“They think, if we can save the bees, we can save the world.”
June 19, 2015 11:40 AM Subscribe
The Blight of the Honey Bee by David Wallace-Wells [New York Magazine]
The American honeybee is in peril, you might have heard, if you are the sort of person who likes a ghost story. In the last year, beekeepers lost 42 percent of their colonies, another peak in a string of mass die-offs on the scale of plagues: In the last five years, die-offs have hit 34 percent, 46 percent, 29 percent, and 36 percent. That’s more than one in every three colonies each year — whole impeccably networked societies, as big as small cities. In many areas, the figures were worse, and it was hard not to wonder how a species in crisis could possibly sustain annual regional losses as high as 60 percent without fast approaching extinction. “What are we doing on bees?” the president has been said to interject at the end of Oval Office meetings. “Are we doing enough?”
My step father is a 4th generation beekeeper. Last month, he went out to his hives, and the bees were just gone. No bodies, no honey, nothing. They were just gone like they had never been there. He's a hardcore, former Army drill instructor who did 2 tours in Vietnam, and this spooked him like I've never seen him spooked.
posted by vibrotronica at 12:15 PM on June 19, 2015 [49 favorites]
posted by vibrotronica at 12:15 PM on June 19, 2015 [49 favorites]
We treat other life-forms like they are mere tools, unconscious automata that exist for our needs alone. We make no attempt to treat them in a way that corresponds to their own essential nature.
posted by No Robots at 12:16 PM on June 19, 2015 [15 favorites]
posted by No Robots at 12:16 PM on June 19, 2015 [15 favorites]
I thought that neonicotionoids had already been identified as the culprit. Neonicotionoids are also thought to be responsible for the decline of the Monarch butterfly migration.
posted by Nevin at 12:19 PM on June 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Nevin at 12:19 PM on June 19, 2015 [3 favorites]
Apparently monoculture farming is killing off monarch butterflies, too
Used to be real obvious around here when they were migrating, nowadays if I see one per year it feels like a big goddamn deal
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:19 PM on June 19, 2015 [7 favorites]
Used to be real obvious around here when they were migrating, nowadays if I see one per year it feels like a big goddamn deal
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:19 PM on June 19, 2015 [7 favorites]
There's likely no one single cause, which makes this such a tough problem. Parasites, neonics, climate change all seem to be problems for current bees.
posted by bonehead at 12:30 PM on June 19, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 12:30 PM on June 19, 2015 [4 favorites]
The article actually discusses all this - for example:
In a review published in Science, a team led by Goulson found that multiplying the effects held the key. Exposure to pesticides seemed to deepen bee vulnerability to varroa, for instance, and vice versa; bad diet seemed to be making each of the others worse, too. Used to be, a hive could repel varroa so long as an infestation didn’t claim 20 percent of the bees; now the threshold is down to 3 percent. And while in lab studies these sublethal pesticides didn’t kill bees, out in the field, the effects seemed much worse. The common element with each factor was stress on the bee. So what we were seeing with bee death, the authors wrote, was stress synergy — stresses piggybacking on one another, the way that stresses do.posted by lupus_yonderboy at 12:33 PM on June 19, 2015 [14 favorites]
I am a beekeeper, I run about 30 hives in central Virginia. I've been doing it about five years, and reading the literature for 15. This is the only good article about bees and beekeeping I have seen in a major publication in that time. The authors hits these keys points 1) Honeybees do not belong in North America 2) Industrial agricultural is having a bee problem, not the rest of us 3) There are more than 4,000 species of native bees that do a fine job pollinating but that we don't know that much about because people only pay attention to honeybees. . . 4) CCD is kind of a red herring, and rather than having one cause the massive die off's of people running 1000s of hives is due to a multitude of factors. . . most of them related to the fact that on such scales we reduce animals to farm equipment and shit goes bad.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 1:25 PM on June 19, 2015 [58 favorites]
posted by TheTingTangTong at 1:25 PM on June 19, 2015 [58 favorites]
As an apiphobe, I am disheartened to learn CCD is not actually the bee apocalypse it was marketed as. The struggle continues.
posted by Drinky Die at 1:33 PM on June 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Drinky Die at 1:33 PM on June 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
I just a few weeks ago bought a colony of bumblebees for my garden. The delivery guy was a bit freaked out when I said yes, those are actual live bees. Can't say I blame him, really.
