Honeybees’ lifespans are now 50% lower — and it’s not clear why

Whatever it is, it's happening before the bees reach adulthood.

Bees are in all sorts of trouble. From our use of pesticides to the reduction of habitat, rising temperatures, and urbanization, the world is not a friendly place for bees right now. But in addition to all these environmental stressors, something else is hurting the bees. A new study found that even when honeybees are kept in a controlled, laboratory environment, their lifespan is 50% shorter than it was in the 1970s.
...

Nearman was working on a different study with entomologist Dennis van Engelsdorp. They were looking at standardized protocols for rearing adult bees in the laboratory. Like all good researchers, they were comparing their results with previous research. But no matter how they did it, they couldn’t get the bees to live as long as the studies in the 70s.

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The bees were collected as pupae from hives within 24 hours of emerging from their cells and then grown in a special incubator. As adults, they were kept in special cages.

The only environmental influence could be from pesticide exposure during their larval stage, although the bees have not shown any symptoms of such exposure. But other than this, it’s not exactly clear what’s causing this reduced lifespan.

Honeybees’ lifespans are now 50% lower — and it’s not clear why

I wonder if this is warning of impending doom, or the doom itself. I know we will not escape paying the price for the tainting of the ecosystem in the name of almighty commerce; but do you think we might be allowed to have a chance to do what we can to stop the ongoing decimation of the planetary ecological balance?

They only mention wanting to fix this problem with their god-like all-encompassing never-fails genetic knowledge... but how about stopping the policy of "All solutions must be petrochemical"?)

Found another new source for this - but it must be based upon the same report.
another source - check out the differences

a reply to: Maxmars

Nevermind.

It's pesticides.

Everyone knows.

originally posted by: Maxmars

Honeybees’ lifespans are now 50% lower — and it’s not clear why

You borked it!

I blame bill "lolita express" gates.

Yup... come see... everyone, I messed up and hit "enter" button too soon....

originally posted by: Maxmars
Yup... come see... everyone, I messed up and hit "enter" button too soon....

How dare!!!

a reply to: Maxmars

Yes, we have Mennonites around where I live with Bee farms and they have told me in conversation that they're having a real hard time keeping their colonies population up.

Not sure what it could Bee?

I heard a user say pesticides, that sounds logical, though I've never looked into it.

Varroa destructor mites, neonicotinoids, glyphosate, and apparently the influx of almond milk (although not sure why this)

Stress kills.

The humble honeybee is the canary in the coal mine.

Makes me pretty sad. Bees rule.

Edit: I just recently learned they only live about 40 days anyway. So this probably isn’t good news.

a reply to: slatesteam
You mentioned almond milk and I just HAD to look that up... I found a lot of stuff... here are some links

'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond milk obsession

And another:

Almond Trees Aren’t Killing Bees; Pesticides And Corporate Greed Are

Ultimately it is more pointing to the blank-check we have granted those who make the big bucks for their companies.

Maybe they are being affected by a weakening magnetic field. Since honey bees can navigate by sensing magnetic fields what if they sometimes don't make it back to the hive. I wonder if their disappearance could correlated to days of larger solar flares hitting the fields.

No doubt our food production practices play a part, I heard a stat the other day, it related to the fact that Glyphosates are found in most peoples urine.

a reply to: TheLieWeLive

I understood this study actually tracked "when they die" as opposed to considering a disappeared bee as dead. I'm not sure they even released them into the wild. (Although that could be a factor too I suppose)

a reply to: Maxmars

I like the quote by Morgan Freeman in the movie Lucy, (2014) His character says, "Humans care more about having, than being".

As you mentioned, "tainting the ecosystem" will have a steep price and all we can do is try to slow the addition of more "junk" in our environment.

You take a look at India or China and it looks like it's already too late for the entire solar system. Yet they keep polluting away because that's simply what 3rd world countries do.

You just can't get ahead of it and it has terrible ripple effects. When we do lose the bees, GMO food will become all there is. I think that's part of it as far as the bees go.

(I apologize for coming off snooty about the OP before you fixed it. There have been lackluster posts lately.)

⭐+🇺🇸

a reply to: EternalShadow

No apologies necessary; I was just having a laugh at my own expense... Not a problem.

I just always lose patience with the myopic way the "outer world" tries to make the individuals responsible while the industrial commerce folks just keep going, and going, and going... [insert Pee Wee Herman clip for fun]

are these non native hybrids honey bees?

In the UK the hybrids can last 6 weeks while the natives** its more like 6 months as one has evolved over 10,000 years to survive the enviro/climatic coupling while the other is mans attempt to best nature, no very well by the looks of it really.

**caveat on the natives as these are now mostly imports as the Victorians tried to exterminate them in favour of the hybris, those the Victorians did eradicate the io disease did..

When the bees die, we die.

honey bees are not native to the Americas pre 17th century so not exactly right but if you'd said pollinators you'd be closer but where one type of pollinator declines others fill the space out of the 10s of thousands of types..

the honey bee issue is an issue about honey rather than bees as honey is big business and then they won't care about specific pollinators until that hits big business too..

a reply to: MykeNukem

Not sure what it could Bee?

Varroa destructor

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: ARM1968
When the bees die, we die.

Not true.

Bees are not the only pollinators.

This story inspired me to look up what I had read sometime ago, that wild bees were disappearing too.

I have to question a number of things regarding domestic honey bees. The commercial hives are used on mono crops and rotated seasonally to warmer climates to continue to work them in the winter. They feed them corn syrup when they do winter them. The wild bees would be the true canary in the coal mine in my opinion, and it's not looking good I'm afraid.

The wild bee population has been in trouble for a long time. Researchers have been looking for causes and solutions for decades and have come across several factors that could be contributing to their possible extinction. Like humans, bees face several problems that can contribute to bad health and, ultimately, death.

. . . After conducting the study, the researchers found that pesticides and a lack of flowering plants contribute to a waning bee population. Out of these two threats, pesticides were the biggest. It reduced bee reproduction 1.75 times more than the scarcity of their food source. Pesticides were responsible for devastating diseases that ravaged many bee species, especially in the United States.

LINK

The study estimated that wild bee numbers diminished in 23 percent of the continental United States between 2008 and 2013 in a trend driven by conversion of their natural habitat into farmland including corn for biofuel production. Pesticides and diseases were cited as other factors behind the declines among the roughly 4,000 U.S. species of wild bees.

LINK