July 10, 2006

• Bees, frogs, sea birds, corals, all dissappearing. What next? You!
• yes but unlike bees, frogs and sea birds aren't necessary to make crops grow. Grow big, anyway. Looks like I picked a fine week to stop snorting Sevin dust.
• Oh dear.
• *weeps*
• Un-, I'm afraid we're in for a slow, lingering one.
• I guess if things go badly enough for the bees, we Californians will have to get out our camel hair brushes and polinate by hand- there are so many crops which depend on the little buzzers. And the little darlings are responsible for much of the success of a gigantic industry, and much of our ability to find variety in produce. But, I know that I see far fewer bees in my back yard than I did even 5 years ago. I haven't seen a bumblebee in a long time.
• I couldn't hear The buzz Because They were gone
• Those mites have had a devasting effect world-wide on honeybees. And bee-keepers. As does the use of too many pesticides. We lost eighteen hives of our twenty hives to mites a few years back. We were so discouraged we discussed whether to stop keeping bees, but decided to persevere. We put in more clover, and encouraged other pollen yielding plants and trees. And now things are improving. The bumblebee population crashed about the same time, but it, too, seems to be recovering in these parts. One electric company in this area very annoyingly started using sprays along the roadsides rather than have growth cut back as they did formerly; a number of us are trying to counter this unsound practice. Our local beekeeper's association sees increasing need for educating people about bees and beneficial insects, and is working to get programs into the schools now.
• "And other beneficial insects:" And where have all the ladybugs gone?
• We had a beehive in the spring of last year. It went great, but the mites did them in by August. :( We're in Texas.
• And FWIW I hope there's a Dantean circle of hell reserved for fleas, chiggers, mosquitoes, mites, bed bugs, and all that vermin. Shovel 'em in there.
• I hope there's a Dantean circle of hell reserved for fleas, chiggers, Hear, hear! Sneaky, itchy little bastards!
• This post depressed the shit out of me.
• The ladybugs winter over in my house. Yes, really. Not so noticable this year, I think because it was warmer than normal here, so we didn't have the usual slow emergence, with groggy beetles creeping along ceilings only to fall off and startle folk. For some reason they're partial to the dining room, landing on plates, people's heads, and in drinks, enlivening meals no end.
• a ladybird landed on my nose last friday on a busy street. then if flew away.
• Bees (and honey) rule. Read Robbing the Bees and diggity on it for awhile. Mo' better edumication bee required.
• The ladybugs winter over in my house. Yes, really. And in my garage - big clusters of them attach themselves to the ceiling and walls, hang there all winter, and then on the first warm day of spring detach and start flying around, getting in people's hair and bonking into things. Cute little boogers - I have suspended my war against bugkind with regards to ladybugs, which is just as well because around the same time of year I have to go on the semi-annual wasp nest search-and-destroy mission. Equipment: leather gloves, can of Raid, "fatty"-style whiffleball bat.
• Also: no offense to beeswacky, but honey is bee poop. I ain't eating no bee poop.
• vomit, actually. But the method they use to turn pollen into it is well nigh magical. And compared to refined sugar - hone is the shi- . . umm . . well it's much better.
• ladybirds eat aphids. this makes them a-okay in my book.
• ladybird ladybird landing in my tea crawling down my shirt collar how ye tickle me
• You can buy ladybugs and other beneficial insects.
• PRAYING MANTIS SHIPMENTS ARE SEASONAL. WE WILL NOT BE SHIPPING THEM UNTIL THE END OF FEBRUARY. This "adored" insect is a general predator of most pest insects, mites, eggs, or any insect in reach. Each egg case contains approximately 200 baby mantids. Click on Image for complete details and instructions. I guess praying mantiseses wouldn't work on the bee-mite problem because the bees would get all fussy about them being in the hive . .
• They can't ship the praying mantiseseses 'til then because they're very busy during Christmas and Epiphany. They can't get 'em to stop praying until Candlemas.
• Om mane padme *chomp!* *crunch* *munch* *chew* *chew* *gulp* Amen.
• The honeybees in my area (northern California) certainly seem to be doing well, there's a toyon tree in my front yard that has more bees than usual and all the fruit sets in the garden are heavy this year - but I have seen not a single bumblebee. Ladybugs seem to like hay bales, and if we open one in the spring it's almost sure to have a cluster in it.
• Honey is bee vomit in the same way that milk is cow blood. Which is to say that it's not.
