America was called the ‘land of milk and honey’ by the old-fashioned world, yet neither cows nor honeybees are native to the Americas. Surprisingly, it is not the honey from the bees that is so distinguished to our economy. Pollination by bees adds over 15 billion dollars to our economy (Flores). Around 130 crops need honeybees in order to thrive (Kaplan). In the United States, honeybees get about 200 million pounds of honey, worth 125 million dollars, and about 3.9 million pounds of beeswax, worth 7 million dollars (Doebler). Beekeeping is a serious business, not only for our economy, but for our food. Around one third of our food depends on pollination, including coffee, green chile, soybeans, apples, berries, squash, almonds, and many others (NRDC). In California alone, the almond crop requires the service of about half the United States bee colonies, around 1.2 million (Flores).
Unfortunately, the bee business isn’t going so well. A new phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been taking a great toll on our honey bees. During fall 2006, beekeepers in many countries around the world noticed a sudden disappearance of managed honey bee colonies, and for no apparent reason. These hives were formerly healthy, but for some reason bees simply abandoned their hives, often leaving just the queen and a few caretakers. In February 2007, the syndrome had been named (Kaplan). Congress recognized Colony Collapse Disorder as a threat in 2007 and granted emergency funds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study honey bee disappearances. The 2008 Farm Bill granted the Department of Agriculture $20 million each year to support bee research and related work (NRDC). Research is underway to try to determine the causes of CCD, and how to prevent it from occurring. Possibilities involve combinations of pesticide exposure, invasive parasitic mites, inadequate food supply, transportation, and many different viruses. As the cause is believed to be from multiple sources, pinpointing them will be difficult. Many viruses are believed to be passed on by the mites, which in of themselves are devastating enough.
At an apiculture conference, a commercial beekeeper cries in front of the audience. In 6 months, he was broke, loosing his house, and his entire beekeeping operation had been wiped out. The cause of his disaster was two shrimp parasites. One, the varroa mite, is described by James Tew, a specialist in beekeeping at Ohio State University, as the “biggest catastrophe to befall apiculture since its establishment in this country in the 1600s… In only a few years, the varroa mite redesigned nearly 300 years of North American apiculture in ways akin to the dramatic way the boll weevil restructured the cotton-producing industry … in the early 1920s.” Varroa mites are large enough to be seen by the eye. Female varroa mites place to bees between abdominal segments, feeding on a substance similar to our blood, called hemolmph. When females enter a nursery cell, called a brood cell, the mites lay eggs. The mite nymphs then feed on the developing bees. The mites and bees leave the brood cell together, as adults. The mites cause many birth defects, such as shortened abdomens, deformed wings and legs, or sometimes cause death. Colonies infested with varroa mites that are not treated can survive for about 8-18 months. Scott Camazine, an entomologist at Penn Situation University, believes that the mites aren’t the main problem. He says that the mites are simply making viral transmission faster (Doebler).
The other mite feeding on honeybees are tracheal mites. These mites are much smaller than varroa mites and believed to be less dangerous. These parasites live and feed in the bee’s trachea, clogging the airway and limiting respiration. The major effect of this is that bees cannot raise their metabolic rate to keep warm while they fly. Beekeepers frequently place grease patties or menthol chips inside the hives when honey is not being produced to slow the spread of tracheal mites.
Many studies trying to determine the cause of CCD are built on a project started for the California almond crops. The study started as a way to artificially supplement the honeybee’s diets in order to originate larger colonies (Flores). As California is a major consumer of honeybee use for pollination, it is not surprising that the first effort to fight CCD have started there.
Entomologist Jeff Pettis, research leader of the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, is working on several collaborations to try to determine the cause of CCD. One study is looking at the combination of pesticide use and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), found in a previous study with university researcher Jay D. Evans, to be strongly associated with CCD. The second experiment will recognize at the effects of varroa mites and pesticides combined. If these two studies fail, other combinations will be explored. One of the issues with these and other CCD studies is that samples have only been taken after CCD has been reported. Therefore, Pettis has begun his eye with three different beekeepers one both healthy and affected hives. Hopefully, the samples will give information to previous signs and causes of CCD (Kaplan). John Adamczyk, the acting research leader for ARS’s Honey Bee Research Unit in Weslaco, Texas, explains the hope for the study: “At the end of the 5-year cycle we’ll have specific recommendations that the beekeeper could use on how to manage bees more efficiently during long-range transport for pollination. We want to be able to transfer that technology to be useful by the end user” (Flores).
