Co-conspirators in the case of the missing honeybees
By gewcew23
@gewcew23 (8007)
United States
October 8, 2010 10:35am CST
Scientist from both the US Army and the University of Montana have discovered what is causing the collapsing honeybee colonies, a combination of a fungus and a virus. These two grow inside the bees digestive tract which may even cause a kind of incest insanity. These infected bees do not fly back to the colony instead they fly elsewhere to die. The infection either effects the memory, the navigation or even the sanity of the bee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html?_r=1
3 people like this
3 responses
@peavey (16936)
• United States
8 Oct 10
I think that's baloney. I read it on another site, too. I believe that the reason bees are disappearing is because of all the pesticides used. Think about it. Bees are insects. People go around killing insects just because. Farmers spray their fields for any kind of insect and the ones that escape that are killed by home gardeners or just people who have yards and/or homes.
Couple that with GMO foods, which have been proved to have killed laboratory rats and mice and it's a wonder there are any bees at all.
1 person likes this
@peavey (16936)
• United States
8 Oct 10
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide_toxicity_to_bees
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2161.html
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/pnw/pnw591.pdf
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/honey-bees-dying-scientists-suspect-pesticides-disease-worry/story?id=10191391
http://www.bayer-kills-bees.com/
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/blogs/bees/pesticides-honey-bees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
And on and on...
My statement has nothing to do with my ego. The study you quote is only one. Remember Agent Orange? Who said that was safe? The same.
1 person likes this
@gewcew23 (8007)
• United States
8 Oct 10
Calling this study baloney is a bit too egotistical. I know that you have a hypothesis and you might have a point but these are scientist how do this for a living and I for one am not going to dare to call their finds baloney. Now if you believe that you have evidence supporting your hypothesis and debunks their finds proved it.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
9 Oct 10
My honeybee raising friend who lives in Saskatoon had to use an anti fungi agent for his bees. But then living up north, I guess the cold would kill most of them and also there were certain places that he would not get bees from. also I do not think he used pesticides other then the anti fungi agent because of the cost.
So perhaps there has to be alternative solutions to the problems other then using African strain bees that would make it dangerous for bee keepers and country people.
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
8 Oct 10
That was really interesting. I thought that the honey bees were making a come back because my backyard has had a lot of them this year. I've kept my children out of the yard because I was afraid that they would end up killing some of them.
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
8 Oct 10
I'm not sure I just noticed that in the past 10 years or so the bees weren't as bad as when I was a kid and then this year they are everywhere.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
9 Oct 10
My late husband had a friend who raised honeybees and he had to be careful of when he bought the bees and had to also make sure the hives were clean. He lived in Saskatchewan where it gets colder then even in Manitoba where I live now. This does seem rather tragic since with no honey bees, you can forget no fruit trees, no plants, etc. I hope that there is a cure for this, because frankly the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.