• While we're on the subject of bees, i need a five letter word that means "gathered, as bees".
• Wacky?
• Swarm?
• One bee says to another in the midst of a crowd of bees, "S'warm in here, iddn't it?"
• I think swarm is it!
• Stung!
• I got my first Gmail account (way back when) by exchanging 9000 ladybugs for it.
• Beats 9000 cockroaches.
• *hands award to beeswacky* *flashbulb handshake* carry on.
• He's been practising.
• Bunblebee Man sobs quietly in the corner.... his Tequila's empty..
• Ouch "recent weeks" is what caught my interest here - Story Highlights • Beekeepers in 22 states report losses of up to 80 percent • Researchers have been frustrated in their search for a cause • Parasitic mites and a lack of nectar in pollen may have killed them off
• 80% - pfft. We have a loss of 100%.
• Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril
• Losing Their Buzz
• Despite tales of billions of bees dying and crops at risk, experts disagree how serious the problem is.
• The definition of an "Expert"; someone with an opinion that stands up and tells it to a whole lot of people. The problem is even the "Experts" aren't sure what's going on. The bottom line is that there is a die-off. Bees, frogs, and plants are impacted. I think we're seeing the canary in the coal mine.
• Preparing my back-porch beehive is my favorite rite of spring, but this year my flock mysteriously went missing. I'll miss more than just the honey.
• Bee! I'm expecting you! Was saying yesterday To someone you know That you were due. The frogs got home last week, Are settled, and at work; Birds, mostly back, The clover warm and thick. You'll get my letter by The seventeenth; reply Or better, be with me, Yours, Fly. -- Emily Dickinson
• *seconds the emotion*
• Are GM Crops Killing Bees?
• Three causes are given in that article. Two have scads of evidence pointing to their contribution, and one is complete and utter speculation. Guess which one made the title?
• Pooty parper.
• I want all my Bees back. *sighs
• All your Bees are belong to us. What you say !!
• Are mobile phones wiping out our bees? Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees
• I get a server error on that link H-dogg. Is my mobile phone to blame? And how can I get rid of those stubborn food stains?!
• The link worked for me. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. ... Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear... The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives. ... German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines. Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. ... The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
• EEEK!
• Taiwan stung by millions of missing bees
• A beekeeper on Taiwan's northeastern coast reported 6 million insects missing "for no reason", and one in the south said 80 of his 200 bee boxes had been emptied, the paper said. Beekeepers usually let their bees out of boxes to pollinate plants and the insects normally make their way back to their owners. However, many of the bees have not returned over the past couple of months. Beeeeeeeeees! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
• *escorts petebest to the shouting thread* I believe that the state of bees is a fairly accurate indicator of the state of our planet...
• We Have 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' Too
• However, many of the bees have not returned over the past couple of months. They might want to look over here...
• Smart bees; seeking treatment.
• • USDA official: "This is the biggest general threat to our food supply" • One-quarter of U.S. colonies vanish, about five times the normal winter loss • Honeybees pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops in U.S. • Not all scientists foresee a food crisis, noting prior large-scale bee die-offs Anyone else noticing a global-warming ("no it isn't!") tone here? And I love the title, Mysterious honeybee killer could make dinner bland Could make dinner bland?!? OH SH--. Yeah. It's all about us. All the time. SUV! In tha hizzy! Whoot whoot.
• Apocalypse Of The Honeybees: How poetically appropriate that the End of Humanity should come from such a tiny, sweet source
• . . . the wild honeybee population is down a staggering 90 percent. Is it? Wow, I didn't know that.
• From 1997: Right now 85-95 percent of the wild honeybees have died, and pretty soon the only wild hives around will be colonies that escaped from human-kept hives. Michael Burgett, a honeybee and pollination expert, has trekked literally around the world studying the problems facing honeybees - including 17 trips just to Thailand, the ancestral and evolutionary home of an insect that, after 375 years of residence, we think of as "native" to the United States: “Colony collapse is nothing new; it’s happened before.” “The first time I saw it was in the mid-1970s, they called it disappearing disease. Then disappearing disease disappeared.” “I think it’s mite resurgence; I think it’s bad weather back East; and I think it’s bad beekeeping.”
• WOW.
• Organic bees okay.
• Colony Collapse Disorder in domestic honey bees is all the buzz lately, mostly because honey bees pollinate food crops for humans. But I thought CCD was to blame for the ^90% disappearance of wild honeybees as well. Is that a different thing? Or are the article writers just missing the stamen here?
