The Buzz: The Latest News

News: The Latest Buzz!
Threats to bees causing concern
The Herald.com, Australia, November 12, 2008

HONEY bees, insects crucial to human food supplies, are under serious threat.
They are battling disease, drought, pesticides, urban expansion, climate change and a mysterious plague known as colony collapse disorder.

 

 

Colonies in collapse: What's causing massive honeybee die-offs? Part 1
Penn State LIVE, November 11, 2008

As the single bee species maintained by the vast majority of beekeepers in the United States and Europe, Apis mellifera, the western honeybee, is the very essence of a keystone insect. The economic worth of this crucial honeybee — which pollinates over one hundred different fruit and vegetable crops in the United States, including oranges, apples and blueberries, as well as almond trees and animal food crops like clover — has been estimated at more than $14 billion. California’s almond orchards alone require 1.5 million hives to pollinate them, and yield over $2 billion worth of almonds. In Pennsylvania, State Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff has made it clear that “Honeybees are critical to Pennsylvania agriculture and to our state’s economy… We can’t afford to be lax in dealing with this problem.”

 

 

Call for cash to stop bee deaths
Wales Online, United Kingdom, November 11, 2008

HUNDREDS of British beekeepers in white protective suits and carrying the smokers they use to calm their bees, marched through London last week to call for help in finding out why billions of bees are dying.
They gathered outside Parliament before marching to 10 Downing Street to hand over a petition calling for more cash for research.

The British Beekeepers’ Association says one in three hives was lost in the past year, the worst in a decade of decline.

 

Floods decimated native bee habitats
Extinction threatens Yemen's 'natural Viagra'
Alarabiya.net, November 09, 2008

Yemeni honey, famed for its regenerative and healing properties, is under threat after floods destroyed thousands of beehives in the southeast, threatening the production of what is commonly known as "natural Viagra."

Deadly floods last month that killed dozens and forced thousands to flee hit the honey-producing provinces of Hadhramut the hardest and decimated beekeepers as thousands of hives were washed away.

 

British beekeepers seek help to save honeybees
Associated Press, November 05, 2008

Beekeepers swarmed Parliament and the prime minister's office on Wednesday, demanding more funds for research after the number of Britain's honey bees dropped by nearly a third in the past year.

 

Beekeepers protest over deadly parasite that has killed 2billion bees in ONE year
Daily Mail Online, United Kingdom, November 05, 2008

A survey by the BBKA found that 90,000 of the 274,000 hives in the UK – each containing around 20,000 bees – did not survive last winter and spring. It is feared another two billion could be wiped out this winter.

UK hives have been hit by the varroa mite, which feeds on the blood of developing and adult bees, making them more vulnerable to disease.

 

Bee cause
FT.com (Financial Times), November 01, 2008

Bees and beauty might not at first glance appear to go hand in hand. Yet honey and royal jelly are, thanks to their hydrating and nourishing properties, a fundamental component of many beauty products. Beeswax, meanwhile, forms the basis of several lip balms; and cult buys such as Liz Earle's Superbalm, Ren's Acacia Blossom Honey Lip Balm and the Burt's Bees range - a brand built entirely on harnessing the nourishing properties of honey, beeswax and royal jelly - would not exist without the hard work of the honeybee.

 

Plea for more research cash as two billion bees die from rampant disease
Telegraph.co.uk, November 01, 2008

The British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) has calculated that up to two billion bees succumbed to sickness between November 2007 and April 2008, with a similar number expected to be wiped out by the end of this winter.
It wants ministers to increase the £200,000 currently spent on the research of bee health to £8 million over the next five years.

 

Plight of bee causes buzz in Brussels
FEARS GROW THAT DECLINE IN NUMBERS COULD HIT PRODUCTION OF CROPS
The Press and Journal, UK, October 28, 2008

THE European Commission has been told to come forward with comprehensive plans to prevent any further decline in bee numbers across Europe.

MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee are also to seek a full parliamentary debate on the issue as worries grow about the impact the fall in bee numbers could have on crop production.

Committee members were united on the need for efforts to be stepped up to protect the bee population which has been ravaged in recent years by the deadly varroa mite, increasing disease issues and a mystery problem known as colony collapse disorder.

 

Seeking a blood-sucking mighty mite
B.C. researchers hope to halt global honeybee decline
The Vancouver Sun, Canada, October 24, 2008

Genome B.C. is launching a $2.8-million research project it hopes can halt the dramatic worldwide decline in bees.
The project is expected to take three years. It aims to identify strains of bees that are genetically resistant to certain types of infection.
Over the past few years, bees have been dying off at an unprecedented rate.

 

The mite that could kill our bees
A tiny predator, the varroa mite, is wreaking massive havoc on bee populations worldwide and it's only a matter of time before it reaches Australia, say experts.
ABC Science, Australia, October 23, 2008

While Australia's isolation and strict quarantine controls have been effective in keeping the mite out so far, most experts believe that it's just a matter of time before it penetrates Australia, with devastating results.

