Sun spots, mites, pesticides, cell phones, fungus...
The debate is carrying on as to why Honeybees are disappearing at an alarming rate in the USA.
I hate to sound like an alarmist, though this certainly has farmers worried, who are partially dependent on Bees for crop pollination. Hopefully this is just a temporary phenomenon.
QUOTE(NY Times 2.23.07)
David Bradshaw has endured countless stings during his life as a beekeeper, but he got the shock of his career when he opened his boxes last month and found half of his 100 million bees missing.
I have never seen anything like it, Mr. Bradshaw, 50, said from an almond orchard here beginning to bloom. Box after box after box are just empty. Theres nobody home.
ARTICLEQUOTE(Yahoo News 4.6.07)
Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent.
The phenomenon now being witnessed across the United States has been dubbed "colony collapse disorder," or CCD, by scientists as they seek to explain what is causing the bees to literally disappear in droves.
The usual suspects to which bees are known to be vulnerable such as the varroa mite, an external parasite which attacks honey bees and which can wipe out a hive, appear not to be the main cause.
ARTICLEQUOTE(Scientific American 4.22.07)
Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, according to Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.
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