I am glad to finally read something about bees and what could be possibly killing them. Now if we could only find out what is killing the bats. Leave it to the Canadians to do research. Why isn't our country leading some of this research? Is Science all but abandoned in this country due to the religious right? I wonder.

However, thanks for printing this story on your site! It is nice to read about some real hope instead of negativity and despair all the time. It is a real downer when most of the stories listed on Common Dreams are negative with no activism or real solutions to problems that seem out of reach to average Americans with no REAL POWER of our wreck-less Government in Washington.

Please keep intermixing Science and positive stories of people making a difference and the people who are fighting to justify the wrongs in our country. These stories brighten my day from all the gloom of this world and the never ending War mongers and War machines all for the sake of Greed.

"Experts warn the bee disappearance eventually could harm agriculture and the food supply."

Talk about an understatement! It really boils down to this: NO bees, NO food.

criticalthinktank asks "Is Science all but abandoned in this country due to the religious right?"

that's part of it, but mostly science takes a beating whenever its implications threaten corporate profits. in this case, science gives a failing grade to the unhealthy (in every way) model of factory farming writ small.

Monsanto's Genetically modified crops are probably what is killing the bees. Bees help to pollinate the corn crops you know.

criticalthinktank: "Why isn't our country leading some of this research? Is Science all but abandoned in this country due to the religious right? I wonder"

Yes, the scientific/research community in the USA is hamstrung by the politics of the right. It's another front of the class war. The people seek research for public benefit. The elites seek research for elite benefit. The difference of course is that the people's pursuit is "win-win" while the elites' pursuit is "zero-sum". This model of reality holds great potential because it makes the formulation of optimum public policy so very simple - just ban the elites' zero-sum pursuits and watch the society flourish.

I think it's unfortunate that when you included this article it wasn't complete! You left off the last paragraph of the Reuter's story, which included the citation to the original research article. Articles which say "scientists say blah blah" are worthless unless the original, peer reviewed research is available. Go on google and see the whole story to get to the research.

Liberty, I am going to make two guesses.
1. You are a girl.
2. You are a city girl.
Corn is not pollinated by bees, but by the wind. You need at least four rows, side by side. More rows are better.

Bees are needed for pollinating any thing with blossoms; melons,cucumbers, clover, flowers, and so on. Plant a garden, learn, teach.

The link to the research paper in the original 404s.
The correct link follows http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002771

>>guliper - Bees are needed for pollinating any thing with blossoms; melons,cucumbers, clover, flowers, and so on. Plant a garden, learn, teach.<<

Not true. Bees are needed for most polination, but there is a class, including grasses and corn, that are pollinated by wind. The process is called Anemophily. Most plants that produce pollen that cause allergies are pollinated by anemophily. There is no connection between GE corn and Bees.

My family has kept bees for many generations (I don't know how far back it goes). Some of my best moments in this life were sitting in meditation in the garden, a few feet in front of my two hives as these marvelous creatures went busily about blessing the environment. Even in the city I was transported into a higher plane. I had to give up my hives (development, codes, etc.), but now I feel the greater loss as our planet feels the wound that we have created, and continue to aggravate. Sigh.

GE Corn and the Monarch butterfly

http://www.mindfully.org/GE/Transgenic-Pollen-Monarch20may99.htm

GE corn and bees

http://www.truthout.org/article/are-gm-crops-killing-bees

Where we live in Upstate New York the local farmers have started to BUY bees to pollenate their fields ROUTINELYL because the wild bees are simply NOT coming around in abundant enough quantities. Many of the fields are genetically modified or "partly" genetically modified; with some organic fields, side by SIDE with "low spray" fields. We also have massive BAT "fungus"/deaths in the caves. And where we used to see swarms of bats at night in our Night Sky, we now see maybe 5 or 10 flying over head IF THAT. Are there connections between these phenomena? Everyone who has a garden (including us) is noticing that there are LESS bees buzzing around. It's oddly silent. Silent Spring comes to mind. The other day we heard a BEAUTIFUL sound of buzzing bees in our herb garden and just sat there in GRATITUDE as they arrived for the purple flowers on the herbs. But their patterns are erratic and there are less of them than ever before. Who was it that said -- "The end of bees is the end of Nature." ? This should be THE story in the news right now, and funding for scientists should be focused on THIS situation.

They couldn't blame the CO2 GHG in greenhouses?. Seems a missed opportunity for the AGW proponents.

