Parasite Turns Honey Bees Into Zombies.....

[MMC]

..

[jgreer]

That is so crazy! Wow

I dont think it will happen to people but if it happened to bees it could

[Conley]

So this is why there is a worldwide honey bee shortage? Some zombie virus?

edit: Guess so

A fly parasite is being blamed for an epidemic that has struck the honey bee population around the world.

[Mister D]

Well at leaqst now they cabn begin to address it and stop making silly references to environmentalism.

[Conley]

I wonder why it took so long to figure this out. It's been what, a decade? Maybe there are a combination of factors at work.

[Mister D]

They would often allude to man's activities but it now appears to be a virus.

[MMC]

..

[Mister D]

Exactly D.....at first they thought they were being taken over by the strain from Africa.....then they started to blame mankind and his insecticides. Now the truth has come out and it is the same exact thing affecting bumblebees. A parasite!

Hopefully now they can do something to protect them.

At least in my experience anyway. Every time I read about this or saw something on TV they always alluded to human activity.

Identifying the cause if a necessary first step.

[Captain Obvious]

So are they called "hope and change" larvae?

[waltky]

Insecticides are devastating the honeybees’ reproductive abilities...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
What is Killing Honeybees?
July 29, 2016 - While Polish scientists found that certain pesticides are devastating the honeybees’ immune system, British scientists report insecticides are also devastating the honeybees’ reproductive abilities.


According to a study published in the leading biological research journal of the Royal Society, two insecticides banned in some European nations but still used in the U.S., reduce the drones’ sperm to a level that makes them unable to reproduce. For years, scientists have been struggling to find reasons for periodic sharp declines of honeybee population across the globe, resulting in the loss of beehives as high as 50 percent in some areas.


http://gdb.voanews.com/55268F21-E12D-42AF-84C8-14DFF6A90AD6_w640_r1_s.jpg
A hive of honeybees appears on display at the Vermont Beekeeping Supply booth at the annual Vermont Farm Show at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction, Vt.

Researchers now agree that several factors contribute to the loss, including climate changes, infectious diseases and overuse of agricultural insecticides and pesticides. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says in December, it will make public the risk assessments of several chemicals including the ones mentioned in the British study.

http://www.voanews.com/content/what-is-killing-honeybees/3439801.html

[waltky]

Now bees are an endangered species...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
Bees placed on endangered species list
Sunday 2nd October, 2016 - S lists seven bee species as endangered; The species listed are native to Hawaii


The United States is on a mission to save some of its busiest workers: bees.
In a first for bees in the nation, seven bee species native to Hawaii are now protected under the Endangered Species Act. The US Fish and Wildlife Service said it added the yellow-faced bee species to the federal list of endangered species Friday night after years of research concluded they are under threat. The rule is effective October 31.


http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/160804131721-wild-bee-large-169.jpg
Making a beeline for disaster

Bees pollinate plants producing fruit, nuts and vegetables, and are crucial for the nation's food industry. They have declined sharply in recent years due to various factors, including habitat loss, pesticides, wildfires and loss of genetic diversity. "Native pollinators in the US provide essential pollination services to agriculture which are valued at more than $9 billion annually," said Eric Lee-Mäder, pollinator program co-director at the Xerces Society, which was involved in petitions calling for the protection of the bee species.

During pollination, insects, birds and bats transfer pollen between plants, which allows them to make seeds and reproduce. Listing the bees allows authorities to provide recovery programs and get funding for protection.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/01/us/hawaii-bee-species-endangered/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_world+%28RSS%3A+CNN +-+World%29

[waltky]

Pesticide linked to weakened honeybee hives...
http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
Large study links key pesticide to weakened honeybee hives
WASHINGTON — Jun 29, 2017 | A common and much-criticized pesticide dramatically weakens already vulnerable honeybee hives, according to a new massive field study in three European countries.


For more than a decade, the populations of honeybees and other key pollinators have been on the decline, and scientists have been trying to figure out what's behind the drop, mostly looking at a combination of factors that include disease, parasites, poor diet and pesticides. Other studies, mostly lab experiments, have pointed to problems with the insecticides called neonicotinoids, but the new research done in Britain, Hungary and Germany is the largest field study yet. Researchers planted about 7.7 square miles (2,000 hectares) of fields of rapeseed, which is made into cooking oil, called canola in America. Some of the fields were planted with seeds treated with the insecticide, others with untreated seeds. The researchers followed bees from the spring of 2015 when the seeds flowered to the following spring when new bees were born.

The bee hives in the Hungarian and British fields that used pesticide-treated seeds did worse surviving through the next winter, the researchers found. In Hungary, the honeybee colonies near treated fields had 24 percent fewer worker bees the next spring when compared to those near untreated crops, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science . But in Germany, the bees didn't seem harmed. Hives there were generally healthier to start and when scientists analyzed the pollen brought back to the hives, they determined that the German bees ate a far broader diet with much less of their nutrition coming from the pesticide-treated rapeseed plants, said study director Richard Pywell. Only about 10 percent of the German bee diet was from neonicotinoid-treated plants, compared to more than 50 percent in Hungary and England, he said.


http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/WireAP_db015c27496f4c59b8b71f1f7416e2c8_12x5_1600. jpg

When hives are weakened by disease, parasites or bad diet — as many hives are worldwide — then the neonicotinoids "pushes them over the edge," said Pywell, a scientist at the Center for Ecology and Hydrology in England. So many of the British hives died, in both treated and untreated fields, that scientists couldn't calculate the specific effect of the insecticide, he said. The same study also found that wild bees were also weakened by the insecticide, but in a bit different ways, Pywell said. And for wild and honeybees, one neonicotinoid brand seemed to cause greater harm. Europe banned neonicotinoids, or neonics, in 2013 and researchers needed a special exemption to do their study. Another study in the journal, also finds problems with neonicotinoids in a study in Canada.

The European and Canadian studies show that neonicotinoids harm bees, but still may not quite be the leading cause of bee losses, said University of Maryland entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp, who wasn't part of the study. "The problem remains complex, like cancer," vanEngelsdorp said in an email. Neonicotinoids makers Bayer and Syngenta paid for the European study but had no control over the results or the published paper, Pywell said. Company officials pointed to the results in Germany and the lack of harm to hives there. "The study shows that when hives are healthy and relatively disease free and when bees have access to diverse forage, neonics do not pose a danger to colony health," Bayer spokesman Jeffrey Donald wrote in an email. In a statement, Syngenta's Peter Campbell, head of research collaborations, said the study "strongly suggests the effects of neonicotinoids are a product of interacting factors."

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/large-study-links-key-pesticide-weakened-honeybee-hives-48356077?yptr=yahoo