A major issue is the huge outburst of IAPV. Some thought that importation of bees from Australia and China had brought the disease with them, but entomologists Yanping (Judy) Chen and Evans, both also with the ARS Bee Research Laboratory, found otherwise. Chen said that “Our gape shows that, without question, IAPV has been in this country since at least 2002. This work makes it clear that IAPV is not a fresh introduction from Australia” (Kaplan). This however, does not rule out IAPV as a cause of CCD.
American foulbrood a bacterial disease of the honey bee, which is very devastating to bee colonies. The most distinct symptom is a creamy or dark brown glue-like larval remain that can be pulled out in a rope. This test is known as the ‘matchstick test.’ It affects the brood cells, killing bees before they are productive, usually while pupae, and occasionally with larvae. Brood cells may be spotted, showing early signs (de Graaf). Introduction of American foulbrood, or any other foulbrood, can kill off all future generations of honey bees is not spotted and treated immediately. A new drug, tylosin tartrate (TYLAN Soluble), has been approved for consume to treat foulbrood (Honey Bees). If treated, colonies can continue to thrive.
A very tremendous inspect sharp pesticides has been conducted. 158 pesticides were tested among the honey bee, the leaf cutting bee, and the alkali bee. The leaf cutting bee is a solitary nesting bee that mainly foraging on alfalfa plants. Nests are built in narrow tube-like cavities, and separate cells are made for each egg and lined with alfalfa. The cell is then plugged with alfalfa leaves, and a new nest is made in the area. The alkali bee is also a solitary, bee that builds nests in soil. This western bee likes alkaline soils near water. The nest is between five and twenty centimeters deep, with many oval cells branching off the main shaft. This bee pollinates mainly alfalfa, onion, clover, celery, and mints. A smaller pesticide study has also been conducted on the bumble bee. Bumble bees are social insects, like honey bees. They make smaller nests, consisting of only 100-500 individuals. They prefer to nest underground, like the alkali bee, and need undisturbed meadows, archaic barns or woodlots. Bumble bees work harder than honeybees at cooler temperatures. They pollinate a larger variety of plants, but do particularly well on tomatoes and berries. The results were very similar for all species, although certain bees do better than others with different pesticides (Devillers).
Many researchers have found a completely different solution to the problem of CCD, that is, to simply not have honey bee hives. Wild bees, also known as non-honey bees, have been shown to be better pollinators than the honeybee, although it is mild unclear as to whether non-native honey bees are negatively effecting wild native bee populations. Studies are conflicting, and great pollination results have occurred when old together, yet the mammoth numbers of honeybees could have a large impact on native species if food supplies are shrimp (Paini). Entomologist James Cane has found that a new native bee, called the Osmia bee, or the Mason bee, is a incredible pollinator of berries. Cane learned of the bee from bee enthusiast Ron yon der Hellen, who told Cane of the quarter-inch long metallic green bee that had housed itself in his wooden nesting boards that he keeps as housing for leaf cutting bees. Cane borrowed several hundred of these bees and found that they visited as many red raspberry flowers as did honey bees in the same amount of time,, and nearly as many blackberry flowers. While red raspberries and blackberries are self-pollinating, bee visits made berries better. Cane found that red raspberry flowers visited by honey bees or the Osmia bees bore berries that were 30% heavier. The Osmia bee however, always gathered pollen, while honeybees did not. Even better, these bees are resistant to the devastating mites. After 5 years of study, Cane plans to give these emerald-green bees to growers and beekeepers (Wood).
Another study shows that native bees are up to five times more efficient at pollinating sunflowers than honeybees alone. Researchers at the Berkeley and Davis campuses of the University of California found that wild bees play a crucial role in the pollinating process. Sarah Greenleaf, the study’s leader, says that, “Up until now, we have thought that honey bees alone were doing most of the pollination, but now we know that a lot of honey bee pollination happens because of their interaction with wild native bees. This means that wild bees are distinguished, much more important that we previously thought.” She and Claire Kremen observed the behavior of honey bees and wild native bees in sunflower fields during two different growing seasons. They found that in fields where wild bees were rare, one honeybee visit produced, on average, three seeds. As the number of wild bees increased, so did the number of seeds produced, up to 15 seeds per visit. To maintain their data neat, each flower was bagged before it bloomed, allowed one visit, and then re-bagged until the seeds were produced (Two Bees). The drastic difference shows that native bees are a vital share of the pollination process.
