[Pollinator] Washington Post: Have You heard the Buzz?

[Jennifer Tsang]

Have You Heard the Buzz?
Honeybees Are Disappearing, and Some Crops Could Be Affected

Monday, June 11, 2007; C12

America's honeybees are being attacked by a mysterious killer, and unless
someone or something stops it soon, it could greatly affect what's on your
dinner plate.

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of our tastiest
flowering crops. These plants need pollination to reproduce.

In fact, one-third of our diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the
honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture says. Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend
on bees.

So if their decline worsens, we could be "stuck with grains and water" to
eat, said Kevin Hackett, who works with the department's bee and pollination
program.

Now You See Them, Now You Don't

There have been widespread bee die-offs before, but this one is especially
baffling and alarming.

U.S. beekeepers have lost more than a fourth of their 2.4 million honeybee
colonies in recent months -- five times the normal annual loss -- because of
what's being called colony collapse disorder.

No one knows what's causing adult bees to abandon their hives suddenly,
leaving their young to die along with the queen and her helpers.

Possible causes include a fungus, bacteria, virus or chemical sprayed on
plants to kill harmful insects -- or a combination of these factors.

German researchers blamed cellphones for messing with bees' ability to find
their way back to their hives. U.S. bee experts don't buy that explanation,
though.

Colony collapse disorder, first noticed in November, has spread to more than
35 states as well as Canada, Europe and South America.

America's honeybees already were in trouble. Their numbers have been
steadily shrinking because they aren't well-equipped to fight poisons and
disease. Mites nearly wiped them out in the 1990s before chemists figured
out how to kill the pesky parasites.

Can honeybees bounce back again? "We'll know probably by the end of the
summer," Hackett said.

Keeping Busy as, Well, a Bee

Of the 17,000 known species of bees, honeybees are the workhorses. They
pollinate many types of plants and recruit other bees to help. Their efforts
add about $15 billion a year in value to our food supply, a congressional
study said.

Migratory honeybees, which are moved from farm to farm to pollinate in
fields and orchards, appear hardest hit by colony collapse. California
almonds are just one crop that needs these bees in order to produce fruit.

Not all scientists fear a food crisis because of the shrinking bee
population, but lots of researchers are trying to solve the mystery.

"The problem," said Jeff Pettis, the Department of Agriculture's bee expert,
"is that everyone wants a simple answer. And it may not be a simple answer."

-- Associated Press

C 2007 The Washington Post Company

 

Jennifer Tsang
Coevolution Institute <http://coevolution.org> 
423 Washington St. 5th Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94111-2339
T: 415.362.1137

F: 415.362.3070

www.nappc.org

www.pollinator.org

 

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