Forget GW, wanna see something really scary?

This is, in fact, very scary. Methinks we'll be hearing a lot more about it in coming weeks and months. The really weird part of it is that the bees aren't dying. They're just gone. No bodies of dead bees are being found.

An intriguing theory, very much still a theory, is that cell phone networks might somehow be functioning to disrupt the bees navigation system (whatever that is).

Scientists are investigating this big-time, I hope.

caw

I thought this odd, and I felt the need for a "real" link. Here's one:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ratcliffe/?p=283
This article and the articles to which it links do claim it's cell phones, but that's apparently just an early possibility and not for sure. Perhaps cell phones are just one of several causes.

Congressional Research Service prepared this report (pdf) Recent Honeybee Declines

In this report (pdf) Prepared Testimony of Diane Cox-Foster, Professor Dept. of Entomology at Penn State - this is interesting:

"A unique aspect of CCD is that there is a significant delay in robbing of the dead colony by bees from other colonies or invasion by pest insects such as waxworm moths or small hive beetles; this suggests the presence of a deterrent chemical or toxin in the hive.

In colonies experiencing CCD, we have found that individual bees are infected with an extremely high number of different disease organisms. However, we have found little evidence of parasitization by varroa or tracheal mites. Many of these known bee diseases are commonly associated with stress in bees. Of particular note, we have found all adult bees in CCD colonies are infected with fungal infections. These findings may indicate that the bees are being immunosuppressed, but none of the organisms found in these bees can be attributed as the primary culprits in CCD."

Bees have reached their tipping point. I think they will find that the cause is not one particular agent but a combination of many (or all).

This YouTube link, while not discussing bees, does discuss how different chemicals in isolation do not produce harmful effects on populations but when they are found in combination the results are truly devastating.

The video is long but it is very interesting. A professor is discussing his research on frogs, their distorted and extra limbs, the effects of pesticides on the size of the individuals and how male frogs are exposed to this pesticide are developing eggs inside their testes. If you watch it, take a close look when they show the chemical structures.

Better Living Through Chemistry

"Just last week, little Emma Butterchild of Littlefield, Ohio was stung by a bee while she practiced the Pledge Of Allegiance in her backyard, so don't tell me there is evidence that they are disappearing. Go into any store in this great country of ours and see all the jars of honey on the shelves. Honey doesn't grow on trees. It's coming from somewhere. The American people know better than to listen to so-called researchers and scientists."- early draft of Bush's upcoming weekend radio address leaked by an anonymous source.

"Everything will be fine with the bees. Lock thread."
William H. Thrilly7th
4/24/07

"My fellow Americans, our salvatation is at hand. America's finest minds have assured me that the ladybug hypnosis program will, by all indications, succeed. Pollination will once again soon bless our great land. Delta Force teams will begin releasing the specially trained ladybugs across these United States at 0700 hours. They will indeed truly believe that they are bees and begin pollinating immediately. I caution all Americans to stay indoors as you will be hurt if you find yourself on the business end of one of the titanium stingers glued to the noses of the ladybugs. God bless and good luck."

President William H. Thrilly
July 3, 2027
(from the bunker)

What does "pollination" mean? It's not come kind of multiculturalism crap, is it?

Now maybe the City Fathers will back off and let me have a bee hive in my back yard!

Strike four of them off the missing bees list. I've also got a description.

One was the size of my thumb, black with a tellow tip on its tail and was an agressive, no-nonsense type.

The other three were black all over, more placid and chilled out.

They were hiding in my house. Caught the four of them on different occasions over the last few days. Hopefully they're now winging their way home after a good talking to.

The cell phone thing is at the highest level of pure conjecture. But I'm hoping it proves to be true, and that these tools of Satan are banned forever, including forcible surgical removal of those which have intergrown to people's ears as they drive.

caw

OMG - I work for a cell phone manufacturer... I wonder if they know this.

robeiae said:

What does "pollination" mean? It's not come kind of multiculturalism crap, is it?

Click to expand...

No, rob. It's a 3 way with two plants and a bee.

