort on the farmer's part will help a lot.