Researchers Find "Alarming" Decline in Bumblebees

Researchers Find "Alarming" Decline in Bumblebees

abcnews.go.com

Four previously abundant species of bumblebee are close to disappearing in the United States, researchers reported on Monday in a study confirming that the agriculturally important bees are being affected worldwide.

They documented a 96 percent decline in the numbers of the four species...

(visit the link for the full news article)

I sure hope that along with the giant Svalbard Global Seed Vault someone is collecting Bumblebees and Honeybees.

Disappearing, a 96% decline in the 4 major species ?!

Bumblebees are a commonly found native bee in most areas of North America are are important pollinators.

There are 49 species of Bumblebees in The United States, and they play an important part in pollinating distinct in their behavior of buzzing plants that do not produce nectar.

"These are one of the most important pollinators of native plants," Sydney Cameron of the University of Illinois, Urbana, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

In recent years, experts have documented a disappearance of bees in what is widely called colony collapse disorder, blamed on many factors including parasites, fungi, stress, pesticides and viruses. But most studies have focused on honeybees.

Bumblebees are also important pollinators, Cameron said, but are far less studied. Bumblebees pollinate tomatoes, blueberries and cranberries, she noted.

"The 50 species (of bumblebees) in the United States are traditionally associated with prairies and with high alpine vegetations," she added.

"Just as important -- they land on a flower and they have this behavior called buzz pollination that enables them to cause pollen to fly off the flower."

abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

Knowingly allowed..

This is not surprising. The decline in bee populations is due to particular pesticide use.

Wikileaks - Bee Decline

Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

reply to post by burntheships


Old News

the part about pesticides and knowingly allowed is new news.
man
I wonder how long this state of corporate rule can go on...without some really horrorshow consequences

reply to post by Danbones


Got to love ATS and the new posts.

As you mentioned, it is new news!

This is the result of a new study and its like a RED ALERT!

Honeybees yes. Bumblebees....well there is a big difference between the two.

Pollinators such as bees and bats often have specific tongue lengths and pollination behaviors that have evolved along with the species of plants they pollinate.

Bumblebees can fly in colder weather than other species, and are key to pollinating native species in the tundra and at high elevations, Cameron said.

I live in Adelaide, South Australia, and lately I have noticed bees stumbling around on the ground like they were drunk. At first I saw just one or two bees and thought that maybe they just stung an object and were off to die (like bees do) but then I saw a whole lot of them, the following day, doing the same. Might mean nothing but just thought it seemed odd as I have never seen bees do this before.

Originally posted by burntheships
reply to post by Danbones

 

Got to love ATS and the new posts.

As you mentioned, it is new news!

Acutually the information about Bumblebees has had little coverage. and little here on ATS.

Honeybees yes. Bumblebees....well there is a big difference between the two.

Pollinators such as bees and bats often have specific tongue lengths and pollination behaviors that have evolved along with the species of plants they pollinate.

Bumblebees can fly in colder weather than other species, and are key to pollinating native species in the tundra and at high elevations, Cameron said.

edit on 7-1-2011 by burntheships because: (no reason given)

There's been many threads..
Slayer did one recently on Bees and Bats..

But it is well worth keeping an eye on..
I know a few years back Australia was exporting millions of Bees to the US so I know the story has been around for quite a while..

I think they all wound up at my house. Line two.

Whilst the honey bee part is pretty old news, the Bumble Bee and pesticide EPA story isn't.

I am not about doom and gloom at all - but man, what the hell were 'they' thinking?
Stupid, stupid EPA...

Two questions :

1) How is this not terrible news?

2) What can we possibly do about it?

I ask not because I believe that you don't realize the importance of the questions, but because I don't see an answer to either myself.

reply to post by Australiana


Were you able to observe, were they honeybees or bumblebees?
And was any of your beer missing?

Originally posted by sbctinfantry
Two questions :

1) How is this not terrible news?

2) What can we possibly do about it?

I ask not because I believe that you don't realize the importance of the questions, but because I don't see an answer to either myself.

Who? What? Me?

LOL kidding.

Answers:
1) It is terrible news and needs to be dealt with ASAP....
2) Well, scientists need to get off of their collective bums and start working - also perhaps start putting some pressure on the EPA about this. No pollination is a bad... bad thing... so we either become proactive or, reap the results... no puns intended... well, wait - yeah... puns intended... it fits!

