[Pollinator] Disorder Stings Bee Population

Tue Sep 4 08:15:31 PDT 2007

 Disorder stings bee population
 By Angela Moscaritolo, For the Herald Standard
09/03/2007

Updated 09/04/2007 12:06:04 AM EDT

(Scroll down - the article is down there!)

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John O'Laughlin of Dawson examiness bees in one of his hives. O'Laughlin has 
lost 20 of 48 bee hives to the Colony Collapse Disorder. (Ken 
Brooks/Herald-Standard)
It's been a bad year for beekeepers, and consumers could still get stung down 
the road.

Honeybee populations have declined by 25 percent in recent months. The Colony 
Collapse Disorder (CCD) has left Pennsylvania beekeepers stumped as to why 
many of their bees seem to have vanished and worried about the effects that the 
epidemic could have.

Over the past beekeeping season, John O'Laughlin of Dawson said he lost about 
20 of his 43 honeybee hives.

"They're just gone," O'Laughlin said. "The colony is just dead, you don't 
find anything."

And O'Laughlin is not alone.

"One of our larger beekeepers lost 2,000 of 3,000 colonies in a month," said 
Dennis Van Engelsdorp, acting state apiarist.

Beekeepers will find a colony completely empty, devoid of even dead bees. 
They are leaving the hive and dying, said Engelsdorp.

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"I haven't seen losses this quickly and this extensively before," Engelsdorp 
said.

If the problem worsens, on top of just honey, Americans may be facing 
shortages of apples, peaches, berries, soybeans, almonds, avocados and many other 
crops that honeybees help pollinate. In addition, each colony of honeybees adds 
about $1,600 to the economy through the produce they help pollinate, according 
to Bonnie Hal, state apiary inspector.

With the cause of CCD unknown, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and senators Barbara 
Boxer from California and John Thune of South Dakota agreed that the problem is 
worth researching.

They introduced a legislation called the Pollinator Protection Act, which 
would provide $89 million in federal funds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
to research, protect and maintain America's bee and native pollinator 
population.

Engelsdorp said he believes that CCD is most likely attributed to 
environmental contaminates, such as pesticides; environmental stresses, such as poor 
nutrition, or known and unknown pathogens which can infect the bees. The answer 
can be a combination of these factors, also, Engelsdorp said.

Bees become exposed to pesticides when they pick it up on their hair and 
bring it back to the hive, passing it to each other. Pesticides also can be on 
pollen which bees feed on, said Robert Noel, a beekeeper in Cumberland, Md.

James Armine, professor of entomology at West Virginia University, has been 
studying the collapse of honeybee populations since 1995. He believes that 
vorrora and tracheal mites are the main culprits of CCD. These mites are about the 
size of a grain of pepper and transmit viruses to bees, weakening their 
immune systems, Amrine said.

Engelsdorp said that according to research he has helped conduct, the vorrora 
and tracheal mite have been ruled out as a cause of CCD. He agreed that other 
known and unknown pathogens could have a role in the epidemic.

Frances Rosensteel of Connellsville, co-chairwoman of the Farm Products 
Department at the Fayette County Fair, reported there were no honey entries at this 
year's fair.

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