Bees Are Dying, Scientists Have Found Out Why

[Saulkar]

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

Essentially as far as I know, bee farms require adjacent agricultural farms or plant life on the same scale to be sustainable. It is not just the bees but the devastation on crops in general that do not get pollinated as frequently by other animals and insects. Even if you mass produce bees in a closed off environment you still need them to pollinate crops that are otherwise toxic to them and thus crops die. Once again, as far as I know, this has already happened in places in Europe and thus the EU was willing to listen to independent studies and follow through with their advice because the effects were already visible.

 

[AdamG3691]

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.

that's already been done, killer bees were an attempt to make a mild tempered bee that was more resilient... they got the theoretical offspring of bee-terminator and bee-hitler instead... on the plus side, they're VERY resilient, so partial success I guess?

 

[rbstewart7263]

Stop using PESTICIDES! Plenty of evidence suggest that the benefits of gmos and pesticides are middling at best and nonexistant at worst. We have countries that are producing more without pesticides. Countries that have gone full organic and flourish because of it.

 

[Baresark]

It's good they discovered something, though the revelation that it's not just a single factor... well that is like a huge "duh" moment. Very seldom, if ever, is a single factor a cause for anything. People seem to like to think that's not the case, but people have a far far over reacting sense of cause and effect. Also, Bee's are the single biggest polinator, but they themselves are not responsible for all the polination. Other insects spread the pollen, birds, the wind... lots of things. Not saying that this isn't important, just saying that, like the scientists discovered themselves, a single factor is not responsible for pollination.

Also, I saw on the page 1 comments that someone mentioned that famous Einstein idea that if all the bees died, there would be 6 years left for humans on the planet. I would like to point out that Einstein's area of expertise was never biology, ecology, pretty much not an expert at anything involving bee's or the environment.

Edit: Just a point of interest. A single population of bees could potentially be enough to undo the damage, so as long as they don't all die, we're in pretty good shape. So that means fixing the problem. If we stop whatever pesticides are mostly responsible (and of course whatever other factor that we have the ability to change), the bee population could make a comeback in pretty short order. Obviously not as fast they dropped off, if only that were possible. There is even the potential to artificially expand the population. For instance, when a new Queen is grown and is sent off to start another hive, they take a sac of sperm with them (essentially). You could grow a queen and harvest sperm from a male source. Then release the new queen in a previously unpopulated area. It is really only feasible because bees are not genetically diverse creatures. For instance, the various classes of bee and ant society are just alternate phenotypes of the queen (genetically identical). The way the genetics work in bees is the queens DNA is completely dominant. Their DNA typically has what is called a genomic imprint marking all the active DNA as being from the queen... from what I have read and understood it to be at least. I could be wrong.

 

[Something Amyss]

Huh. Yea, bees going extinct would be bad. Wonder what they'll do to stop it.

This is America. We will have a robust screaming match in which Fox News proclaims this to be liberal propaganda and that bees dying is cyclical and that in the 70s people thought the bees were becoming overpopulated, and nothing will get done because the act of inaction requires no effort (except for the mental backflips it takes to get there).

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.

Yes, but The Doctor saved the day and they're still leabing. Ungrateful buggers.

And I'm still mystified by their final message to mankind: So long, and thanks for all the fish.

What? Bees don't eat fish!

Damn, it is worst then we thought.

We're going to have to ask people to be environmentally conscious.

To quote some of the greatest philosophers of all time[footnote]The Kids In The Hall[/footnote], "to change would mean...To make an effort."

That's not going to happen, so we're all screwed.

 

[LordMonty]

For the sake of honey save mah bees!!! And yea better fix this asap.

 

[1337mokro]

Ya for science! we found out what was killing all the bees!

Turns out it was science!

...........ahem.

Science is the only thing awesome enough to be the problem, the method and the... possible?... solution all at the same time.

Though seriously science get on this NAUW! My honey needs to be made! Dem bees needs to pollinate! We're risking a mass extinction of flora and Honey Loops!

 

[Goofguy]

This is some pretty scary stuff. We lose the honeybees, we lose the primary pollinators. Crazy to think that losing that insect could potentially doom our species.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I hope the lobbies play nice, otherwise no more bees.

 

[Akytalusia]

this is probably the best way to go actually. unfortunate for the bees they all have to die, but fortunate for us it's not something more painful. after this one time quiet proclamation, i'll head back into the shadow to silently root for this event to evolve beyond control.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I would sooner throw money at figuring out a way to fix this than throw money trying to fix human issues. Save the Bees! They're really amazing!

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

When I see the word "Beepocalypse" I think of a much scarier scenario that will probably eventually be played out in a SyFy Original Movie.

Not to say I don't appreciate bees, but those things are scary. Particularly since half of my family is deathly allergic to the little devils.

 

[The Funslinger]

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

Pretty amazing that such small (sometimes disliked) animals are pretty much the focal point for so much life as we no it, eh? :S

 

[lacktheknack]

Damn, it is worst then we thought.

We're going to have to ask people to be environmentally conscious.

That's not the problem.

The problem is that now we're going to have fungus-ridden hives until we find a usable fungicide... assuming abandoning current fungicides will even reverse the problem. There's a good chance it won't.

And there's the rub... "Be environmentally conscious" is not a cure all. At this point, it may be like offering sunscreen to someone with their skin peeling off from third-degree sunburn.

 

[lacktheknack]

I always wonder when bees go what would take their place, i know bees aren't the only bugs that pollinate but what would have the best shot at replacing them?

Nothing would, I don't think. Most/all bee-pollinated plants would simply die out from lack of reproduction.

You can't just suddenly give the mantle of pollination to a new species, they won't co-operate. It's like asking someone who fixes computers to fix your airplane.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Just goes to show you can never test enough. Honestly, how often is it that something thought to be harmless has caused a massive problem? Reasonably often, in my experience.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

OH GOD, NOT THE BEES!

Bees are basically the mortar that holds the ecosystem together; if they die, everything dies!

 

[deserteagleeye]

What about the hornets? If this is just as bad for those bastards I'd say it about evens out.
Disclaimer: I don't know shit about how closely related hornets are to bees in this situation.

 

[saxman234]

Why can't our pesticides kill bad bugs like hornets or mosquitoes or those africanized bees? Silly humans always killing off the wrong species!