Native bees are shown to be the most important crop pollinators in a recent search for of watermelon crops. This study showed that native bees alone are sufficient to pollinate the watermelon. The study alive to 46 species of wild bees, and showed that native bees, given proper habitat, could replace the honey bee if needed. Natural habitat must be provided, open soil for soil-dwelling species, and year round food supply must be available within 0.3 kilometers, although further distances may suffice (Winfree).
Native bees are a possible, and currently the best, solution to the problem of CCD. To encourage native bees to live around your home, farm, or orchard, plant native plants. Native plants will thrive without remarkable care and native bees are already well suited to them. Use diversity in color, shape, and flowering times to attract many species to originate permanent homes. Not all bees like the same colors or the same shape flowers, so be sure to get a variety. Avoid pesticides, or read the Devillers watch to determine what would be safest to employ, and when. Distinct pesticides can only be mature safely on different parts of plants; however there are a few pesticides which have been shown to be completely safe for the studied bees. Nesting sites are a must, so leave so open ground undisturbed, and assume making nesting boxes (NRDC). All these things combined can benefit a farm or orchard save money by not renting out honeybees, and as CCD becomes more of an issue, these prices may rise.
Although native bees seem to be a solution to the CCD problem, other issues arise. Most wild bees are solitary, making transportation to large crops like the California almonds nearly impossible. If you of honeybees stopped in the United States, the millions of dollars received from honey and beeswax would no longer exist. These products would need to be imported, and prices would rise drastically. As CCD affects the world, these products may someday be completely eliminated if we do not get a handle on CCD. Also, the different native bees have other diseases they are susceptible to, and share many of the same diseases with honeybees.
Colony Collapse Disorder is a serious problem effecting beekeepers, farmers, and consumers. If we cannot collect a handle on what is causing this, the world may fall into a greater depression, and food prices will soar. To combat this, we need to stop abusing our honey bees and encourage native bees to take residence come farms and orchards. Pesticide use needs to be cut down, used in safer ways, or altogether eliminated. Mass transportation of hives over hundreds of miles needs to be stopped, as this likely causes great stress to the honeybees, making them more susceptible to disease.
de Graaf, D. C., “Diagnosis of American Foulbrood in Honey Bees: a Synthesis and Proposed Analytical Protocols.” Letters in Applied Microbiology 43.6 (Dec. 2006): 583-590. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 27 Oct. 2008 .
Devillers, J., “Comparative toxicity and hazards of pesticides to Apis and non- Apis bees. A chemometrical study.” SAR & QSAR in Environmental Research 14.5/6 (Oct. 2003): 389-403. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 1 Nov. 2008 .
Doebler, Stefanie A. "The Rise and Fall of the Honeybee." Bioscience 50.9 (Sep. 2000): 738. Environment Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 3 Nov. 2008 .
Flores, Alfredo. "Improving Honey Bee Health." Agricultural Research 56.2 (Feb. 2008): 7-7. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 27 Oct. 2008 http://libproxy.unm.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=28748594&site=ehost-live.
Honey Bees Derive a New Antibiotic." Agricultural Research 54.7 (July 2006): 23-23. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 28 Oct. 2008 .
Kaplan, J. Kim. "A Complex Buzz." Agricultural Research 56.5 (May 2008): 8-11. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 28 Oct. 2008 .
NRDC: Honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder. Sept. 2008. National Resources Defense Council. 2 Nov. 2008
Paini, D. R. "Impact of the introduced honey bee (Apis mellifera) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) on native bees: A review." Austral Ecology 29.4 (Aug. 2004): 399-407. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
"Two Bees Better Than One." Science & Children 44.3 (Nov. 2006): 8-9. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM.]. 14 Nov. 2008 http://libproxy.unm.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=ehh&AN=22885757&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Wood, Marcia. “Astounding Wild Bees. (Cover legend).” Agricultural Research 56.2 (Feb. 2008): 4-6. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
Winfree, Rachael, et al. “Native bees provide insurance against ongoing honey bee losses.” Ecology Letters
10.11 (Nov. 2007): 1105-1113. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Mar 13th, 2011. Comment. 
A press release published Friday stated that Canada’s new government is committing $52 million US to be paid out over the next four years through Canada’s Mask Crop Protection Program (CCPP) in order to assist agricultural businessmen who are unable to put their commercial crops to seed because of the effects of spring flooding or excessive field moisture.
