Bloggers abuzz about missing bees
Tens of billions of bees have gone missing, according to a new report from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national group that tracks beekeeping, and no one seems to know why.
More than a quarter of the country's 2.4 million bee colonies have been lost, as worker bees fail to return to their hives after setting out on their morning commutes, says an article in the New York Times. Scientists are so far at a loss, but theories have ranged from genetically modified crops to cell phone signals to terrorist plots.
While the loss of some bugs may seem a minor problem, honeybees are arguably one of the most important insects for food production, the article says, since they're the principal pollinators of hundreds of types of fruits, vegetables, flowers and nuts.
Blog community response:
"Whether Einstein said it or not, it doesn't take an Einstein (you knew I was going there) to figure that with no bees, no pollination. No pollination, no plants. No plants, no food for animals. No food for animals, and the future doesn't look so bright. We'll be required to subsist on a diet of Sunny Delite and Velveeta, if we're lucky. If I"m wrong and these edibles are actually food, 'could be the human race is run.' And we didn't even need nuclear war!"
--Appalachian Greens
"I don't have much to add here except, seriously, it is time to panic. That, and that this type of event reminds us all that we live in an ecosytem that is interconnected. We can go on killing everything around us and destroying our environment, but some day, it is going to bite us back."
--Prague Twin
"This. Is. A. Very. Big. Deal. We are looking at major problems for fruit, nut, and vegetable production if this continues. (Not to mention hardship for the many families that make a living as beekeepers.)"
--Bug Girl's Blog
Margaret is news editor for CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. She also oversees the CNET Blog Network. E-mail Margaret. 
Has anyone heard about the rabbit, fur and Chinese? Or, about
wheat gluten?
The BUSH administration and his followers are sleeping on the
wheel or they are selling the honey pots.
Well I, for one, will not be sorry to see all those fruit- nut- and vegetable-eating vegans starve to death. Then we carnivores can once again rule the earth! Mwa, ha, ha, ha!!!
Seriously, though, how freakin' hilarious are those blog postings? We're panicking about bees now? Wow.
Exactly what do you plan on eating once there are no herbivores for you to consume?
not returning to the hive. The first thing I wonder is if the bees
are perishing or if they are just going off to someplace else-a
nice little hive in a tree somewhere or in somebody's attic or on
the back of a barn. Maybe they just moved away but are busy as
usual pollinating everything in sight, but just not returning to
the hive, only to have their hard worked for honey taken by the
bee keeper. It doesn't seem terribly likely that it's a revolt by the
bees, a work stoppage, but does their absence necessarily mean
they have all died? And if twenty five percent have dissapeared,
might not the other seventy five percent, who are not so afflicted
or affected, might not they quickly take up the slack for the
missing twenty five percent? Might they not breed and quickly
fill the gap? I hope so.
I do not say this to in any way try to lessen our resposibility for
pollution and ecolgical damage, but in the bee's case perhaps it
is a normal evolutionary event.
There are theories about cell phone interference with the bee's
navigational systems and other causes, but maybe the missing
bees ares still pollinating but have simply gone into business for
themselves.
- missing bees mystery - solved
- by stuart kerestan March 18, 2008 2:27 PM PDT
- For at least a year, it has been reported that bees have been missing in huge numbers, causing havoc in agriculture. It has also been reported that the Air Force is using microwaves to control weather, ostensibly for military reasons. These microwaves are at the precise intensity, frequency, and amplitude to FRY the bee larvae sequestered in honeycombs between seasons. That is what happened to the missing bees.
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