It's been really cool to watch the bees doing their thing. I made a mistake and put the hive in the wrong position, late on in the evening when I got in from work. A few bees came out and flew about for a while, but after moving the hive they got confused and came back to the place it was, rather than where it is. At least I'm assuming they were the same bees, I don't have any way of checking, sadly. A bee GPS would be really cool.
Another time, I move the hive to one side so that I could get past, thinking that the bees wouldn't have a problem finding it. I watched one bee go through the motions of going to the place 4 times before it realised. The hive was next to where it was, but the bee kept repeating the same actions - flying off, coming back close, orienting itself and then flying forwards as though it was going to enter the entrance hole on the hive. I've now stopped moving the hive.
Watching the bees orient themselves towards the sun is pretty cool, too. They all perform a very similar thing on exiting the hive, even down to the locations. They fly in a rough spiral that increases in size a few times before setting off. Then when they come back, their legs are covered with pollen of varying colours, generally yellowish but I've been bright red and also a pale grey colour from the poppies in the garden. Apparently they pollinate in a couple of ways too. There's the "clambering all over the inside of the flower" method, but they also "buzz pollinate", where they use their muscles to vibrate which helps shake pollen out of the anther.
posted by Solomon at 1:55 PM on June 19, 2015 [22 favorites]
It's been really cool to watch the bees doing their thing. I made a mistake and put the hive in the wrong position, late on in the evening when I got in from work. A few bees came out and flew about for a while, but after moving the hive they got confused and came back to the place it was, rather than where it is. At least I'm assuming they were the same bees, I don't have any way of checking, sadly. A bee GPS would be really cool.
Another time, I move the hive to one side so that I could get past, thinking that the bees wouldn't have a problem finding it. I watched one bee go through the motions of going to the place 4 times before it realised. The hive was next to where it was, but the bee kept repeating the same actions - flying off, coming back close, orienting itself and then flying forwards as though it was going to enter the entrance hole on the hive. I've now stopped moving the hive.
Watching the bees orient themselves towards the sun is pretty cool, too. They all perform a very similar thing on exiting the hive, even down to the locations. They fly in a rough spiral that increases in size a few times before setting off. Then when they come back, their legs are covered with pollen of varying colours, generally yellowish but I've been bright red and also a pale grey colour from the poppies in the garden. Apparently they pollinate in a couple of ways too. There's the "clambering all over the inside of the flower" method, but they also "buzz pollinate", where they use their muscles to vibrate which helps shake pollen out of the anther.
posted by Solomon at 1:55 PM on June 19, 2015 [22 favorites]
I've now stopped moving the hive.
You can move it - you just have to put something, a leafy branch for example, right in front of the hive entrance after you do it (at night, when they're all inside). When they come out, they will register that something weird has happened around the hive and that therefore they need to re-calibrate their internal homing devices.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:12 PM on June 19, 2015 [17 favorites]
You can move it - you just have to put something, a leafy branch for example, right in front of the hive entrance after you do it (at night, when they're all inside). When they come out, they will register that something weird has happened around the hive and that therefore they need to re-calibrate their internal homing devices.
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:12 PM on June 19, 2015 [17 favorites]
Apparently lightning bug populations are on the decline as well, maybe. And for a couple different reasons, maybe. (I get the feeling their populations are not tracked as well as commercial honeybees.)
posted by Panjandrum at 2:14 PM on June 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Panjandrum at 2:14 PM on June 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
I know they acknowledge in the article that the species is not native to the Americas, but it kinda drives me crazy that they keep calling it the American honeybee. If elephants started dying in zoos around the country would they talk about the plight of the American elephant?
posted by snofoam at 2:47 PM on June 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 2:47 PM on June 19, 2015 [2 favorites]
Snofoam I think they want to make a clumsy distinction between honeybees in the USA which are collapsing under industrial pressures, and Honeybees in Europe, Africa, and Asia, which aren't so much.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 3:10 PM on June 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by TheTingTangTong at 3:10 PM on June 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Two fascinating things to consider about their ability to communicate the location of good foraging location to their sisters:
The "waggle dance" contains distance and direction, with a bearing relative to the sun and the hive entrance. This means that as the day progresses and the sun moves through the sky, the dance changes automatically to adjust. But this is not nearly as interesting as the fact that...
....the other bees are "witnessing" the dance in near total darkness, because in a normal hive or tree cavity, there's no light. Or not much anyway.