I wonder what the GM bumblebees that kill off the wild bees do to the tomatoes and peppers (gulp), Of course, you know they have undergone extensive testing to make sure they are the same as naturally pollinated tomatoes. Nope.

The GM of this and that is what is to be feared. There is little regulation or testing being done. If the company says all is well, it is, until one day people start dropping like flies, and we need to bail them out, assuming anyone is left alive. Imagine one day, all the crops fail, because GM terminator seeds got shipped out by mistake, or it was a bad batch, or it was a conspiracy to kill a couple of billion with famine.

If you value science, value uncertainty. No one knows what is killing bees yet. Germany has temporarily banned 8 pesticides called neonicotinoids which may be implicated,* but bees have been having a hard time for a long time; in 1916 beloved beekeeper Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey (who died at 98 in 1996) lost 2/3 of his hives to mites, just to cite one example. He went to Turkey in the middle of World War I to find resistant queens, and bred the Buckfast strain of bees, still used today. The size of bees was artificially increased over the years by increasing the size of foundation (the dimpled sheets of wax or plastic beekeepers supply the bees with to start building comb). Now we find out smaller bees are more resistant to mites.* Other behaviors ignored by breeders in the past also help resistance. Pesticides, mites and diseases spread by globalization, stress of all kinds… the common denominator might be the way we do agriculture, which is the way we do everything, even each other. All out, damn the torpedoes, damn the consequences, damn everything.
Or it might not. Want to rid the world of fundamentalism? Of all kinds? Cultivate your own tolerance of uncertainty. Cultivate skepticism and read the original research—on every subject. Cultivate some bees; they are fascinating and beautiful creatures.*** And put up some bat houses. They could use the help, too.

* www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/24/9177/
**www.dave-cushman.net/bee/denwood.html
***www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/naturalbeekeeping www.beecare.com/indexDynFrames.htm?http://www.beecare.com/Catalog/Books/Beekeepers-Handbook.htm&1

just a thought....gmo foods now dominate our farmlands. bugs eat this pollen, and the bats eat the bugs, and so it goes....up the foodchain....

Katie Bull,

I live near Utica - upstate New York. I don't have anything to contribute to this subject except that I believe you are correct. The Iraq occupation needs front page notoriety because of the humanitarian devastation, the unbelievable amount of monopoly money being spent and because of the environmental destruction. But here at home, the destruction of nature is our own demise.

Google "mason bees" Actually honey bees are from Italy, their an import. Mason bees are our domestic bees. And they do a very good job of pollinating the crops. Is easy to build homes for our bees, which by the way do not sting. No, they do not make honey, but maybe honey was for italy to export. They need something to sell too. we should stick to corn, beans, things that are native to the americas. HEY! maybe we can trade corn to italy for honey! I'll even throw in a great burrito recipe! Now, see how easy and peaceful it all is?

Common Dreams regular blogger KEM PATRICK has also noticed a dearth recently of flying things in Arizona, including birds. We've discussed a number of times the possibility one possible culprit could be depleted uranium usage, particles of which can span the globe in as little as two weeks. Evidence points to a large number of our troops being dversely contaminated, so doesn't it seem logical smaller organisms might be inclined to greater impact? To humans a speck that if inhaled is implicated in a great chance of lung cancer, but to a bee it's the size of a radioactive marble with ill from proximity. Does anyone know of an unbiased study betwen the demise of bees & increase of DU particles in the air we all breath, seas we recreate & gain sustenance from, or terra firma we try to exist upon?

Hi all, ...and thanks for all this useful information. I was ready to post a negative comment to you Liberty, until I read the GE corn and bees link you posted. That was an excellent read providing speculation of viral diseases killing the bees due to the insecticides built into GE modified corn seed. Monsanto strikes again in their efforts to control the world's food. I have friends in Greenpeace, and I'll be sure to send them the link you posted.
The only thing I can offer here is advice to grow more plants that attract bees, ...especially corn from organic sources. If you've ever grown corn, you can easily see it attracts swarms of bees like no other plant does, ...I suppose because of the shear amount of pollen produced by corn plants. And if you ever took a trip through the Mid-west of the United States, you can drive hundreds of miles and see nothing but corn, ...so you can see how this magnifies the problem. Of course bees are not the only pollinating insects, nor do all vegetables need external pollination. Many cucumbers for example have all female flowers, and are self-pollenating. But of course most of our veggies need bees in great numbers, as fruit produced by other hybrid methods produce no seeds to grow future crops. Did you know Monsanto forces farmers to buy their GM seeds in most of the world with a contract that they won't grow or reproduce seeds from their crops? Monsanto has been killing us for a long time