 

Honeybees still at risk
ScienceNews.org, October 23, 2008

One of the more recent findings, from a Pennsylvania consortium of researchers, is the observation that bees that encase some of their pollen in wax, creating an entombed red mass, face a higher risk of colony collapse disorder than bees that don’t.

 

 

Air Pollution May be to Blame for Honeybee Population Collapse
Natural News.com, October 17, 2008

Air pollution is making it harder for bees and other pollinating insects to find food, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia.

Pollutants such as ozone (smog) and nitrate radicals, formed mostly as a consequence of car exhaust, are binding with the volatile scent molecules given off by flowers, the scientists found. This chemically alters the molecules so that they no longer carry a sweet scent, and do not attract pollinating insects to plants.

 

 

Nicotine-Based Pesticide May Explain Bee Colony Collapse
InjuryBoard.com, October 17, 2008

It may be they know more in France than we do in the U.S.

There they have banned the use of a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. France, Italy, Germany and Slovenia found that the nicotine-based substance impaired the bees’ navigational and foraging abilities.

 

Mystery of lost bees points to pesticide
PalmBeachPost.com, October 16, 2008

One key difference between how the United States and France are approaching the problem is regulation of a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. On the market since the 1990s, the nicotine-based substance is in widespread use on 120 crops. But not in France, Italy, Germany and Slovenia: Those countries have banned the pesticide. Some studies have found that neonicotinoids impair bees' navigational and foraging abilities.

 

Beekeepers support a decision by the Environmental Risk Management Authority to refuse the release of another chemical treatment for the varroa honey bee mite.
Radionz.co.nz, New Zealand, October 16, 2008

Chemical company Bayer New Zealand had applied to import a product called "Checkmite plus" to control the parasite in beehives.

ERMA says it has not banned the chemical and may reassess the application if circumstances change.

 

 

Honeybee Decline Threatens English Apple Orchards
FarmingUK, October 16, 2008

In July 2008 Rowse Honey announced English Beekeepers’ Honey would run out in the supermarkets by Christmas, and with apple trees relying 90% on the honeybee for pollination, a serious threat is imminent.

 

 

National group promotes native-pollinator health
Wild species could help fill gaps left by decline in bees
Capital Press, October 09, 2008

After two years spent exploring options and defining its direction, a nationwide effort to promote the health of native pollinators is preparing to go public.

The Native Pollinators in Agriculture Work Group is an effort backed by the FFA and Turner Foundations, who engaged Natural Resource Solutions, a Maryland consultancy. With the world facing declines of both native and managed pollinators, Natural Resource Solutions gathered researchers and ag leaders to explore field strategies that benefit growers as well as pollinators.

 

 

 

Scientists breeding better bees
Central Valley Business Times, October 09, 2008

The scientists obtained importation permits from USDA-APHIS (Animal Plant Health Inspection Service) to import semen for a three-year period, 2008-2010, from three honeybee subspecies, Apis mellifera ligustica from Italy, A. m. carnica from Germany and A. m. caucasica from Turkey.

 

 

 

Farmers work to encourage native bee habitat
California Farm Bureau Federation, October 08, 2008

With honeybee populations weakened by disease and the mysterious malady known as Colony Collapse Disorder, farmers place new focus on work to benefit native pollinators. Decisions by farmers and ranchers to replace bare ground along irrigation ditches and roadways with native plants, trees and grasses, in order to encourage beneficial insects and eliminate weeds, have evolved into a movement to bring native bees back to the farming landscape.

 

 

 

Fears that bee colony disease is here
Wairarapa Times-Age, New Zealand, October 06, 2008

Fears that the devastating bee disease Colony Collapse Disorder has arrived in Wairarapa has prompted a leading beekeeper to make an appeal to farmers using sprays.

 

Beetle pesticide raises a new buzz
Beekeepers worry about effect on their hives
telegram.com, October 06, 2008

Several cited reports from beekeepers in Europe, particularly in France, suggesting that the pesticide imidacloprid contributed to a significant decline in bee populations.

 

 

Insecticide ban plea to help protect bees
Yorkshire Post, UK, October 03, 2008

The Soil Association this week called for a ban on an important group of insecticides to help stop the honey bee crisis.

The organic farming organisation said Italy had joined Germany, France and Slovenia, in clamping down on the substances in the interests of bees.

The Italian Embassy confirmed its government had banned the use of neonicotinoids and a related substance as seed treatments, although not as sprays, for reasons including feed-through into bees.

 

 

French bees find a haven in Paris
International Herald Tribune, October 01, 2008

As in the United States and in Britain, where bee colonies are dying, about 300,000 to 400,000 French hives have disappeared every year between 1995 and 2007, victims of pesticides, pollution and disease.

 

 

How predicted empty hives would mean end of the world
NEWS.scotsman.com, October 01, 2008

THEY play a vital role pollinating many of the crops we rely upon for food and are so essential that Einstein once warned if the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, humans would follow within four years.