If you're at all interested in swarm decision-making behavior, the standard book on the subject is Thomas Seely's Honeybee Democracy. In simplest terms:
When the bit flips and a "it's time to go" decision is made, the queen shrinks down to flying size again, half the colony gorges on honey and the other half gets busy preparing to create a new queen to replace the one that's departing. Then they go, en masse and alight on a tree limb or other oddball spot. While they're hanging there, scouts go about looking for good new homes: a particular size cavity with a particular size entrance. When one finds a good candidate, it returns and performs the waggle dance on the surface of the bee ball. Another one might go and check out the same spot. If it agrees, she will go back and perform the dance. And so all you end up with "factions" all propagating the good spots for a new home. When the balance tips and a "consensus" is reached, they go and move in. The process takes a day or two, sometimes three. Some beekeepers purposely hang ideal-size boxes in trees hoping to entice a passing swarm to move in. I did this during the spring and caught one about a month ago. For all I know, it issued from one of my own hives, but I'm hoping it's from a feral colony someplace in the woods.
One more bit of bee trivia - the author points out that the males exist to fly out and mate with a queen far away. How do they find each other? Drones tend to consistently accumulate in particular locations called Drone Congregation Areas. Pick-up bars for bees. The queens head to these same spots for their mating flights. The DCAs tend to be the same year after year. How is knowledge of these local spots transmitted from one generation to the next? No one really knows, though presumably there are visual cues that trigger them - crossroads, lone copse of trees, something along those lines. Still something of a mystery. The drones and virgin queens just sort of know where to go.
Bees are fascinating creatures. They surely are.
posted by jquinby at 5:53 PM on June 19, 2015 [21 favorites]
The "waggle dance" contains distance and direction, with a bearing relative to the sun and the hive entrance. This means that as the day progresses and the sun moves through the sky, the dance changes automatically to adjust. But this is not nearly as interesting as the fact that...
....the other bees are "witnessing" the dance in near total darkness, because in a normal hive or tree cavity, there's no light. Or not much anyway.
If you're at all interested in swarm decision-making behavior, the standard book on the subject is Thomas Seely's Honeybee Democracy. In simplest terms:
When the bit flips and a "it's time to go" decision is made, the queen shrinks down to flying size again, half the colony gorges on honey and the other half gets busy preparing to create a new queen to replace the one that's departing. Then they go, en masse and alight on a tree limb or other oddball spot. While they're hanging there, scouts go about looking for good new homes: a particular size cavity with a particular size entrance. When one finds a good candidate, it returns and performs the waggle dance on the surface of the bee ball. Another one might go and check out the same spot. If it agrees, she will go back and perform the dance. And so all you end up with "factions" all propagating the good spots for a new home. When the balance tips and a "consensus" is reached, they go and move in. The process takes a day or two, sometimes three. Some beekeepers purposely hang ideal-size boxes in trees hoping to entice a passing swarm to move in. I did this during the spring and caught one about a month ago. For all I know, it issued from one of my own hives, but I'm hoping it's from a feral colony someplace in the woods.
One more bit of bee trivia - the author points out that the males exist to fly out and mate with a queen far away. How do they find each other? Drones tend to consistently accumulate in particular locations called Drone Congregation Areas. Pick-up bars for bees. The queens head to these same spots for their mating flights. The DCAs tend to be the same year after year. How is knowledge of these local spots transmitted from one generation to the next? No one really knows, though presumably there are visual cues that trigger them - crossroads, lone copse of trees, something along those lines. Still something of a mystery. The drones and virgin queens just sort of know where to go.
Bees are fascinating creatures. They surely are.
posted by jquinby at 5:53 PM on June 19, 2015 [21 favorites]
Honey-bees used to sleep in the sunflowers in the garden of one place I lived. Two or three of them to a flower. Also used to see lots of Monarchs here, and Swallow-tails. Now I hardly ever see the Swallow - tails. Just one this year, and not one Monarch. :(.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:07 PM on June 19, 2015
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:07 PM on June 19, 2015
What populations aren't declining (except for humans, sadly)? Aren't we on the verge of a major extinction on all fronts? Feeling very pessimistic, and sad for bees, monarchs, lighting bugs...polar bears...etc.
posted by bluespark25 at 9:12 PM on June 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by bluespark25 at 9:12 PM on June 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm sad to see my anecdotal feelings about fireflies confirmed above. I remember growing up summer nights would be full of them, even in the suburbs. I don't remember the last time I saw one, much less many.