In my backyard gardens, I have not noticed a decline in the bee population, only an increase each year. We also have a large variety of birds who visit our yard and/or make it home. We also have several garder snakes that cause me and my girls to shriek when they slither too close-one suns herself on our front stoop-better than a guard dog! :-) The only explanation I can offer for the increase in fauna is that when we moved here four years ago, the previoius owners had nothing but lawn. Within weeks, we had dug up sections for a garden and flower and herb beds and planted trees (went from one maple to 3 fruit trees, 2 maples and an ash. We don't treat the lawn/plants with pesticides/herbicides and we grow a variety of flowers, edibles, etc., all jumbled together. Tw years ago, we had our first monarch caterpillars. That was very cool to see.

As to whether our "luck" will hold, we shall see. But I hold out hope that small oases can be a tiny band aid on the wound.

It is unlikely that DU, air pollution, water pollution, pesticides, herbicides, urban sprawl, increased CO2, global warming or GM crops is a sole source of an individual specific problem. In addition, every field study result is confounded by all these other uncontrolled inputs. Bee DNA especially the commercial bees has been radically modified and all bees are extremely closely related due to that human tinkering. A weakness in one hive is now in all hives.

This is why the attitude of mental and moral perverts like Bu$h the inferior and Shotgun Dick and their ilk is important. Their 'give me the cash screw the earth philosophy' requires proof to stop even the least economically insignificant pollution.

The logical use of resources is to use only what you need in the least destructive way practical BECAUSE it is unlikely that the total effect of any action can be determined BEFORE some damage is done. Clean up and remediation are extremely expensive if possible at all.

fascinating article and posts.

organicfrmr- thanks for mason bee ideas. As a new beekeeper and would-be farmer, i've been wondering how the Algonquin's extensive agriculture was pollinated before the relatively recent introduction of honeybees. (though it seems mason bees lives end in May, meaning many crops were pollinated by someone else). If you have other links or info, please share.

my beekeeper teacher is from the Rudolph Steiner (biodynamic) tradition and opined that the bee problem is one in which many human practices have impaired the immune system of the honeybee: constantly moving bees, pollen solely from monoculture crops, force-selecting queens, and crowding are some I remember which stress the bees and do not provide for selection of the strongest, healthiest genome.

pesticides
Colony Collapse Disorder Debunked: Pesticides Cause Bee Deaths (NaturalNews) The great mystery of bee deaths has been solved. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a known insect neurotoxin. Clothianidin, a pesticide manufactured by Bayer, has been clearly linked to die offs in Germany and France.

Although the bee die offs that have occurred recently are more severe, there have been many in the past from the same and similar products. In North Dakota, a lawsuit is pending against Bayer for the loss of their bees in 1995, the result of spraying rapeseed with Imidacloprid. In 1999, the same product was banned in France for use as a seed dressing for sunflowers when they lost one-third of their hives after widespread spraying. In 2004, it was banned for use on corn. Recently, France refused to approve Bayer's request to sell Clothianidin.

Clothianidin and Imidacloprid are both members of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They are well known as insect neurotoxins, especially with regard to bees. The spokesperson for the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, based in Germany, stated, "We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn't be on the market."
http://www.naturalnews.com/023679.html

Press Release, May 21, 2008
Coalition against BAYER Dangers (Germany)

Mass death of bees in Germany: Pesticide approvals suspended

“Bayer must withdraw Gaucho and Poncho from the market worldwideâ€

The German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has ordered the immediate suspension of the approval for eight seed treatment products due to the mass death of bees in Germany's Baden-Wuerttemberg state. The suspended products are: Antarc (ingredient: imidacloprid; produced by Bayer), Chinook (imidacloprid; Bayer), Cruiser (thiamethoxam; Syngenta), Elado (clothianidin; Bayer), Faibel (imidacloprid; Bayer), Mesurol (methiocarb; Bayer) and Poncho (clothianidin; Bayer). According to the German Research Centre for Cultivated Plants 29 out of 30 dead bees it had examined had been killed by contact with clothianidin. Also wild bees and other insects are suffering from a significant loss of population.
http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2008/05/7293.shtml

suzz, in addition to to findings you've shown, those neonicotinoids are the cause of CCD by way of their use in GMO seeds. the nicotine gene is used as the bonding DNA to link the pesticide genetics into the plant seed dna. Directly linking a poison to a seed DNA kills the plant. but finding some carrier dna to split and link on both sides of the DNA strands does work to insert a poison into a plant.

unfortunately, the nicotine dna also has a pesky problem of making the bees get wired out on the nicotine buzz! Its like they smoked 50 packs of cigs... they get so wired, they can't remember where the hive is... meantime the queen and brood bees have a severely compromised immune system causing them to get something like bee AIDS.