Do hummingbirds do significant amounts of pollination? I've got two hummingbird feeders on the front porch (with a 1-to-4 sugar-to-water mix I change out every four days), and there are a bunch of them. I can sit still on a bench about four feet away from a feeder, and within a couple of minutes they'll come right up to it. I once saw three sitting on one feeder, but if there's already one when another files in it usually gets up to chase another away. They are fascinating to watch. They've flown by within about a foot of me, but they haven't attacked me yet!

Cell phones actually operate just about all the time, checking in regularly with the nearest tower so the system knows to which tower to route an incoming call to get to the phone. If this (the RF energy related to cell phones) were determined to be the cause, I can imagine laws would be passed that cell phones could only be used for emergency calls (lost in mountain climbing, accident or flat tire in a car, that sort of thing or worse), and they would REALLY be off and unable to receive incoming calls at all times unless dialing out. This would WAY cut down the RF energy used in cell phone communications, as well as eliminate people driving while phoning, and people walking down the sidewalk talking into a little box they're holding to the side of their face.

Joe270 said:

We can dream, right? At my son's school, a lot of first graders have phones. WTF, over? For what? Calling 991 when Billy takes their Barney doll?

Click to expand...

I'm so over Barney.

It's all about Felix the Cat these days.

benbradley said:

Do hummingbirds do significant amounts of pollination?

Click to expand...

Well, they do. But they aren't food crops. Hummingbirds visit tubular shaped flowers and most veggies' flowers aren't tubular, they're open and flat.

Among the fruit trees that are largely pollinated by bees are apple, peach, plum, cherry and pear. Blackberries and blueberries are also largely dependent on bees for production. The work of bees extends to many vegetable crops that include: squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, green bean, and lima bean.
Even for crops that are largely self-pollinating, bees may have some influence. Some of these include tomato and pepper. Workers have found that cross-pollination of these crops by bees may increase fruit set in some varieties. The work of bees goes far beyond horticultural plants and influences production of seeds in alfalfa, clover, cotton, soybean, and sunflower.

There are other bees and other insects that pollinate but honeybees are by far more efficient and effective. Some bees, like bumblebees and woodboring bees are just too big to get inside flowers that have a closed shape.

Have you ever watched bees at work? Sometimes you can watch a honeybee disappear inside a flower completely. You won't even know he's in there until you see him come out. Bumblebees visit the same flower but can only get their head and front feet inside. The 'baskets' for carrying pollen are on their back legs so even though they get pollen on their front legs, they aren't designed to carry the amount of pollen their back legs are so it's not as effective.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/03/State/Scientists_ask__Where.shtml


This article suggests it might be a virus, and that a something similar but smaller happened in 1980.

Not Exactly

eldragon said:

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/03/State/Scientists_ask__Where.shtml

This article suggests it might be a virus, and that a something similar but smaller happened in 1980.

Click to expand...

"So far, the scientists know only two things for sure, said Dennis vanEnglesdorp, Pennsylvania's state apiarist: The main symptom has been the mass abandonment of hives. And the variety of fungi, viruses and mites found in collapsing hives suggests a widespread failure of the bees' immune systems. "

<snip>
The rest, at this point, is conjecture, according to the study group's preliminary report.

<snip>

The "prime suspect" for the collapse, according to Hackenberg, is an increasingly popular class of pesticides called neonicotinoids that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified as highly toxic to honeybees.
Another possible culprit, vanEnglesdorp said, is a new strain of fungus that has appeared in many of the failing hives. But both he and Hayes warned it is far too early to settle on a single cause of the outbreak.

<snip>

In the 1980s, invasive mites from South America all but wiped out the feral bee population and contributed to a steep decline in U.S. beekeeping.

In the links I provided yesterday: "we have found little evidence of parasitization by varroa or tracheal mites."

In previous 'bee events' they found dead bees. Now they are not finding dead bees, they are finding abandoned colonies - the majority of the inhabitants are just gone. In the remaining populations they are finding combinations of disease factors - fungi, viruses, and sometimes mites. Not just one thing but combinations of things.

What they are unsure about is: are the bees dying elsewhere or are they colonizing elsewhere?

Stay tuned.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_sc/bee_parasite;_ylt=ArckZenqbadLkEAL50IzGH5xieAA

This article says it's a mite.