4 ms·

Pesticides wipe out beehives all the time. One of my hives was destroyed last year.

by andyl 13y ago

sologoub 13y ago
If you are in the business, perhaps you can provide some perspective on this. According to news reports for the last few months, there has been an epidemic of bees dying off. Can't recall for sure, but figures of 40%-75% loss have been floating around. If true, this seems very significant. If we leave out the obvious emotional negatives, the economic fall out could be monstrous in the form of much higher prices and severe supply constraint on everything from fruit/pollinator-dependent food, to honey and products made from honey/beeswax. Not to mention farms going out of business due to poor harvest.
- tjohns 13y ago
  This has been going on for more than a few months -- at least since 2006. Some countries are starting to ban the insecticides suspected to be responsible. More info: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder
  - sologoub 13y ago
    Fascinating... and I'm guessing there isn't any immediate action to limit the use of the suspected substance?
    - tjohns 13y ago
      Well, like I said... there are some countries (EU) that are starting to regulate these pesticides, at least on a trial basis. But over here in the US, not really. Partly this is because we've only relatively recently started to get good insight into the problem. And it's still controversial. For a long time, we thought it might be caused by a disease or parasite; these are a big concern for beekeepers and an easy way to lose a hive under normal circumstances. There's even some theories that claim it's caused by feeding the bees high-fructose corn syrup. This is a common practice to support hives during the winter, to make up for the honey reserves removed during the summer. These pesticides are strongly suspected to interfere with bees, but we're still not sure they're the cause of CCD. It will be worth watching what happens in the EU.
- andyl 13y ago
  I'm not 'in the business' - just have a couple hives in my yard. The epidemic, sometimes called 'Colony Collapse Disorder', has been in the news for years. IMHO this seems especially to have hit commercial operators, who truck their bees all over the country. I blame it on the pesticides and the trucking. The pesticides are nasty for sure. Its horrible to see an entire hive die off.
  - sologoub 13y ago
    Thanks for clarifying and sorry about the hive.
    - will_brown 13y ago
      I founded a vampire themed energy drink, which used honey as its main ingredient. To fill orders I contracted a local honey bottler in Homestead, FL (Bee Natural Honey). For what its worth I talked to the bottlers about the health of bees, and they felt Dade-County was a great place to study this because after the "real estate bubble", Dade-County cut funding for Summer time spraying of mosquitoes - in the opinion of my private honey bottlers during this period bees were healthier, and they had the benefit of experiencing Dade-County reallocating a mosquito spraying budget to experience the reintroduction of the same variable. Clearly this is second hand info and not backed by any data I have seen, so it should be taken with a grain of salt, and I do not even know if what Dade-County uses to spray for mosquitoes is related to neonicotinoids, but I thought you may find their take interesting.
      - sologoub 13y ago
        Sadly, I'm sure there have been a number of similar experiences and controlled experiments conducted, but when it comes to $$$ common sense is rarely that common.

Pesticides wipe out beehives all the time. One of my hives was destroyed last year.

by andyl 13y ago

Pesticides wipe out beehives all the time. One of my hives was destroyed last year.

If you are in the business, perhaps you can provide some perspective on this. According to news reports for the last few months, there has been an epidemic of bees dying off. Can't recall for sure, but figures of 40%-75% loss have been floating around. If true, this seems very significant. If we leave out the obvious emotional negatives, the economic fall out could be monstrous in the form of much higher prices and severe supply constraint on everything from fruit/pollinator-dependent food, to honey and products made from honey/beeswax. Not to mention farms going out of business due to poor harvest.

tjohns 13y ago
This has been going on for more than a few months -- at least since 2006. Some countries are starting to ban the insecticides suspected to be responsible. More info: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder
- sologoub 13y ago
  Fascinating... and I'm guessing there isn't any immediate action to limit the use of the suspected substance?
  - tjohns 13y ago
    Well, like I said... there are some countries (EU) that are starting to regulate these pesticides, at least on a trial basis. But over here in the US, not really. Partly this is because we've only relatively recently started to get good insight into the problem. And it's still controversial. For a long time, we thought it might be caused by a disease or parasite; these are a big concern for beekeepers and an easy way to lose a hive under normal circumstances. There's even some theories that claim it's caused by feeding the bees high-fructose corn syrup. This is a common practice to support hives during the winter, to make up for the honey reserves removed during the summer. These pesticides are strongly suspected to interfere with bees, but we're still not sure they're the cause of CCD. It will be worth watching what happens in the EU.
andyl 13y ago
I'm not 'in the business' - just have a couple hives in my yard. The epidemic, sometimes called 'Colony Collapse Disorder', has been in the news for years. IMHO this seems especially to have hit commercial operators, who truck their bees all over the country. I blame it on the pesticides and the trucking. The pesticides are nasty for sure. Its horrible to see an entire hive die off.
- sologoub 13y ago
  Thanks for clarifying and sorry about the hive.
  - will_brown 13y ago
    I founded a vampire themed energy drink, which used honey as its main ingredient. To fill orders I contracted a local honey bottler in Homestead, FL (Bee Natural Honey). For what its worth I talked to the bottlers about the health of bees, and they felt Dade-County was a great place to study this because after the "real estate bubble", Dade-County cut funding for Summer time spraying of mosquitoes - in the opinion of my private honey bottlers during this period bees were healthier, and they had the benefit of experiencing Dade-County reallocating a mosquito spraying budget to experience the reintroduction of the same variable. Clearly this is second hand info and not backed by any data I have seen, so it should be taken with a grain of salt, and I do not even know if what Dade-County uses to spray for mosquitoes is related to neonicotinoids, but I thought you may find their take interesting.
    - sologoub 13y ago
      Sadly, I'm sure there have been a number of similar experiences and controlled experiments conducted, but when it comes to $$$ common sense is rarely that common.