THis is why CCD is happening more to pollinator bee populations than backyard bee colonies. The Pollinator bees are trucked across the country in semi trailers to move from crop to crop with the coming of spring.... they get to sample all the nation's frankenfood... and because they are trucked every few weeks, they already have a tuff time finding their hives. The whole wiggle dance navigation system is based on home being in the same place for all the bees... move the home five feet to the left and it takes the bees weeks to stop returning to the old location... imagine how hard it is if the hives are trucked to another State AND they now have a fifty pack a day habit!

agribiz has silenced news about this while they frantically look for another linking molecule besides nicotine. meanwhile we hear little to no news... GMO products would not fair well if the public really knew of these dangerous side effects... so we get stupid stories about cell phone towers.

Since about early May I sit on my porch every morning to watch two wild bees come to my flowers. Oh they are choosy only dine on a few species. And yep, I got a big yard full of White clover. BUT!sad to say only saw one other bee there this summer.Another wild bee,
A side note, This spring they sprayed for Gypsy Moths. Did a great job killing off most other species, To date I only seen about 4 Monarch Butterflies maybe abot a dozen black butterflies. This year no spring peepers / Tree frogs Complete silence . Hardly any other frogs either.
Oh and the Gypsy Moths. I guess it stopped some of them but we still saw the catapillers and the moths . They only ate about a 6th of the leaf cover this year.

You know every time humans try to regulate something everything else pays for it.
What was in that spray?They assured us that It would only get rid oF the gypsies.

Last year was not exactly a banner year for bees either around here Central Pennsylvania.
but the butterflies had one.There were spring peepers and the Tree frogs not in large numbers.
Someone stated if there are not any bees there will not be any food.
WRONG! HOW ABOUT SOYLENT GREEN?
that 40 odd year old Sci Fi book/movie will soon become real "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE" A shame old recently dead Charlton Heston could not have become the first cracker lol

Liberty and Suzz: thanks for the links and info.

Not only are strange things happening to bees, but many teachers trying to get monarch butterfly eggs for the classroom in the last few years has heard that the monarchs have had troubles and reductions in population.

Corn may not need bees for pollination, but bees and butterflies do land on corn, and GE/GM corn has been modified to include a Bt protein with a pesticide effect for dealing with corn borer.

They claim that there is no harm to butterflies and honeybees, but they know that monarchs are adversely affected when they land on milkweed dusted with Bt corn pollen. Pro-Bt scientists claim that milkweed would never have that much Bt corn pollen on it, but consider: they don't give butterflies and honeybees roadmaps showing where the roadside ditches are with clean milkweed, and where the huge fields of corn are, which should be avoided. With monoculutre corn-and-beans ag in the US, bees and butterflies will fly over and stop on Bt corn, probably often. It's inevitable.

This changes nature's mix: While Bt naturally occurs on some plants, it has never dominated in a monoculture Ag US before its introduction as a GM crop, so of course, we should expect that there are consequences for insect life.

Bt is not the only factor; neither is global warming, or DU, or the moving of bees around the country (and from other coutries), or pesticides, or herbicides, or breeding, or the advance of certain kinds of mites. But we certainly overstress nature's system when we do the many things we do.

Dear Liberty,
I found (in a couple decades of small commercial beekeeping) that bees go for pollen wherever they can find it. In the early spring before anything flowers, it is trees. They will even collect from yellow jasmine that poisons their larvae, so they are pretty indiscriminate. Corn has poor nutrition content and bees do not prefer it, but they will collect it if nothing else better is available. GM cotton (bred to resist the weevil) is one monoculture crop that does utilize bees as their use improves the yield quite a bit.

I don't think you are a dumb city girl at all.

For heaven's sake...STOP MEDDLING WITH NATURE...money isn't everything.