Oh crap! I thought you were wrong, but apparently, you aren’t!
That really does seem to be the case.
A couple of the articles (eg) mentioned specifically that this problem is apparently only effecting the european honey bee, not any of the other thousands of species of bees. Which again would seem to scream “pathogen”, since it’s just the genetically homongenous commercially raised bees that are disappearing.
Also less of a “sky is falling” kind of issue, since it’s not really a problem that cuts across ecosystems (unlike, say, the poor froggies). Ugly for agriculture, though, and we’re probably in for some expensive fruit.
Maybe the bees are fleeing their old urban hives because the Africanized honeybees are moving in and lowering property values.
You’re damn straight. Bee loss is bad. But frog loss is simply unacceptable. Our amphibious friends are being destroyed on a colossal scale. Sadder yet, because frogs don’t hurt people. They don’t sting like the nasty, nasty bees, or slash like the spotted owl, or rake like the cheetah. No, they just hop about, in froggie peace and solitude, occasionally helping some Amazonian kill a monkey.
This is all just part of the Halo 3 launch… it’s the run-up to I Love Bees part 2.
Mass bee-a-cide is just their way of making it more real, and setting a stage for the heroine to heroically save the bees.
However, the idea that a species (or group of species) could disappear in a few years shouldn’t be dismissed out hand… although you should look long and hard at the data before you do believe it.
I feel better having seen (and googled) the earlier quote that something similar happened in the 1960s and disappeared just as quickly. Nature is weird sometimes.
Also, by Mexican migrant workers.
Beekeepers and local newspapers are not my idea of solid sources. I have no idea whether the “Uxbridge beekeepers association” isn’t just a bunch of guys who took up beekeeping only last year, with no idea how to look after them properly. I have no idea even if this event did occur, whether or not it is a known problem that occurs rarely, but occasionally, that they are mistakenly attributing to some newly invented phenomenon.
I don’t trust a local newspaper to have done that kind of background research. Hell, I don’t even trust the major newspapers to do that, which is why I’ll wait until we get a few more peer reviewed studies on the table before I decide that Europe really has CCD problem, and that it’s not just another overhyped disease like CJD.
And it should be noted that this is evidence that CCD is appearing in Europe, not actual proof that it has. These losses could be the result of any number of known causes, including the varroa mites that occasionally plague the UK and elsewhere. So CCD is still “extremely rare” in Europe until shown otherwise.
Do tell. What else can you deduce about me, Mr. Ruthless? I’d love to hear a more substantial summary of my character traits.
Ask Anax, he apparently has us dialed in. For all I know you’re not a Jason who is a Jason. Although you do seem to choose poor quotes from historical figures.
First BeOS, now bees.
Sad panda.
Here’s a link to a PDF file of the research that triggered the ‘cellphone causes bee death’ meme:
http://agbi.uni-landau.de/material_download/preprint_IAAS_2007.pdf
Turns out that cellphones were not involved at all; the researchers installed cordless phone base-stations in artificial hives and measured how many bees returned to the hives from a distance of 500 meters within 45 minutes.
In this case, significant variations in the behaviour of Apis
mellifera under the influence of non-ionizing radiation were tested. The presented data set is based
on earlier studies from 2005, which showed significant differences in returning, 39.7% of the non-
irradiated bees came back compared to 7.3% of the irradiated ones.
Standard commercial DECT telephones were used as exposition source. Concerning possible
variations in behaviour an experimental setup with irradiated and non-irradiated bee hives was
assembled. The main emphasis of this study was the investigation on significant changes in the
foraging flight under electromagnetic radiation influence.
The researchers characterized the results as “partially significant”.
I’m guessing that someone glanced at the paper and saw the words “wireless cell” and …
That’s why God created Mexican killer bees: to do the jobs that American bees refuse to do. They’ll probably work for cheaper, too.
I think the disappearance of the bees is linked to the bursting of the housing bubble. Didn’t we have one of those in the 60s also?
Dude, the inventors of Quorn have been planning for this event for decades. Nothing bad will happen, we’ll just have to eat funky fake meat!
I think the bees dying off is because overhyped fear of environmental change causes bee eggs to quit hatching.
Ooo, you are ruthless. Meow!
ALL THE BEES ARE DED.
Man, I bet if Einstein knew that everything he said was going to be revered and quoted he would have taken a lot more advantage of it. I know I would have, and would have made up all kinds of random shit.