Like I stated, I don't like doom and gloom - but if the EPA is behind this mess they need to be sued, big time and hung up - crucified and... well let your imagination run wild.

reply to post by sbctinfantry


Its alarming, and not just becuase they are in decline, the above article reports that new studies
show a 96% decline. Thats like a RED ALERT.

Here is a statement published yesterday by The Bumble Bee Conservation Trust:

Scientists blame toxic pesticides and four European governments have already banned them. If we get the US and the EU to join the ban, other governments across the world could follow, and save bees from extinction. Sign the petition and forward this urgent appeal: Silently, billions of bees are dying off and our entire food chain is in danger. Bees don't just make honey, they are a giant, humble workforce, pollinating 90% of the plants we grow.

Multiple scientific studies fault one group of toxic pesticides for their rapid demise, and bee populations have soared in four European countries that have banned these products. But powerful chemical companies are lobbying hard to keep selling this poison. Our best chance to save bees now is to push the US and EU to ban this deadly product -- their action is critical and will have a ripple effect on the rest of the world.

www.bumblebeeconservation.org...

We need to kick Monsanto off the planet and ban these pesticides.!

Oh yeah and the EPA as they hold Monsantos hand!

I am wondering if the big agri business companies like monsanto with their GM crops and terminartor technology inadvertently unleashed this trouble on the planet?

if bees and other insects are affected - we really dont know enough about the intricate role insects play in nature to know what damage can be caused by GM crops

and if insects are affected there go GM and non GM food\crops and with it all of us on the earth will starve

the matter is urgent - until this question about bees can be explored, all activities by these companies has to stop

reply to post by megabyte


If they have a work around I could see them doing it for the sake of big bucks.

Monsanto is capable of very dark deeds.

NutraSweet is a non-nutritive sweetener. The brand name is misnomer. Try Non-NutraSweet. Food additives seldom cause brain lesions, headaches, mood alterations, skin polyps, blindness, brain tumors, insomnia and depression, or erode intelligence and short-term memory. Aspartame, according to some of the most capable scientists in the country, does. In 1991 the National Institutes of Health, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, published a bibliography, 'Adverse Effects of Aspartame', listing not less than 167 reasons to avoid it.2

Aspartame is an rDNA derivative, a combination of two amino acids (long supplied by a pair of Maryland biotechnology firms: Genex Corp. of Rockville and Purification Engineering in Baltimore.)3 The Pentagon once listed it in an inventory of prospective biochemical warfare weapons submitted to Congress.4 But instead of poisoning enemy populations, the "food additive" is currently marketed as a sweetening agent in some 1200 food products.

In light of the chemo-warfare implications, the pasts of G.D. Searle and aspartame are ominous.

Established in 1888 on the north side of Chicago, G.D. Searle has long been a fixture of the medical establishment. The company manufactures everything from prescription drugs to nuclear imaging optical equipment.5

Directors of G.D. Searle include such geopolitical heavy-hitters as Andre M. de Staercke, Reagan's ambassador to Belgium and Reuben Richards, an executive vice president at Citibank. Also Arthur Wood, the retired CEO of Sears, Roebuck & C disgorged by the clan of General Robert E. Wood, wartime chairman of the America First Committee.6 America Firsters, organized by native Nazis cloaked as isolationists, were quietly financed by the likes of Sullivan & Cromwell's Allen Dulles and Edwin Webster of Kidder, Peabody.7

Until the acquisition by Monsanto in 1985, the firm's chairman was William L. Searle, a Harvard graduate, Naval reservist and -- a grim irony inview of aspartame's adverse effects -- an officer in the Army Chemical Corpsin the early 1950s, when the same division tested '___' on groups of humansubjects in concert with the CIA.8

www.wnho.net...

reply to post by burntheships


Here's Slayers thread..
Well worth a read..
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Found this site the other day.

We call on you to immediately ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides until and unless new independent scientific studies prove they are safe. The catastrophic demise of bee colonies could put our whole food chain in danger. If you act urgently with precaution now, we could save bees from extinction.

Pesticide Ban

It might do some good. At least it let's people know there's hundreds of thousands who feel the same way, so is a good start.

Originally posted by unityemissions

We call on you to immediately ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides until and unless new independent scientific studies prove they are safe. The catastrophic demise of bee colonies could put our whole food chain in danger. If you act urgently with precaution now, we could save bees from extinction.

Pesticide Ban

It might do some good. At least it let's people know there's hundreds of thousands who feel the same way, so is a good start.

The Bumble Bee Conservation Trust.

Here's Slayers thread..
Well worth a read.

www.abovetopsecret.com...