Perpetual Innovation

Category: colony collapse

  • Bees in Peril. Costco Connection – July 2017

    The Costco Connection – July 2017 – Page 34-35:

    Bees in Peril: Working together to find a solution

    What to do when the canary (bees) stops singing (buzzing)?

    This is a great (short) overview of where we stand on bee front, written by Stephanie Ponder. (You gotta wonder if that’s a pseudonym!:0)

    This should worry people everywhere for soooo many reasons. The economic impact of a massive, or total loss of bees, is obvious. But bees are simply an indicator of our unhealthy impacts. It’s like amphibians (frogs). Frogs live in both the water and the land, so a little pollution in one or both, can totally wipe them out…. giving a strong indicator of what destruction a lot of pollution will do.

    Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is not so much the problem anymore. The big killer now is the vorroa mite.

    We still having a die-off of 40% of the bees each year, continuing to make a huge challenge for the beekeepers to maintain and replenish. This is hard to wrap the mind around. Imagine, that 40% of your cattle crop died each year. Beekeepers are going through some major gymnastics to try to replenish the hive(s) each year.

    The 4Ps are pests (vorroa mite), pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition.

    Massive monoculture like almonds are providing poor nutrition (and no diversity). The article compares the mono-crop of flowers to a human diet of 100% steak. Farmers are introducing (or not killing) flowers and wild-flowers among the mono-crop. This also suggests that the monocrop itself is not so healthy.

    SustainZine has prior blogs related to CCD and healthy Bees. Think of bees as the Canary in the Coal Mine. When the canary dies, its a pretty strong hint that all is no longer well in the mine; when the bees die en mass, all is not well on the land.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Efforts Grow to Take the Sting Out of the Bee Die-Off – WSJ

    Efforts Grow to Take the Sting Out of the Bee Die-Off – WSJ:

    Generally, the topics discussed here aim to look at the sustainability of trends or activities. CCD is worrisome on many levels of sustainability.

    This is an interesting update on the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) of bee hives world wide.

    Look at the ugly research related to the mix of pesticides and fungicides that seem to cause the demise of bee hives. (See prior SustainZine blog on this.)

    It is interesting that the consumer seems largely unaware of this very, very serious problem. To mix he metaphors, bees are the canary in the coal mine of world agriculture. Those things that will kill the bees, may also kill the rest of us over time… assuming that the demise of the world’s pollinators does not wipe out the food supply first.

    There are so very many issues related to mono-cultures. That is the miles and miles of a single crop. Without diversity, massive amounts of pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides, etc. are needed. When something does get through the defense barrier they can get out of control quickly. The weevil in the cotton, the greening in the oranges, the pollinators in the almonds. Amphibians like frogs are interesting to watch, they can be totally wiped out based on what is happening with the water, with the land, or both. The death of the piglet litters?

    Golf courses and row crops are a biological wasteland. It takes a lot to keep one croup growing in an area, and all the others out.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • ABCs: Scientists discover another cause of bee deaths, and it’s really bad news : TreeHugger

    Scientists discover another cause of bee deaths, and it’s really bad news : TreeHugger:

    The ABCs of colony collapse among Bees appears to be really, really ugly. Well, it has been ugly, but know we know a little more about it, vs. being mainly in the dark.

    This current research seems to find that a combination of pesticides and fungicides reduces the immune system of bees.

    This story summarizing the research is just filled with horrible little nuggets. On average the bee pollen they studied had 9 different special ingredients in the pollen cocktails taken live from California.

    Worse, much of the pollen comes from the “wild”, not harvest crops.

    However, finally knowing more about the cause will help hugely in addressing this critical issue (for diversity and food crops).

    Remedies of better use and control of pesticides/fungicides seems obvious. But organic methods should help a little or a LOT.

    ‘via Blog this’