In article ,
General Schvantzkoph wrote:

On Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:43:07 +0000, Doug Freyburger wrote:

Wilson wrote:
Gunner posted this:

Since you both expressed a concern on this subject,..

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUST...3?pageNumber=1

Researchers find "alarming" decline in bumblebees By Maggie Fox,
Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON | Mon Jan 3, 2011 3:36pm
EST

Genetic tests show that the four affected bumblebee species are inbred
and other tests implicate a parasite called Nosema bombi, Cameron*
said...

They documented a 96 percent decline in the numbers of the four
species, and said their range had shrunk by as much as 87 percent. As
with honeybees, a pathogen is partly involved, but the researchers
also found evidence of inbreeding caused by habitat loss....

*Dr Cameron:
http://www.life.illinois.edu/entomol...y/cameron.html

Thanks Gunner. The idea of a bumblebee being inbred sounds like a
result of population decline as opposed to being the source of the
decline. All creatures would inbreed if their numbers declined too much
as a mechanism of survival.

Let's see if I have the likely chain of events right. Bumble bees are a
wild pollinator. Honey bees are a domesticated pollinator. Because
honey bees are domesticated they are widly used. Because honey bees are
widely used a lot of them have gone ferral. Ferral honey bee colonies
compete with bumble bees. That competition has reduced their
population. No wonder I know of folks who will destroy any ferral honey
bee nest they find yet I also know of bee keepers who will gather any
ferral nest and use it to reduce inbreeding in their commercial bee
stocks.

Honeybees have been used for centuries, if competition from them were the
cause for the decline in bumblebees it would have happened a long time
ago. That's not to say that there is no relationship. If the problem is a
disease then domestic honeybees might very well be the vector that's
spreading the disease to wild bees. Domestic bee hives are trucked around
the country which gives them the opportunity to pick up diseases from one
state and then to carry it to another state in a matter of weeks.

http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/02-0626?journalCode=ecol

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=...+graphical+dec
line&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

I deal with this complex issue just by providing a habitat that living
things like. Water,plants and pollen and insects to eat.

In return I get wonder.

Last year mantis yielded two juveniles I saw hope I see an egg cluster
this spring. Seen no honey bee's but bumblebees and all sorts of small
wasps were about.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

"Always tell the truth and you don't have to remember anything."
--Mark Twain.