Apparently, Order 81 also intends to change the Mesopotamian diet to include a lot of pasta…

[edited to include the correct link]

This is not to minimize the seriousness of the problem. I'm just saying that it's not doom and gloom time yet. We've known about the bee decline for years, and nothing sends scientists, ecologists, and politicians into action more than money. A billion dollars a year will motivate a lot of people to find a solution. The fate of world agriculture even more so.

Even with fewer honeybees there are alternative methods of pollination, and if it comes down to it I imagine we could pollinate the darn things ourselves. So while I'm willing to agree with you when you say

Something really, really bad is happening, and no one's quite sure what it is.

I'm not quite ready to join you in a chorus of

it may already be too late.

We'll be extinct, and the universe won't miss us one bit.

…a pitiful Armageddon

What I find a little humorous is the fact that I have watched 4 generations of my family deterorate from this strange organism and the scientist at Mayo and UofM shrugged their shoulders at us and would not even take the time to actually look and listen. Meanwhile, my family is on the road to extinction. Modern day Leapors.

Hi, BAM. Are you talking about Morgellon's? If so, can you tell us when it started, where you live (region), and what your exposure might be (rural agricultural area or town/city)? One site said most cases have shown up in the growing regions of California, Texas and Florida. Which are also the states that rely most strongly on trucked-in bees for pollination.

I'm not sure what to think, other than that the ridiculous policy of pretending there's no such thing is foolish in the extreme. Not sure who to believe either, since a lot of the information seems to be tied up in various strange conspiracy theories. But people are reporting this condition and bees are dying. That much we do know.

chunkdz:

Darn. Armageddon has been averted once again.

Sorry, chunk. Most species of wild bumblebees are on the endangered species list. They are actually more efficient pollinators than honeybees, but don't hive in great numbers like honeybees do (live in small colonies and are aggressively territorial. They're more cold tolerant, but colonies do not overwinter (they all die after a single season, a new queen takes over in spring). They're also more limited in range, and are very sensitive to habitat disruption.

So while you could conceivably place bumblebee colonies here and there around and through an orchard or field, you'd have to allow lots of wildflowers in between the rows (so permanent colonies have food throughout the season) and you couldn't spray the orchard or field with poisons. That's not how agribiz works.

Darn. Armageddon has been averted once again.

Where will my next dose of doom and gloom come from?

What I find a little humorous is the fact that I have watched 4 generations of my family deterorate from this strange organism and the scientist at Mayo and UofM shrugged their shoulders at us and would not even take the time to actually look and listen. Meanwhile, my family is on the road to extinction. Modern day Leapors.

One thing I have learned is that there are so many theories out there and they will go nowhere. Unless you have the funding for the research or the CDC would actually acknowledge there is something going on you might as well chase your tail in circles

There has got to be a cause to this calamity. There has got to be a single cause. I am quite happy to consider the GM hypotheis, it makes sense on its face, and GM does not have the respect/fear that it deserves. Whatever the cause, that cause must be intercontinental, because the phenomenon is intercontinental.

Some have said, "hey, there's lots of other polinators." Well, maybe, but maybe other polinators are suffering the same fate as the honeybee. Maybe the other polinators are just as incapable of handling the poison that is killing the bees. I see this problem as a significant consern that requires extensive investigative work to figure out. (In truth, I am hoping that GM is found to be to blame for it, because it will dislodge the food-production community from its complasancy before mass human death is the result.)

Hey, I'm a carpenter.

Yeah, but you're not eating my house. §;o)

It's kind of a pitiful Armageddon, more like a whimper than a Grand Last Stand. It's certainly no more than we deserve for our hubris and greed. But I do think I'll kill fewer carpenters this year. They're amazingly dumb and foolishly aggressive, but they don't sting.

Hey, I'm a carpenter.

I gather your cove has an environment that was once prevalent throughout the area. What type of bees and other insects would pollinate your cove?

There are a variety of pollinators, and these go straight to whatever's blooming (I think it's a race). Including hummingbirds and several varieties of wasp, which stake out 'territory' and pollenate mostly by accident. There are at least a couple of varieties of honeybee distinguishable by size, bumblebees (small colonies of 50 or so) and carpenter bees (solitary). Sweat bees and some kind of bee-like blackfly, plus the moths and butterflies that come in waves.

Native honeybee populations will probably survive whatever's going on, if they don't get exposed to pesticides often enough to weaken. They're tough, but their range is limited. The threat to agriculture comes because of monocultural, chemical intensive farming practices. Farmers used to keep bees in fields and orchards, but that's no longer practical. Now keepers stack hundreds of box-hives onto trucks and haul them state to state following the crops.

Nowdays a single crop can cover thousands of acres, and they're sprayed regularly. Bees also need a steady diet, which they can't get from mile upon mile of monoculture that only blooms for a week a year. They need access to biodiversity. They're useful insects, but insects nonetheless. Insecticides aren't good for them, either mechanically sprayed or in their diet. Pollen is food for developing larvae and queens, and Bt engineered crops express toxins in pollen as well as fruit and seeds (the edible stuff).

Myrmecos:

Our hundreds of species of native bees (and flies, and moths) were perfectly capable of keeping up with the pollination before we devastated their habitat and forced them into competition with an artificially boosted monoculture of honeybees.

The monoculture that's the problem is the monoculture of the crops, not the honeybees. No bees could live in single-crop fields or orchards that go for miles in every direction. They'd starve.