In article .com,
"simy1" wrote:
On Apr 15, 9:12 am, "Johnny" wrote:
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants
suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature
workers. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly
far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally
raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go
anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all
American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of
its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East
Coast.
German experiments have shown that cell phones disrupt a bee
navigation system.
This goes way beyond finding their way home.
http://www.environment.co.za/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=529
. . . The disease showed a completely new set of symptoms, "which does
not seem to match anything in the literature", said the entomologist.
One was that the bees left the hive and flew away to die elsewhere, over
about a week. Another was that the few bees left inside the hive were
carrying "a tremendous number of pathogens" - virtually every known bee
virus could be detected in the insects, she said, and some bees were
carrying five or six viruses at a time, as well as fungal infections.
Because of this it was assumed that the bees' immune systems were being
suppressed in some way.
Professor Cox-Foster went on: "And another unusual symptom that we're
are seeing, which makes this very different, is that normally when a bee
colony gets weak and its numbers are decreasing, other neighboring bees
will come and steal the resources - they will take away the honey and
the pollen.
"Other insects like to take advantage too, such as the wax moth or the
hive beetle. But none of this is happening. These insects are not coming
in.
"This suggests that there is something toxic in the colony itself which
is repelling them." . . .
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AIDS for bees.
- Bill
Cloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)