Bees: our canaries in the coal mine?

Via whig, a fascinating and very comprehensive report on the Colony Collapse Disorder and how important bees are to our lives... actually... to us staying alive.



In brief, the article talks about how quickly CCD has spread, noted first in the US, then Europe, Brazil, Canada, Taiwan, with losses of hives up to 70% in the US. Why should we care?

Bees are finely tuned machines, much more robot-like than your average species. They operate pretty much like the Borg of Star Trek fame. A honey bee cannot exist as an individual, and this is why some biologists speak of them as super-organisms. They are sensitive barometers of environmental pollution, quite useful for monitoring pesticide, radionuclide, and heavy metal contamination. They respond to a vide variety of pollutants by dying or markedly changing their behavior. Honeybees’ stores of pollen and honey are ideal for measuring contamination levels. Some pesticides are exceptionally harmful to honey bees, killing individuals before they can return to the hive.

When the bees are examined:

[The] autopsies of CCD bees showed higher than normal levels of fungi, bacteria and other pathogens, as well as weakened immune systems. It appears as if the bees have got the equivalent of AIDS.

An odd side effect, the usual pests that raid an empty hive delay attacking a CCD hive. One suggestion is that the honey is contaminated.

The Los Angeles Times ran a story noting the examined bees were suffering from a fungus and mentioned a commercial antibiotic. Beekeepers use a LOT of chemicals and antibiotics to keep their commercial hives going. They also have bred their stock to be bigger than normal:

Who should be surprised that the major media reports forget to tell us that the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we coax into a larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the beef industry. And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee problem? Is it one that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the scientific world at large, will support? Will media coverage affect government action in dealing with this issue?

These are important questions to ask. It is not an uncommonly held opinion that, although this new pattern of bee colony collapse seems to have struck from out of the blue (which suggests a triggering agent), it is likely that some biological limit in the bees has been crossed. There is no shortage of evidence that we have been fast approaching this limit for some time.

A Michigan beekeeper thinks:

... CCD might stem from a mix of factors from climate change to breeding practices that put more emphasis on some qualities, like resistance to mites, at the expense of other qualities, like hardiness.

An organic beekeeper writes:

I’m on an organic beekeeping list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they put pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they feed antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies.

Varroa mites (vampire mites) come from (wait for it...) China. A report on varroa mites:

“Bee Mites Suppress Bee Immunity, Open Door for Viruses and Bacteria,” it explained research into levels of ‘deformed wing virus,’ a mutagenic pathogen that is believed to persist in bee populations because it makes guard bees more aggressive. Bees of a given hive normally carry low levels of this virus, but the Penn State researchers found that virus levels shot sky high during secondary infections if, and only if, the bees also had varroa mites. It should be clear why the varroa mite is on everyone’s list of things to examine in the fight against CCD.

Because of commercially bred and controlled hives, natural pollinators are forced out and some have become extinct:

We depend on managed honey bees because we are addicted to a monoculture-based managed agricultural sector.

And:

Surprise — it’s an ecosystem thing. As with honeybees and CCD, the root of the bumblebee problem lies in our modern rationalist drive toward endlessly ordering the world around us. The long-term solution is a return to a more natural ecological order.

Commercial beekeeping is not a flourishing business, there are less beekeepers and the hives are overworked.

The politicians have been remarkably slow to recognize the dangers in losing our major pollinators. One refered to alfalfa. But the crops that bees pollinate:

This includes almonds, broccoli, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, and strawberries. Other insects, including other kinds of bees, may be used to pollinate some of these crops, but only bees are reliable on a commercial scale. If the bees go, we will see a change for the worse at our local supermarkets.

And:

...Mark Brady, president of the American Honey Producers Association, had informed the committee that “honey bees pollinate more than 90 food, fiber and seed crops. In particular, the fruits, vegetables and nuts that are cornerstones of a balanced and healthy diet are especially dependent on continued access to honey bee pollination.”

A sensible thing would be to write a nicely worded letter to your congressperson and ask that funds be allocated to combat CCD.

Because we all like to eat.....