Old News for us, byt news to some of our citrus friends.
Source:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/nov/25/30bees-disappearing-act-may-spell-trouble-for/
Bees' disappearing act may spell trouble for Florida citrus groves
By Tyler Treadway (Contact)
Sunday, November 25, 2007
This time last year, Dr. Samuel Cassara had 25 hives full of bees in citrus groves west of Vero Beach.
Now, he's down to seven active hives.
"They, the bees, just disappeared beginning in March and April," said Cassara, a Vero Beach chiropractor and amateur beekeeper. "They just left. There was no sign of disease, no bee carcasses lying around. I guess they just decided to go on vacation somewhere else."
Cassara isn't alone.
Beginning last fall and through the spring, an unknown illness caused more than half of the nation's kept bees to flee their hives and disappear. Researchers still are struggling to understand the phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.
The problem isn't confined to a few hobbyist honey farmers or even the 1,000 or so professional beekeepers in Florida.
Simply put: We need bees.
Much of Florida's $86 billion farming industry, including Indian River citrus, counts on honeybees to pollinate crops.
"We can't take the importance of the pollination that bees do lightly," said Fred Burkey, a St. Lucie and Martin county agent for the University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service. "Statistics show that about a third of the world's food production is dependent on bees."
What Burkey called a "way-out-there scenario" would include a price war among the nation's farmers bidding for a limited number of bees to pollinate their crops, with similar price increases for fruit and vegetables at the grocery store as a result. Further "out there" could be worldwide food shortages.
"And one of the biggest problems I see," Burkey said, "is that bees are what we call biological indicators. A significant loss of hives could be a reflection of even larger problems in the environment. So there's a definite need to find out the cause of this phenomenon."
According to literature from the University of Florida, scientists have explored lots of theories for the bee disappearance, including radiation from cell phones and other man-made devices, pesticides, mites, malnutrition and genetically modified crops.
A recent study in the journal Science reports a link between the disorder and a honeybee virus called Israeli acute paralysis virus, which is transmitted by a mite commonly found in beehives.
"Part of the blame has to be on pesticides," said T. Patrick "Pat" Bradley, who keeps hives at his Palm City home and is part of a co-op with hives from Fort Pierce to the Florida Keys. "A lot of people overuse that stuff. And the chemicals that are used for mosquito control affect bees, too."
Larry Gruwell of Fort Pierce, whose family owns about 1,000 hives throughout the Treasure Coast and runs Gruwell Apiary on U.S. 1 south of Midway Road, said "systemic pesticides" ruin a bee's immune system.
"I've even heard it compared to AIDS," Gruwell said.
Gruwell, who claimed none of his bees have disappeared, said part of the cause of colony collapse disorder lies on the beekeepers' own shoulders.
"Too many beekeepers strip all the honey out of a hive," Gruwell said. "That's why they end up feeding sugar water or corn syrup to their bees. Bees make honey to eat. It's good for them like it's good for people. Bees aren't supposed to eat sugar water. When they get hungry, they move off to look for food."
Data from the University of Florida confirms malnutrition causes stress to bees, possibly weakening their immune systems and affecting their ability to fight pests and diseases.
But the experts also note the style of feeding bees and types of bee food used to feed bees vary considerably among beekeepers reporting colony collapse losses.
WHY WORRY?
The Treasure Coast's $1.5 billion citrus industry would "come to a screeching halt" without honeybees, said Doug Bournique, executive director of the Indian River Citrus League.
"Bees are an integral part of the citrus framework, as important as planting the trees," Bournique said. "We've got to have them."
With about 155,000 acres in Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties planted with citrus trees, Bournique said, the area's 1,000 commercial citrus growers are "aware of, and concerned about" colony collapse disorder.
"It's on our radar," he said, "but it's not on the scale of our problems with canker and greening. We're still too busy trying to put out those fires."
WHAT'S THE BUZZ ON DISAPPEARING BEES?
The mystery of colony collapse disorder has scientists scratching their heads. Here are some quirky facts about the phenomenon.
Affected hives can appear healthy just a couple of weeks before the adult bees disappear: hence the nickname, "disappearing disease."
The disappearing bees leave behind a hive full of honey, pollen, capped brood, a queen and sometimes a few worker bees.
Dead bees aren't found in the hive or on the ground outside.
Critters that normally feed on the honey and pollen in hives small hive beetles, wax moths and other nearby honeybees ignore the deserted hive.
