Bee Gone!

Pity the poor pollinator.  The BBC reports a collapse in honey bee colonies across the United States of unprecedented proportions.  Between 30% and 70% of commercially maintained bee boxes are simply empty.  The bees have gone.

"The crisis threatens numerous crops, from avocados to kiwis and California almonds - one of the most profitable in the US.

'I have never seen anything like it,' California beekeeper David Bradshaw, 50, told the New York Times.

'Box after box after box are just empty. There's nobody home...'

The investigators are exploring a range of possibilities to explain the losses, which they are calling 'colony collapse disorder'. These include viruses, a fungus and poor bee nutrition.

They are also studying pesticides banned in some European countries to see if they are affecting the bees' innate ability to navigate their way back to their hives.

In some cases, bees are being raised to survive a shorter offseason, to be ready to pollinate once the almond bloom begins in February. This could have lowered their immunity to viruses.

Mites have also damaged bee colonies, and the insecticides used to try to kill them are harming the ability of queen bees to spawn as many workers."

It is worth recalling that Western Honey Bee species found in America is actually native to Europe, Africa and Western Asia.  Native pollen bees, which do not produce honey in commercial quantities, are actually better pollinators as both the males and females pollinate the crop.    I have not yet seen research showing the same colony collapse disorder in the more than 3,500 native North American bee species, although many pollinating insects are under threat from pesticides and other stresses known to affect honey bees.  Another wrinkle in the story is the relationship between both native and non-native bees and invasive exotic plant species, some of which (tartarian honeysuckle, purple loosestrife) are used preferentially by certain bees as forage.  Some honey producers have expressed concern about efforts to control loosestrife - not that this invasive plant is in any great danger of eradication in any but the most localized and smallest of its infestations.

The economic consequences of a honey bee collapse for the production of important cash crops could be quite severe.  One has to think, however, that the reliance on a single, introduced species to provide the bulk of commercial pollination services would appear to be asking for this kind of crisis.  Just as monocultures of Elms fell like dominoes to Dutch Elm Disease, one can easily imagine the same thing at work with honey bees in North America. 

Comments

[Bill N.]

Every spring the old antique rose bushes in front of my house bloom
and then they crawl with wild honey bees, every spring except this one.
Two bees so far this year, and I've been watching for them. Two bees,
so far. There are no commercial hives within miles of my in-town house.
Normally, I have dozens of wild bees crawling all over my roses, and all
of the flowering plants in my garden at any given moment. This year I
have perrenial flowers with empty seed pods. This I have never seen.
I'd like to see someone explain this to my satisfaction, truly.

[GreenmanTim]

If we had planted American chestnuts as street trees in monocultures, as we did elms, then yes, I believe we could identify that as a critical vector.

[Biotunes]

I do not like the comparison of what is happening with bees with American elm and Dutch elm disease, which of course involved a native species, destroyed by an alien one. Agricultural monoculture would be a much more apt comparison - such as when a particular crop is almost destroyed by a new pest. A good example is the citrus industry in California, which many people may not know almost was obliterated over a hundred years ago because of the cottony cushion scale. In that case, a miracle biological control agent, the vedalia beetle, was found and it controlled the devastating pest (one of the few cases in which biocontrol has actually worked really well).

Should we also blame the destruction of American chestnuts by the Asian chestnut blight on the fact that many of our eastern forests were dominated by chestnut? That doesn't make sense to me.

[Jenn]

Thank you! I am working on a citizen scientist project looking at organism interactions with purple loosestrife so any data about pollinators seeking it out preferentially would be interesting.

A while ago I blogged about efforts in California to be proactive about the honeybee issue - they want to import east coast Bombus impatiens instead (http://invasivespecies.blogspot.com/2007/01/bees-bees-everywhere.html).

[GreenmanTim]

Jenn, one source is from Byczynski, Lynn. 1998. Encourage native bees; increase your yields. Growing for Market. May. p. 1, 4-5. She is referenced at http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/nativebee.html#by in a paragraph that notes:

"Hornfaced bees (Osmia cornifrons) are excellent pollinators of apples, but they are active before apple trees bloom. In Maryland, the bees use winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), which finishes blooming just as apples come into bloom. After the apples bloom, Tatarican honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica) begins to bloom, and the bees then use this plant for forage."

The loosestrife question was raised by beekeepers while I was serving on the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group. I bet Rena Sumner of MNLA or Cynthia Boettner at the Conte Refuge could put you on the right track for a reference. Les Mehrhoff too, of course. Let me know if you need contact info for these folks.

[Jenn]

Pity the poor *beekeepers* really.

Don't forget, June 24-30 this year is National Pollinator Week in the US (http://www.nbii.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=222&&PageID=937&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true). I just invested in a solitary bee nesting kit, I am curious to see who will take up residence in it this summer. Cannot wait for those stamps to come out either *drool*

P.S. - Got sources for that note about honeybees preferring invasive plants?

[GreenmanTim]

I'm tempted to riff on the metaphor of "guest worker bees" and de-"colonization" of the market, but shall exercise appropriate restraint. ;-)

[Sissy Willis]

Exactly what I was about to comment, re vulnerability of the American Elm monoculture, just before I got to your last sentence.

If the foreigners can't do it, maybe the All-American bees can make up the difference?