• I think they are different things, pete. If my memory stings, the disappearance of wild honey bees has been ongoing for many years, if not beecades. CCD, all abuzz in the news recently, is something that has been droning about for the past couple of years. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if the two issues are somehow inter-combed.
• Honey, I shrunk the bee population.
• Hornets and wasps are still ok, right?
• The bees have been found. They were at a fundraiser.
• Ha! I love the picture accompanying the article. One docile, lazy honeybee gently buzzing around a pretty flower, blue sky behind. Caption: "It was 3,000 bees versus 700 fundraisers at an Indiana high school. The bees won."
• Go Bees! Woooo! (I liked how a local beekeeper brought in a smoke machine and a hive and the 3,000 bees were like "oh okay, let's go in the hive then" So agreeable. No stings even.)
• She Loves Bees
• I've been following Wikipedia's CCD article for a few months. It sounds like they've definitively ruled out varroa mites, for one thing. Note that the whole "cell phones kill bees" thing was misreported. If you plant a cordless phone's base station in a beehive, the bees go away. Which proves... well, nothing, really.
• A round table of experts answer all our pressing questions about the sudden death of the nation's bees. What they have to say has a bigger sting than we ever expected
• So . . what was it? Global warming? I read it and I didn't understand except something like Interviewer: was it X that did it? Expert A: maybe Expert B: the results aren't conclusive Expert C: I doubt it
• The Silent Spring of the Honeybees
• Diesel-Driven Bee Slums and Impotent Turkeys
• Nice link homunculus
• As bees go missing, a $9.3B crisis lurks
• Virus could be cause of disappearing bees
• That seems an unfortunate name for a virus.
• Probably the same story as above, but this link requires no subscription.
• MONKEY BEES MONKEY BEES MONKEY BEE MONKEY BEES!!!
• Those are so fake.
• Yeah, Pete, just you wait. *narrows eyes, starts packing empty Jujube* candy box with Monkey Bees to attack Pete. Hey, Pete, would you care for some JujuBEES? muuhahahahahaha
• I distinctly heard it. She muttered under her breath, "Jew bees."
• ATTACK!!!
• Jew jubees. Yup, they's the little yeller ones with the yarmulkes.
• Here's some more Jew jubees. Sorry they're old. And hard.
• Jewish Bee Two bees buzz around what's left of a rose bush. "How was your summer?" asks bee number one. "Not too good," sez bee two. "Lotta rain, lotta cold. Not enough flowers, not enough pollen." The first bee has an idea. "Hey, why don't you go down the corner and hang a left? There's a bar mitzvah going on. Plenty of flowers and fruit." Bee two buzzes, "Thanks!" and takes off. An hour later, the bees bump into each other again. "How was the bar mitzvah?" asks the info-bee. "Great!" sez buddy-bee. The first bee peers at his pal and wonders, "What's that on your head?" "A yarmulke," is the answer. "I didn't want them to think I was a wasp." Don't you be raggin' me about my Jew jubees, TUM. *closes one bee-dee eye, aims bee cannon
• GramMaaaaa! *takes notes*
• Oy vey!
• *bows before the mighty GramMa Bee*
• *plotzes*
• BAD Rocket! *rubs nose Plotze outside, or use the papers, dammit!
• Bee recording scares off elephants
• and me! Aiigh!
• The Plight of the Bumblebee
• at least one bumblebee species from the Northwestern U.S., Franklin's Bumblebee, may have gone extinct. Sigh. We know.
• Exactly my thoughts every time this or similar pops up in the sidebar, nick :(
• Yeah, me too. Sigh. *hugs beeswacky in absentia, and hopes he's hale and hearty, where'er he may be*
• is sad our Bees is extinct here in the 'Filter
• English honey to run out before Christmas
• This thread has become too sad to read in more ways than one... And I still stand by my comment from the previous year that I believe that the current state of bees is a fairly accurate indicator of the state of Earth in general. We aren't doing so hot (err, ummm, perhaps hot is not a wise choice of words!).
• Well, declining bees, frogs, and polar bears, receding glaciers--sheesh! Environmentalists, wadda they know?
• The media's deliberate stupidity
• Cure For Honey Bee Colony Collapse?
• Hey, I've seen Marky Mark talk about this very issue, and they don't know why it's happening. Take that, "cure". Oh wait, that movie sucked.
• Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe
• Not. Good. Oh, go ahead, Monsanto. Biznez as usual.
• It looks like it's cell phones now - Oooh no!! "They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behavior and productivity of bees in two hives — one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two 15-minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed. After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey. The queen bee in the 'mobile' hive produced fewer than half of those created by her counterpart in the normal hive. They also found a dramatic decline in the number of worker bees returning to the hive after collecting pollen." via /.
• Are Australian honeybees behind U.S. hive collapse?
• I must confront the Trackraken.
• Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery
• What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths
• Ah, man. That's teh suck. Sellout!
• "Getting stabbed in the eye is good for you", scientists say. Funding for this research was provided by Sharpest Kninves and Daggers Co.
• Evil is as evil does: in Science, in Politics, in Corporations and, yes, even in unions that over reach. But I'd be willing to support the bee union 100%... That said, we have lots of honey bees sniffing around our yard. Don't know where their hive is located, but the whole back yard is totally wild, so it could be any where.
• Bee lining or how to find a hive.
• Dan, you lucky devil! Take care of dem bees. They bee precious. All the hives I used to ride by are quiet now, and all we saw in the flowers were hum-birds. *is sad*
• the leaves at last let go now sunlight warms a curve in the old stone wall where stubborn vine hung on just long enough to flaunt one flaring blue trumpet with its throat white-hot
• Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees
• Produced by Bayer--charming. Hand in hand, EPA and Bayer, working to screw up ecology. We know Bayer is all about profit and killing things, but wasn't the EPA on our side? (I'm missing all the bees. Where is our Beeswacky?)
• I was pondering the absence of Bees' too. I wander off for a time at the zenith of The Great Beeswacky Revival, and return to a dearth of poesy and rhyme. wut givz, dawgs?
• The bee's knees Was an old time whimsy, Six knees on each bee Makes Beeswacky.
• A naturally occurring pheromone that may be applied to hives has been shown to strengthen the bees :)
• UN alarmed at huge decline in bee numbers
• Study finds new bee viruses, offers baseline to study colony collapse
• Super Bees Could Save Us From A Food Crisis: In order to salvage what's left of our dying bee population, scientists are working on breeding a better honeybee, resistant to pests and viruses and impervious to cold.
• Beehive Fences Keep African Elephants Away From Crops
• In other missing insect news: Kids Recruited as Citizen Scientists in Lady Bug Hunt
• Do Bees Have Feelings? Provocative experiments suggest that insects have something like an emotional life.
• Dan Rather puts the most blame on pesticides.
• Scientist uses interpretative dance to explain the honey-robbing habits of bees
• The Fox (Monsanto) Buys the Chicken Coop (Beeologics)
• Mystery Malady Kills More Bees, Heightening Worry on Farms
• Not Just the Bees: Bayer's Pesticide May Harm Birds, Too
• Bee deaths: EU to ban neonicotinoid pesticides
• Study Finds No Single Cause of Honeybee Deaths
• If bees go extinct, this is what your supermarket will look like
• The bee keepers: How a Harvard scientist, a sixth-generation bee whisperer, and a retired entrepreneur joined forces to rescue an embattled insect and save the American food supply.
• Beekeeper has developed protective suit for sniffer dog which is trained to detect bee disease
• The Bees Strike Back closing the oldest (and last single-screen) movie theater in San Luis Obispo. Good news: humane bee removal underway. Bad news: it'll take a while; gotta hit a multiplex for a movie.
• and related: Bed Bugs Close Local Homeless Shelter. Some people can't catch a break. Now can we get us a "Bed Bug Colony Collapse"?
• Insecticides implicated in bee population decline may also impact human nervous system
• Impact learning and memory? Maybe impact behavior and bonding? Maybe linked to autism, cancers, or allergies? Personally I think we're slowly poisoning our kids and ourselves. Not solely with insecticides, but with herbicides, oil spills, auto exhaust, pollution from coal fired plants, electronics manufacture, hormones and unnecessary chemicals in soaps, shampoos, and common household products, failure to keep the water clean of RX drugs, and on and on and on. The frog in the boiling water hasn't a clue. Meanwhile, we can deny each issue contributes another degree of warmth, without recognizing that the temperature's rising.
• Take the Honey and Run: Meet California's Most Notorious Beenapper. David Allred was an infamous bee rustler in the 1970s. Did the rising price of bees inspire his most daring heist yet?