“Canada’s new government understands solutions are needed to deal with annual cropland flooding. Through the Cover Chop Protection Program, this government will help to ensure Canadian farmers have the support they need to restore and protect flood-damaged cropland,” the Honorable Carol Skelton, Minister of National Revenue, said in the press release. She spoke on behalf of Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board.
The Canadian government is not attempting protectionist subsidizing of its farmers with the CCPP.
Earlier this year, Canada attacked the United States’ employ of federal aid to farmers, including excessive subsidizing and disguising excessive subsidizing as emergency wait on to farmers.
In an international meeting of developed and developing nations held in Germany in June, the United States refused to acquiesce to requests from other nations to place more severe limits on its agricultural subsidizing.
Canada claims that the United States soared right on by her annual WTO spending cap of $19.1 billion six times in original years. Canada also maintains that a program to back loans conventional in buying U.S. farm goods is a disguised form of an internationally prohibited export subsidy. What’s more, Canada is of the view that the U.S. has incorrectly labeled a number of her farm programs — including direct payments and nick disaster assistance — as “supports” that by implication do not significantly distort world markets.
The CCPP on the other hand is essentially a federal government insurance program. Agricultural producers who have enrolled in the insurance program and who cannot get a commercial sever seeded by a certain deadline due to excessive moisture or flooding will be eligible to be paid $15 US per acre.
“The CCPP will target assistance this year to designated areas across Canada where an extraordinary number of unseeded acreage claims were filed due to wet conditions. These areas of claim density will be identified in the coming weeks, at which point the program will be in a position to obtain under scheme,” said Skelton.
“There are a lot of wet, unseeded acres in the province. We appreciate the federal government’s recognition of the severity of the situation and encourage eligible producers to apply for financial assistance under the Cover Crop Protection Program,” David Marit, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), said in the press release.
Sources of information used to research this news story:
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Feb 26th, 2011. Comment.
While we as a nation have been in the throes of financial crisis and seemingly arrive ruin, it has caused me to be all the more aware of the fragility of definite things we may have taken for granted. Most of us have viewed the large banking institutions, insurance firms and investment houses as being gorgeous powerful “rock solid” for a variety of reasons – maybe due to the assumed diversity of their portfolios, strong and adept management, or maybe just the fact of the longevity of many well known investment firms. Unprejudiced when we reached the point of feeling pretty top-notch about our methods of investing – along came the Enron scandal, and more recently large losses in 401K and IRA accounts, bailouts for AIG and the big-three auto makers, and the “Madoff” scandal. I can’t abet but consider that maybe it’s time we take a more “personal” and proactive stance toward our investment decisions, rather than turning our money over to the so-called professionals – which seems to be our propensity.
It seems the investment emphasis for the general public has, over the years, bumped along through various stages. Once-upon-a-time the stock market was looked upon as a type of investing practiced solely by the very wealthy, only the most “sophisticated” investors. During the late 70′s we began to hear of IRAs, then 401Ks and a large rush toward the mutual funds. The 1980′s saw the re-emergence of personal investing in the stocks – dotcoms, penny stocks, IPOs, day-trading and over-the-counter stocks, – by the general public. While these forms of investing are more available to us than ever, there continues to be one make of investment that many seem to avoid like a case of food poisoning and refuse to even consider – the “futures markets”. The dreaded “F-word” of investing.
Futures Markets Today!
Is this fabricate of investing right for the “non-professional” investor today? A few of the demographics depict some interesting details. For instance, the number of contracts traded in the energy markets increased approximately 69% from 1998 to 2004. The increase in the financial markets, such as Treasury Bonds increased around 169%. Also, in the financial sector, of the 949 million contracts traded during 2004 only around 1% were actually settled by delivery or cash settlement. Thus the majority of these contracts, over 90% were traded by speculators. This growing interest is reflected by the increase in the volume of contracts traded in the various market sectors, for example within the currency market, the number of British Pound contracts traded during 2004 numbered 4,070,827 – a 72% increase from unprejudiced a year earlier. These types of increases, across all market sectors, display that the futures- markets offer an unprecedented opportunity for profitable trading due to the increased liquidity and the sheer number of product offerings. It is also evident, that in increasing numbers, individual speculators are turning to this form of investment.
