By
Chelsea Schilling
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
 Honeybee (photo: USDA, Rob Flynn) |
What is devastating the world's honeybees?
In what appears to be a honeybee mystery of Armageddon
proportions that has baffled scientists and beekeepers, more than
one-third of the nation's bee population is mysteriously disappearing –
and researchers warn the unexplained phenomenon threatens one-third of
the American diet.
Entire colonies of honeybees are abandoning hives and food
stores, including honey and pollen. In collapsed colonies, adult bees
mysteriously disappear, and there is no accumulation of dead bees. Even
hive pests such as wax moths and hive beetles are nowhere to be found
around affected colonies. Likewise, other honeybees are reluctant or
unwilling to rob the abandoned hives of honey.
Only days before a honeybee colony collapses, according to Bee
Culture Magazine, the colony appears to be strong and fully functional.
Then, it explains, the affliction travels like a wave through a
beeyard.
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Researchers have termed the phenomenon Colony
Collapse Disorder, a syndrome characterized by sudden disappearance of
adult honeybees in a colony.
Why should Americans care?
Experts warn
the implications for the world's agriculture are nothing to be ignored:
according to the United States Department of Agriculture, a full
one-third of the human diet depends on honeybee pollination of crops –
especially fruit, nut, vegetable
and seed production in the United States.
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The list of crops that depend on honeybees is long: almonds,
apples, apricots, avocadoes, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries,
citrus fruits, cranberries, grapes, kiwi, loganberries, macadamia nuts,
nectarines, olives, peaches, pears, plums, raspberries, strawberries,
asparagus, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers,
cantaloupe, honeydew, onions, pumpkins, squash, watermelon, alfalfa hay
and seed, cotton lint, cotton seed, legume seed, peanuts, rapeseed,
soybeans, sugar beets and sunflowers.
Ohio State University's state honeybee specialist, James Tew,
told the Dayton Daily News, "The average person should care. Bees of all
species are fundamental to the operation of our ecosystem."
Tew said if bees are unable to pollinate the nation's crops,
Americans could be forced to settle for a menu
of wheat and corn.
Cindy Kalis, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture,
told the Daily News an estimated 50 to 70 percent of hives kept by
beekeepers died during the 2009-2010 winter season. The state relies on
bees to pollinate an estimated $44 million worth of crops.
The Congressional Research Service reports bee pollination is
responsible for an estimated $15 billion to $20 billion in added crop
value annually – or 23 percent of total U.S. agriculture production in
2006. The California almond industry, worth an estimated $2 billion
annually, relies on nearly 1.5 million honeybee hives for
cross-pollination. That's approximately one-half of all honeybees in the
United States. Almonds are the top California food export and the
nation's sixth-largest food export to more than 90 countries.
Beekeepers began noticing unprecedented losses in the U.S.
honeybee population in 2006 – when 600,000 bee colonies in the U.S.
mysteriously disappeared.
 The Congressional Research Service report features this map of U.S. states reporting CCD (yellow states) as of 2009. |
The USDA's 2007-2008 progress report indicates that CCD studies
led researchers to conclude that "no single factor alone is responsible"
for CCD, prompting them to further examine a hypothesis that CCD may
be "a syndrome caused by many different factors, working in combination
or synergistically," including "an interaction between pathogens and
other stress factors." According to the USDA, researchers are focused on
the following three major possibilities:
1) pesticides that may be having unexpected negative
effects on honeybees;
2) a new parasite or pathogen that may be attacking honeybees, such
as the parasite Nosema ceranae or viruses; and
3) a combination of existing stresses that may compromise the
immune system of bees and disrupt their social system, making colonies
more susceptible to disease and collapse. Stresses could include high
levels of infection by the Varroa mite; poor nutrition due to apiary
overcrowding, pollination of crops with low nutritional value, or pollen
or nectar scarcity; exposure to limited or contaminated water supplies;
and migratory stress.