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This is interesting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070211/ap_on_sc/dying_bees

Aww how sad, I like bees.

Yes, I like bees as well, but especially I like the fact that they conveniently pollinate many of our important plants, and are vital in the biosphere, so them all dying is not really an option for us. I have heard this story already this week, again it seems something is going wrong somewhere, but what it all means, who knows????

Galbally;551214 wrote: Yes, I like bees as well, but especially I like the fact that they conveniently pollinate many of our important plants, and are vital in the biosphere, so them all dying is not really an option for us. I have heard this story already this week, again it seems something is going wrong somewhere, but what it all means, who knows????


No idea, haven't heard of it, but I don't get about much nowadays. Varroa is

rife in Ireland, I didn't know it had got to the 'States. It's very bad news indeed,

and won't be stopped. Consider all of Ireland (or all of the 'States) "infected".

The only reason that there are still stocks in the UK now is that beekeepers are

using the various methods of control available, which are a) many, and b) not

100% effective. If there were no beekeepers, I should go so far as to say that

there would be no honey bees at all now. Bumble bees, etc., don't suffer from

these mites. Over the last what - 15 years, perhaps - I have noticed the huge

decline in honey bees in the UK (I became interested in these insects fairly early

on in life). If you see honey bees in the UK nowadays, it means that somewhere,

within (most likely) a five mile radius of your sighting, there is a beekeeper.

The article mentioned seems to me to implicate some sort of gross and acute,

possibly new, infection, along the lines of one of the foul brood conditions, o

possibly (and more likely) a pesticide of some sort. I hope the cause is cleared

up very soon, so that some sort of action can be taken.

Edit: I re-open this, having read the news item again, with some concern, to

say that it looks most like some form of poisoning - pesticides, new crops, or

*something*. I'd bet real £ against it being a mite, before next week, anyway.

In the meantime, statements such as "Now people think that they may have

had this three or four years" don't ring true, unless beekeepers have suddenly

started wearing blinkers.

Bill Sikes;551271 wrote: No idea, haven't heard of it, but I don't get about much nowadays. Varroa is

rife in Ireland, I didn't know it had got to the 'States. It's very bad news indeed,

and won't be stopped. Consider all of Ireland (or all of the 'States) "infected".

The only reason that there are still stocks in the UK now is that beekeepers are

using the various methods of control available, which are a) many, and b) not

100% effective. If there were no beekeepers, I should go so far as to say that

there would be no honey bees at all now. Bumble bees, etc., don't suffer from

these mites. Over the last what - 15 years, perhaps - I have noticed the huge

decline in honey bees in the UK (I became interested in these insects fairly early

on in life). If you see honey bees in the UK nowadays, it means that somewhere,

within (most likely) a five mile radius of your sighting, there is a beekeeper.

The article mentioned seems to me to implicate some sort of gross and acute,

possibly new, infection, along the lines of one of the foul brood conditions, o

possibly (and more likely) a pesticide of some sort. I hope the cause is cleared

up very soon, so that some sort of action can be taken.

Edit: I re-open this, having read the news item again, with some concern, to

say that it looks most like some form of poisoning - pesticides, new crops, or

*something*. I'd bet real £ against it being a mite, before next week, anyway.

In the meantime, statements such as "Now people think that they may have

had this three or four years" don't ring true, unless beekeepers have suddenly

started wearing blinkers.


Yes, I know about the Varroa problem a bit (I have a friend who is interested in bee keeping and he was telling me about it). It is in Ireland now, yes, and its caused huge problems, I don't think this situation in the states is the same thing, but yes, anything destroying large populations of bees, is bad news, I dunno, its very hard to judge what its about, but no doubt its not very good for anyone that it is.

It was kind of weird, I thought, when I first heard this news. Because right before they mentioned this mysterious illness with these bees, the news was saying the U.S. trained these bees to be bomb sniffers. Which is wild in my opinion, but still, the illness happens around the same time as that announcement. wow.