Trading futures was once plan of as the sole domain of only the “most sophisticated” of investors and of very large companies which needed to use futures to “hedge” their production costs against price changes in the market – thus establishing their production costs on “raw materials” into the future. With today’s increasing ability to trade these markets and monitor positions on-line and by using discount brokerages, these markets can be traded quite easily and with very obedient results. Often I’ve heard the old adage that you can lose your “shirt”, “house”, “family farm”, etc in trading the commodity markets, – the CTFC and NFA (watchdogs for the commodities industry) do indeed solemnly warn that because of the leverage involved in trading these markets very substantial losses are possible. Some may even say they are inevitable. But if this is true, one question still begs the asking, – if large losses are possible isn’t it also moral that large gains are very possible as well. While we can’t just “throw money” into holding a futures position as we might do with buying a stock issue (with itsy-bitsy or no risk), what prevents you and me from becoming a knowledgeable and competent investor or trader in the futures markets? Should we automatically assume that losses are inevitable and that the common person with some money to invest is incapable of learning how to trade these markets or how to limit losses should a market turn against his position? Of course not! This is what I propose in my trading method, “Transitional Analysis” and refer to on my website, (www.transitionalanalysis.com) – becoming a proficient and competent trader and taking advantage of this famous form of investing that is often thought of as a realm originate to only the most elite. The term “sophisticated” is most certainly an adjective used to describe an investor who has done the “home-work” on a particular market. One who, because of study and becoming knowledgeable in a certain market, can enter and exit a market position with “discernment”. As I talk to people who are involved in these markets or read the numerous articles available on trading futures, I often note the plethora of systems that propose a “mechanical” or “auto-pilot” type of trading. Isn’t this the mentality that has gotten us into the problems we face today – turning our hard earned capital over to those who we think are somehow better qualified to invest our money?
What is needed? A recent article in “Futures” magazine quoted a successful trader who had posted gains of 142% in 2008 as crediting his success to “a good trading system with sound risk management and markets that are active as hell.” During a year in which many experienced losses of 20% or more in their long-term investments a 142% gain is more than impressive.
Is futures speculation for everyone? Probably not. But for those who can embrace the challenge of becoming knowledgeable in the commodity markets, how they’re traded and how to practice the rules of sound money management there are potentially very good profits to be gained. I believe that education and “a good trading method” are key elements of successful personal investing, whether in the perceived safety of stocks and mutual funds or the more volatile and leveraged returns of the f-word, “futures”.
Filed under Mercury Auto Insurance by on Feb 24th, 2011. Comment.
In a statement released Monday, Public Justice, a national public interest law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., and the California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), said they are requesting a New Orleans federal court to keep public key documents relating to a lawsuit stemming from Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit is being brought against Allstate Insurance Company on the grounds of “terrible faith”, the failure to pay a legitimate claim on inauthentic grounds of denial.
Allstate has asked the court to keep the documents sealed.
This is not the first time that Allstate has had itself targeted for lawsuits because of a failure to pay claims. A federal court is still waiting for that insurance company to turn over and make public over 12,000 PowerPoint slides made for it by a management consulting firm that started working with the insurer in the early 1990s. The court order was given to Allstate in 2004, and it is amazing that a large corporation is not complying with that order; non-compliance like that is rare.
The company says that it is engaging in “civil disobedience” by denying the order, refusing to let its proprietary secrets and management techniques be stolen by competitors.
But the reason for the court order centers on the claim made by one lawyer in a well-researched book that the management consultant was brought in to indicate Allstate how to re-structure its claims paying policies and whisper its claims adjusters in such a way as to be able to avoid paying on a lot of claims by its policy holders.
Allstate also attempted to block the publication of that lawyer’s book, which was released in 2006. The insurer says that it was using the management training to be able to better protect itself against insurance fraud.
This journalist had Allstate auto insurance in the later 1990s for one year. Although I had a perfect driving record when I bought the insurance, I was the victim of a four-car accident on a fast-moving New Jersey highway that. No one was injured and I was the only one of the four drivers found faultless.
While Allstate paid my claim expediently, I was summarily dropped by the insurer months later for unstated grounds. The company informed me that it had chosen to exercise its “two percent rule” option, under which it is permitted by law to drop two percent of its policy holders in any given year for any reason the company finds to be a good one.
My settlement amount for the accident exceeded the amount of premiums that I paid to Allstate in that year’s time.
“It appears that Allstate devised its claims-handling process to avoid paying claims to homeowners and did so at the very same time homeowners were, quite literally, stranded and desperate due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. These records shed light on Allstate’s behavior after Hurricane Katrina and Allstate is afraid of the public scrutiny,” said Michael Lucas, a Public Justice attorney.
