Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.

No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't moving,
and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.

This is too many bees to be natural causes. Anyone any ideas?
--
Kay

In message , K
wrote
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.


No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't
moving, and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.


Was this early in the day?

If so they probably just need to warm up a bit in the sun. They can only
fly if their flight muscle temperature is above 27 C
--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , K
wrote
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.


No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't
moving, and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.


Was this early in the day?

If so they probably just need to warm up a bit in the sun. They can only
fly if their flight muscle temperature is above 27 C
--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

Intercept/pravado can also cause that, lots of people use it in their
containers and hanging baskets, when the bee visits a flower the chemical
passes to them in the nectar.
I suspect other crop spays can do similar.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea

Alan writes
In message , K
wrote
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.


No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't
moving, and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.


Was this early in the day?

If so they probably just need to warm up a bit in the sun. They can
only fly if their flight muscle temperature is above 27 C

No, this was late afternooon on a hot day, I was finding them on
flowers, in the house, and on the drivewa.
--
Kay

Charlie Pridham writes

"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , K
wrote
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.


No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't
moving, and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.


Was this early in the day?

If so they probably just need to warm up a bit in the sun. They can only
fly if their flight muscle temperature is above 27 C
--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

Intercept/pravado can also cause that, lots of people use it in their
containers and hanging baskets, when the bee visits a flower the chemical
passes to them in the nectar.
I suspect other crop spays can do similar.

It surprised me to get them in two locations, separated by about 1/4
mile. Neither I nor my neighbours us pesticides.

If I was seeing that many just with the normal level of crop spraying,
our bumblebees are in severe crisis!
--
Kay

"K" wrote in message
...
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees, in
my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.

No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't moving,
and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.

This is too many bees to be natural causes. Anyone any ideas?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=214_1180730978

"K" wrote in message
...
Charlie Pridham writes

"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , K
wrote
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.


No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't
moving, and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.


Was this early in the day?

If so they probably just need to warm up a bit in the sun. They can
only
fly if their flight muscle temperature is above 27 C
--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

Intercept/pravado can also cause that, lots of people use it in their
containers and hanging baskets, when the bee visits a flower the chemical
passes to them in the nectar.
I suspect other crop spays can do similar.

It surprised me to get them in two locations, separated by about 1/4
mile. Neither I nor my neighbours us pesticides.

If I was seeing that many just with the normal level of crop spraying,
our bumblebees are in severe crisis!
--
Kay
There is also some evidence to suggest that mobile phone radiations are not
helping, they can disrupt the bees normal homing abilities and they
eventually drop exhausted to the ground. but my money's on pravado its
widely used in composts and as everyone has put up their hanging baskets and
put out their containers the bees start to suffer.
Ironic really as the exotic flowers they love.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...


There is also some evidence to suggest that mobile phone radiations are
not
helping, they can disrupt the bees normal homing abilities

What's the evidence? Bumble bees don't forage far from their nest.

Mary

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea

Charlie Pridham writes
--
There is also some evidence to suggest that mobile phone radiations are not
helping, they can disrupt the bees normal homing abilities and they
eventually drop exhausted to the ground. but my money's on pravado its
widely used in composts and as everyone has put up their hanging baskets and
put out their containers the bees start to suffer.
Ironic really as the exotic flowers they love.

If it's provado, then it's really scary. As I said, I don't use this,
neither do either of my neighbours, so the bees are getting it from
further away. I've found at least half a dozen groggy bees in my garden
in one day, without searching in any way, as against perhaps one a year
usually. So that's a big difference, and if it really is from something
as commonly used as Provado, that is potentially a large threat to our
bees.
--
Kay

reg writes

"K" wrote in message
...
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees, in
my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.

No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't moving,
and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.

This is too many bees to be natural causes. Anyone any ideas?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=214_1180730978


Could you please post a summary of any information in this link which
answers my question? There isn't enough information on the page for me
to accept the access conditions.
--
Kay

"K" wrote in message
...
reg writes

"K" wrote in message
...
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in
my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.

No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't moving,
and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.

This is too many bees to be natural causes. Anyone any ideas?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=214_1180730978


Could you please post a summary of any information in this link which
answers my question? There isn't enough information on the page for me to
accept the access conditions.
--
Kay

my apologies, its a video explaining a similiar problem they have in the USA
with bumble bees & they are very concerned about it.

On Jun 4, 10:22 pm, K wrote:
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.

No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't moving,
and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.

This is too many bees to be natural causes. Anyone any ideas?


I haven't seen any bumbles this year yet but I have seen a lot of
honey bees.

Judith

On 6/6/07 15:22, in article ,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...


There is also some evidence to suggest that mobile phone radiations are
not
helping, they can disrupt the bees normal homing abilities

What's the evidence? Bumble bees don't forage far from their nest.

There was something about this in the papers recently. Mobile phone signals
and satellite signals are all around us - except round here and on Dartmoor,
apparently!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)

K wrote:

Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.

I noticed several too on a hot Saturday afternoon. They were just
sitting perfectly normally on top of various large leaves. Looked
perfectly fine excapt that they fell off rather than flew away.

We haven't sprayed anything, but I suppose it's likely that at least one
of our neighbours have.

Peter

reg writes

"K" wrote in message
...
reg writes

"K" wrote in message
...
Over the last few days I've found several dead or sluggish bumblebees,
in
my garden and in my father's about 1/4 mile away.

No signs of anything wrong, except the sluggish ones just aren't moving,
and one of them seemed unable to move his back legs.

This is too many bees to be natural causes. Anyone any ideas?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=214_1180730978


Could you please post a summary of any information in this link which
answers my question? There isn't enough information on the page for me to
accept the access conditions.
--
Kay

my apologies, its a video explaining a similiar problem they have in the USA
with bumble bees & they are very concerned about it.

The video is about honey bees. We're having the same problem of colony
collapse in honey bees. I hadn't heard of it spreading to bumblebees


--
Kay