Bees Are Dying, Scientists Have Found Out Why

[frizzlebyte]

It's likely we will take the same route as we did with DDT and ban it. Of course, then that means chemical companies have to find another fungicide that works, and then we'll find out how bad it is for another species within the next few decades.

Problem here is that the pesticide simply makes them more vulnerable to the gut parasite, who is the prime suspect. Getting rid of the pesticide won't make the parasite go away.

I've been following this problem for a while now, and I have to say it scares the crap out of me.

 

[Bob Thenecromancer]

Is it really this bad. Because there are bees everywhere where I live.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Can't wait to see people decide that their short-term profit is more important to them than the rest of the entire fucking world and its future!

Again!

That said, this isn't quite as serious as it's being made out to be - bees aren't even native to many parts of the world they live in, and those places hardly imploded due to a lack of pollination before they were introduced - but it would still fucking suck if we wiped yet something else off the face of the planet for no good reason.

 

[MrMixelPixel]

A large influx of BEEEEEEEEES ought to assist this situation!

Justttt... damn it. Why didn't I think of this. Now I have to post something stupid and obvious.

Ot: I like bees. I hope they don't die. That would be bad.

 

[Strazdas]

As a bee caretaker i found this article intresting altrough irrelevant, as bees been dieing off in europe and we dont use the same pesticides as NA, in fact there are plenty of them banned here as hazardous.

ALso everyone is panicking about bees gonig extinct but everyone forgets that there are plenty of other animals that also collect nectar and can do the job. the enviroment wont collapse if bees dissapear. sure they do help a lot, but its not a be all end all thing.

 

[Milanezi]

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

Yeah, it's like their song "we're polinators!!! we're polinatoooooors!!!" from Bug's Life at Disney Land

 

[KiKiweaky]

I dont have a clue about farming but how difficult would it be to return to the old fashioned way and not plaster out foods with chemicals anymore? If bees die we're going to be in a lot of trouble, not just for year or two but permanently

 

[Lightknight]

I dont have a clue about farming but how difficult would it be to return to the old fashioned way and not plaster out foods with chemicals anymore? If bees die we're going to be in a lot of trouble, not just for year or two but permanently

It's not difficult, it's just the yield difference. Those chemicals don't just double the food produced, we're talking multiple times.

The main reason why chemicals have to be used is because other farmers are using them. If everyone was on the same playing field then they wouldn't have to produce as much to make a living. Some products demand the commercialized volumn as well, and producing less would create a shortage.

But yes, I'd prefer the industry be a lot more regulated with this crap.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

What's this?! Bees are randomly dying due to a chemical?!
A jar of BEES will help solve that!

OT: Huh, this could get bad very fast if not sorted out soon. But then again, I'm afraid of the buggers, so I don't tend to really care about them that much

 

[kongajinken]

Why aren't the bees evolving immunity to this stuff? I thought insects were role models for evolution.

 

[KOMega]

Why aren't the bees evolving immunity to this stuff? I thought insects were role models for evolution.

We are experiencing a shortage of leaf stones at the moment.
Bees evolve with leaf stones.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

These chemicals, found in widely-use fungicides previously believed to be harmless to bees, increase a bee's susceptibility to Nosema cerenae, a parasite that has been linked to CCD. Bees in colonies with high concentrations of those chemicals were three times as likely to be infected by Nosema.

It's unclear what, if anything, can be done to stop this impending beepocalypse, but it needs to be fixed - and soon.

....

How about we stop using the fungicides?

I mean, isn't that the obvious solution? If we stop using those specific chemicals, then the bees wills top getting Nosema cerenae as often and... no more CCD. Or less CCD.

Once we stop killing them, the population should bounce back (and, if not, I'm sure some sort of bee breeding program could be put into effect).

 

[Serinanth]

These chemicals, found in widely-use fungicides previously believed to be harmless to bees, increase a bee's susceptibility to Nosema cerenae, a parasite that has been linked to CCD. Bees in colonies with high concentrations of those chemicals were three times as likely to be infected by Nosema.

It's unclear what, if anything, can be done to stop this impending beepocalypse, but it needs to be fixed - and soon.

....

How about we stop using the fungicides?

I mean, isn't that the obvious solution? If we stop using those specific chemicals, then the bees wills top getting Nosema cerenae as often and... no more CCD. Or less CCD.

Once we stop killing them, the population should bounce back (and, if not, I'm sure some sort of bee breeding program could be put into effect).

Well we have a pretty good unintentional experiment going on right now. The EU has banned the pesticides in question, the USA has not. If European bee colonies start to recover and their losses drop I would say we have a smoking gun.

 

[___________________]

More jobs for everyone. Behold the rise of the pollinators.

 

[A'tuin]

In a related story; that honey you buy in stores is not honey, but sugar and food coloring.

Yes, and we all swallow 74 spiders every night without realizing it...

Seriously though, I've visited this bee farmer and tasted the honey pretty much straight off the hive. Later on I went to the supermarket (your average low-price store) and bought some cheap honey that had the sticker "made by *the guy I visited* ". The stuff tastes exactly the same as the stuff I saw coming from the hive. So if it's financially reasonable to sell organic honey at a low price near the Arctic Circle, it wouldn't make sense to sell water and sugar as fake honey in any warmer areas, where the growing season is a lot longer.