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Feb 21st, 2011. Comment.
America was called the ‘land of milk and honey’ by the weak world, yet neither cows nor honeybees are native to the Americas. Surprisingly, it is not the honey from the bees that is so well-known to our economy. Pollination by bees adds over 15 billion dollars to our economy (Flores). Around 130 crops need honeybees in order to thrive (Kaplan). In the United States, honeybees produce about 200 million pounds of honey, worth 125 million dollars, and about 3.9 million pounds of beeswax, worth 7 million dollars (Doebler). Beekeeping is a serious business, not only for our economy, but for our food. Around one third of our food depends on pollination, including coffee, green chile, soybeans, apples, berries, squash, almonds, and many others (NRDC). In California alone, the almond crop requires the service of about half the United States bee colonies, around 1.2 million (Flores).
Unfortunately, the bee business isn’t going so well. A current phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been taking a great toll on our honey bees. During fall 2006, beekeepers in many countries around the world noticed a sudden disappearance of managed honey bee colonies, and for no apparent reason. These hives were formerly healthy, but for some reason bees simply abandoned their hives, often leaving just the queen and a few caretakers. In February 2007, the syndrome had been named (Kaplan). Congress recognized Colony Collapse Disorder as a threat in 2007 and granted emergency funds to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study honey bee disappearances. The 2008 Farm Bill granted the Department of Agriculture $20 million each year to support bee research and related work (NRDC). Research is underway to try to determine the causes of CCD, and how to prevent it from occurring. Possibilities involve combinations of pesticide exposure, invasive parasitic mites, inadequate food supply, transportation, and many different viruses. As the cause is believed to be from multiple sources, pinpointing them will be difficult. Many viruses are believed to be passed on by the mites, which in of themselves are devastating enough.
At an apiculture conference, a commercial beekeeper cries in front of the audience. In 6 months, he was broke, loosing his house, and his entire beekeeping operation had been wiped out. The cause of his disaster was two little parasites. One, the varroa mite, is described by James Tew, a specialist in beekeeping at Ohio State University, as the “biggest catastrophe to befall apiculture since its establishment in this country in the 1600s… In only a few years, the varroa mite redesigned nearly 300 years of North American apiculture in ways akin to the dramatic way the boll weevil restructured the cotton-producing industry … in the early 1920s.” Varroa mites are large enough to be seen by the eye. Female varroa mites attach to bees between abdominal segments, feeding on a substance similar to our blood, called hemolmph. When females enter a nursery cell, called a brood cell, the mites lay eggs. The mite nymphs then feed on the developing bees. The mites and bees leave the brood cell together, as adults. The mites cause many birth defects, such as shortened abdomens, deformed wings and legs, or sometimes cause death. Colonies infested with varroa mites that are not treated can survive for about 8-18 months. Scott Camazine, an entomologist at Penn State University, believes that the mites aren’t the main problem. He says that the mites are simply making viral transmission faster (Doebler).
The other mite feeding on honeybees are tracheal mites. These mites are much smaller than varroa mites and believed to be less dangerous. These parasites live and feed in the bee’s trachea, clogging the airway and limiting respiration. The major finish of this is that bees cannot raise their metabolic rate to hold warm while they glide. Beekeepers frequently place grease patties or menthol chips inside the hives when honey is not being produced to boring the spread of tracheal mites.
Many studies trying to determine the cause of CCD are built on a project started for the California almond crops. The study started as a way to artificially supplement the honeybee’s diets in order to create larger colonies (Flores). As California is a major consumer of honeybee exercise for pollination, it is not surprising that the first effort to fight CCD have started there.
Entomologist Jeff Pettis, research leader of the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, is working on several collaborations to try to determine the cause of CCD. One study is looking at the combination of pesticide use and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), found in a previous study with university researcher Jay D. Evans, to be strongly associated with CCD. The second experiment will look at the effects of varroa mites and pesticides combined. If these two studies fail, other combinations will be explored. One of the issues with these and other CCD studies is that samples have only been taken after CCD has been reported. Therefore, Pettis has begun his gawk with three different beekeepers one both healthy and affected hives. Hopefully, the samples will give information to previous signs and causes of CCD (Kaplan). John Adamczyk, the acting research leader for ARS’s Honey Bee Research Unit in Weslaco, Texas, explains the hope for the study: “At the end of the 5-year cycle we’ll have specific recommendations that the beekeeper could use on how to manage bees more efficiently during long-range transport for pollination. We want to be able to transfer that technology to be useful by the end user” (Flores).
