Thursday, July 03, 2008

What's happening to the bees?

According to Einstein, 'If the honeybee becomes extinct, man will only be able to survive for four years.' (Actually Einstein didn't say that. The words were put into his mouth, in the nineties, many years after his death, probably by French scientists.)

According to Doctor Who, about half the bees in the world are aliens and the reason they're reducing in number is because they're going back to their home planet.

While I personally wouldn't argue with the good Doctor, I was listening, on Radio 4 this afternoon, to a lady who would. One of the main causes she says, for the disappearance of the honeybee is the lack of biodiversity that exists today.

Apparently in America bees are trucked around the country, so they may spend three weeks in California pollinating hundreds of miles of almond trees before being trucked up to Washington State to pollinate apples or to the east coast to do their duty for the blueberries. With such a restricted diet, they fail to flourish - as we would if we had to exist for weeks on just one foodstuff - and they are less able to fight disease or parasites.

And did you know there are something like 250 species of bees in Britain? Of which honeybees are only one. But a vital one in that they are responsible for pollinating roughly one third of our food.

I thought the lady on the radio would be advocating a change in farming procedure to reintroduce biodiversity but instead she was talking mostly about developing stronger bees. But maybe she's realistic and knows she's fighting a losing battle when it comes to big corporation agriculture.

Radio 4 Material World

11 comments:

mdmhvonpa said...

A great deal of pollination is done by what is known as 'ground bees'. These live amongst the grasses and such not actively used for crop production. The bees we truck about are actually domesticated European honey bees. They really have no business being on the north american continent.

As for biodiversity, we have the wonderful Africanized Killer Bees for that!

Suburbia said...

scary isn't it? Poor bees, and damn woman for going in the wrong direction.

jmb said...

I think this is really scary about the bees and it seems one problem that man will not be able to solve since it is impossible to equal bees in the pollination department.

James Higham said...

What happened to them is a key question. They may or may not be native but they're needed.

Furtheron said...

There was a story on the BBC south east news last night that there is a massive drop in the number of butterflies about this summer.... have they gone where the bees are?

Anonymous said...

At least nobody said 'global warming'. Actually the sun is very inactive and it is possible that there is a link as bees navigate using elctromagnetic clues.
I had better say before anyone else does - yes, I have a bee in my bonnet about Goreble Warming.

Rose said...

You've told me something I didn't know, Liz--trucking bees around to pollinate crops? The poor bees are probably too carsick to do anything productive.
There is also another problem here in the US, called Colony Collapse Disorder, or something like that. Apparently, there is a parasite getting into the bees' nests, which is causing a lot of them to die. I think it's good, though, that more and more people are becoming award of the problem.

Glad to know Husband actually DID mail you a card, even if you haven't got it in hand yet!

Liz Hinds said...

Rose, the lady on the radio said the parasite was the equivalent of human having a monkey on its back sucking its blood! An additional problem with the trucking is that the bees don't get the normal climates they expect and they're generally discombobulated by it.

mdm, yes, lots of pollination is done by other creatures but the honeybees are responsible for one third of it. (Did the radio say that? Did I make it up?)

It is scary, suburbia and jmb. they certainly are needed, james.

Furtheron, we just have to hope the birds don't go too because I'd hate to be without the birds and the bees ...

Do you know, aileni, I'd noticed that?!

MissKris said...

This is why I have my Mason Bee houses and try to help them survive and repopulate. Their life span is very short but they're prolific pollinators. I have 3 houses now and every one of them is full. They're sealed off by the bees until early next Spring, when the new generation comes forth. It's a wonderful way to teach my little grandson about nurturing the world! And happy holiday to you, Liz. Hope you and the Husband have a great time away! And I will be back...just come give me a 'kick' when you get home. I'm so busy I lose track of time now!

Anonymous said...

Help the honeybees! Prevent the loss of the world food supply.
Learn how you can help cure Colony Collapse Disorder.
Visit thebeetree(dot)org.

Anonymous said...

Hi
Many German scientists having done years of research have shown that the microwave radiation emitted by mobile phone masts is destroying the bees as follows:
the radiation interferes with the bees navigation system as bees navigate using the earth's natural magnetic field. Thus bees get lost
It also interferes with communication amongst bees (the 'waggle' dance)
It also destroys their immune systems so any parasites of other disease can take hold.
You can read one of the research papers here:
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/warnke_bbm.pdf