A major issue is the huge outburst of IAPV. Some thought that importation of bees from Australia and China had brought the disease with them, but entomologists Yanping (Judy) Chen and Evans, both also with the ARS Bee Research Laboratory, found otherwise. Chen said that “Our study shows that, without question, IAPV has been in this country since at least 2002. This work makes it clear that IAPV is not a recent introduction from Australia” (Kaplan). This however, does not rule out IAPV as a cause of CCD.
American foulbrood a bacterial disease of the honey bee, which is very devastating to bee colonies. The most obvious symptom is a creamy or black brown glue-like larval remain that can be pulled out in a rope. This test is known as the ‘matchstick test.’ It affects the brood cells, killing bees before they are productive, usually while pupae, and occasionally with larvae. Brood cells may be spotted, showing early signs (de Graaf). Introduction of American foulbrood, or any other foulbrood, can kill off all future generations of honey bees is not spotted and treated immediately. A new drug, tylosin tartrate (TYLAN Soluble), has been approved for employ to treat foulbrood (Honey Bees). If treated, colonies can continue to thrive.
A very spacious study involving pesticides has been conducted. 158 pesticides were tested among the honey bee, the leaf cutting bee, and the alkali bee. The leaf cutting bee is a solitary nesting bee that mainly foraging on alfalfa plants. Nests are built in narrow tube-like cavities, and separate cells are made for each egg and lined with alfalfa. The cell is then plugged with alfalfa leaves, and a new nest is made in the spot. The alkali bee is also a solitary, bee that builds nests in soil. This western bee likes alkaline soils near water. The nest is between five and twenty centimeters deep, with many oval cells branching off the main shaft. This bee pollinates mainly alfalfa, onion, clover, celery, and mints. A smaller pesticide study has also been conducted on the bumble bee. Bumble bees are social insects, like honey bees. They invent smaller nests, consisting of only 100-500 individuals. They prefer to nest underground, like the alkali bee, and need undisturbed meadows, old barns or woodlots. Bumble bees work harder than honeybees at cooler temperatures. They pollinate a larger variety of plants, but do particularly well on tomatoes and berries. The results were very similar for all species, although determined bees do better than others with different pesticides (Devillers).
Many researchers have found a completely different solution to the problem of CCD, that is, to simply not have honey bee hives. Wild bees, also known as non-honey bees, have been shown to be better pollinators than the honeybee, although it is still unclear as to whether non-native honey bees are negatively effecting wild native bee populations. Studies are conflicting, and great pollination results have occurred when used together, yet the large numbers of honeybees could have a gargantuan impact on native species if food supplies are limited (Paini). Entomologist James Cane has found that a new native bee, called the Osmia bee, or the Mason bee, is a fantastic pollinator of berries. Cane learned of the bee from bee enthusiast Ron yon der Hellen, who told Cane of the quarter-inch long metallic green bee that had housed itself in his wooden nesting boards that he keeps as housing for leaf cutting bees. Cane borrowed several hundred of these bees and found that they visited as many red raspberry flowers as did honey bees in the same amount of time,, and nearly as many blackberry flowers. While red raspberries and blackberries are self-pollinating, bee visits made berries better. Cane found that red raspberry flowers visited by honey bees or the Osmia bees bore berries that were 30% heavier. The Osmia bee however, always gathered pollen, while honeybees did not. Even better, these bees are resistant to the devastating mites. After 5 years of study, Cane plans to give these emerald-green bees to growers and beekeepers (Wood).
Another explore shows that native bees are up to five times more efficient at pollinating sunflowers than honeybees alone. Researchers at the Berkeley and Davis campuses of the University of California found that wild bees play a crucial role in the pollinating process. Sarah Greenleaf, the study’s leader, says that, “Up until now, we have understanding that honey bees alone were doing most of the pollination, but now we know that a lot of honey bee pollination happens because of their interaction with wild native bees. This means that wild bees are much, worthy more important that we previously thought.” She and Claire Kremen observed the behavior of honey bees and wild native bees in sunflower fields during two different growing seasons. They found that in fields where wild bees were rare, one honeybee visit produced, on average, three seeds. As the number of wild bees increased, so did the number of seeds produced, up to 15 seeds per visit. To sustain their data spruce, each flower was bagged before it bloomed, allowed one visit, and then re-bagged until the seeds were produced (Two Bees). The drastic difference shows that native bees are a vital part of the pollination process.
Native bees are shown to be the most important crop pollinators in a original study of watermelon crops. This study showed that native bees alone are sufficient to pollinate the watermelon. The study involved 46 species of wild bees, and showed that native bees, given proper habitat, could replace the honey bee if needed. Natural habitat must be provided, open soil for soil-dwelling species, and year round food supply must be available within 0.3 kilometers, although further distances may suffice (Winfree).
Native bees are a possible, and currently the best, solution to the problem of CCD. To encourage native bees to live around your home, farm, or orchard, plant native plants. Native plants will thrive without much care and native bees are already well suited to them. Exhaust diversity in color, shape, and flowering times to attract many species to execute permanent homes. Not all bees like the same colors or the same shape flowers, so be sure to rep a variety. Avoid pesticides, or read the Devillers study to determine what would be safest to use, and when. Certain pesticides can only be old safely on different parts of plants; however there are a few pesticides which have been shown to be completely safe for the studied bees. Nesting sites are a must, so leave so open ground undisturbed, and consider making nesting boxes (NRDC). All these things combined can help a farm or orchard save money by not renting out honeybees, and as CCD becomes more of an issue, these prices may rise.
Although native bees seem to be a solution to the CCD problem, other issues arise. Most wild bees are solitary, making transportation to large crops like the California almonds nearly impossible. If you of honeybees stopped in the United States, the millions of dollars received from honey and beeswax would no longer exist. These products would need to be imported, and prices would rise drastically. As CCD affects the world, these products may someday be completely eliminated if we do not gather a handle on CCD. Also, the different native bees have other diseases they are susceptible to, and share many of the same diseases with honeybees.
Colony Collapse Disorder is a serious problem effecting beekeepers, farmers, and consumers. If we cannot get a handle on what is causing this, the world may fall into a greater depression, and food prices will waft. To combat this, we need to stop abusing our honey bees and attend native bees to take residence near farms and orchards. Pesticide consume needs to be cut down, used in safer ways, or altogether eliminated. Mass transportation of hives over hundreds of miles needs to be stopped, as this likely causes tall stress to the honeybees, making them more susceptible to disease.
de Graaf, D. C., “Diagnosis of American Foulbrood in Honey Bees: a Synthesis and Proposed Analytical Protocols.” Letters in Applied Microbiology 43.6 (Dec. 2006): 583-590. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 27 Oct. 2008 .
Devillers, J., “Comparative toxicity and hazards of pesticides to Apis and non- Apis bees. A chemometrical study.” SAR & QSAR in Environmental Research 14.5/6 (Oct. 2003): 389-403. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. [University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 1 Nov. 2008 .
Doebler, Stefanie A. "The Rise and Fall of the Honeybee." Bioscience 50.9 (Sep. 2000): 738. Environment Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 3 Nov. 2008 .
Flores, Alfredo. "Improving Honey Bee Health." Agricultural Research 56.2 (Feb. 2008): 7-7. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 27 Oct. 2008 http://libproxy.unm.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=a9h&AN=28748594&site=ehost-live.
Honey Bees Gather a New Antibiotic." Agricultural Research 54.7 (July 2006): 23-23. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 28 Oct. 2008 .
Kaplan, J. Kim. "A Complex Buzz." Agricultural Research 56.5 (May 2008): 8-11. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 28 Oct. 2008 .
NRDC: Honeybees and Colony Collapse Disorder. Sept. 2008. National Resources Defense Council. 2 Nov. 2008
Paini, D. R. "Impact of the introduced honey bee (Apis mellifera) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) on native bees: A review." Austral Ecology 29.4 (Aug. 2004): 399-407. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
"Two Bees Better Than One." Science & Children 44.3 (Nov. 2006): 8-9. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM.]. 14 Nov. 2008 http://libproxy.unm.edu/login? url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=ehh&AN=22885757&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Wood, Marcia. “Wonderful Wild Bees. (Veil story).” Agricultural Research 56.2 (Feb. 2008): 4-6. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
Winfree, Rachael, et al. “Native bees provide insurance against ongoing honey bee losses.” Ecology Letters
10.11 (Nov. 2007): 1105-1113. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. University Libraries, Albuquerque, NM. 14 Nov. 2008 .
Filed under Farmers Insurance by on Feb 19th, 2011. Comment.