posted by absalom at 9:48 PM on June 19, 2015
posted by absalom at 9:48 PM on June 19, 2015
Sparrows. I used to see them all the time. The ground under bridges was white with their droppings. It must be a year or so since I last saw one. Where did they go? Hanging out with the bees, I presume.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:53 AM on June 20, 2015
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:53 AM on June 20, 2015
One of my colleagues has been doing cool research on native pollinators in north Georgia apple orchards and how to encourage them. It's a neat idea that I hope more farmers will pick up on.
posted by hydropsyche at 5:01 AM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 5:01 AM on June 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
My mother just told me her True Bee Story yesterday:
Mom lives in southern New Mexico, and therefore the peaches on her tree are already ripening. A couple of days ago, she went to check on them, and found a bee feasting on one. He had already carved a hole in the peach, and was lying *on his back* stuffing himself. Then after a while he rolled over into his side and continued eating. Finally, he decided he was done, and he hoisted himself up and according to Mom, "staggered away to groom himself. He was covered in peach juice and peach pulp. I figured since he helped make the peaches, he was entitled to eat as much as he wanted."
Mom also refuses to harvest her lavender buds, because the bees like the flowers so much.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:48 AM on June 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
Mom lives in southern New Mexico, and therefore the peaches on her tree are already ripening. A couple of days ago, she went to check on them, and found a bee feasting on one. He had already carved a hole in the peach, and was lying *on his back* stuffing himself. Then after a while he rolled over into his side and continued eating. Finally, he decided he was done, and he hoisted himself up and according to Mom, "staggered away to groom himself. He was covered in peach juice and peach pulp. I figured since he helped make the peaches, he was entitled to eat as much as he wanted."
Mom also refuses to harvest her lavender buds, because the bees like the flowers so much.
posted by MexicanYenta at 8:48 AM on June 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
I don't think it was a bee your mom saw in the peach, more likely a wasp. Bees consume two things: nectar and pollen.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 10:32 AM on June 22, 2015
posted by TheTingTangTong at 10:32 AM on June 22, 2015
I don't think it was a bee your mom saw in the peach, more likely a wasp. Bees consume two things: nectar and pollen.
Honeybees mostly consume nectar and pollen - as well as soda and maraschino cherry syrup and any other sweet liquid they can find. Apparently, they will also totally consume the sweet liquid from ripe fruit, but there is some debate as to whether they make holes in fruit themselves or use other animals' holes.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:39 AM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Honeybees mostly consume nectar and pollen - as well as soda and maraschino cherry syrup and any other sweet liquid they can find. Apparently, they will also totally consume the sweet liquid from ripe fruit, but there is some debate as to whether they make holes in fruit themselves or use other animals' holes.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:39 AM on June 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
If I had any confidence at all in the average person's consistent usage of the word 'bee' to just describe bees and not anything that flys and stings, I wouldn't have said anything. I mean, I am willing to make the caveat that they sometimes eat other sugary substances when no nectar is available, but wasps and hornets regularly eat peaches and plums and so on. There is even a kind of wasp that basically lives in figs. My money is on it being a wasp.
posted by TheTingTangTong at 11:02 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by TheTingTangTong at 11:02 AM on June 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
Well, whatever it was, it made my 75 year old mother's day.
posted by MexicanYenta at 9:29 PM on June 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by MexicanYenta at 9:29 PM on June 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
I'm sad to see my anecdotal feelings about fireflies confirmed above. I remember growing up summer nights would be full of them, even in the suburbs. I don't remember the last time I saw one, much less many.
Our current stretch of ridiculously rainy has weather in Texas brought out lots and lots of lightening beetles, far more than I've seen since we moved here 6 years ago. 5 of those years were severe drought years. The good news is that the lightening beetles appear to be thriving this year (though in fairness, I can't really compare to anything except years of severe drought, so maybe this isn't "thriving" if one compared to 7 or more years ago). So perhaps they can withstand some tough times (how long the tough times will last now is the question, it may all be tough times ahead), and wait until conditions are better before they reimerge from wherever they've been.
Bees now, I don't know of that bees can do that.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:29 PM on June 23, 2015
Our current stretch of ridiculously rainy has weather in Texas brought out lots and lots of lightening beetles, far more than I've seen since we moved here 6 years ago. 5 of those years were severe drought years. The good news is that the lightening beetles appear to be thriving this year (though in fairness, I can't really compare to anything except years of severe drought, so maybe this isn't "thriving" if one compared to 7 or more years ago). So perhaps they can withstand some tough times (how long the tough times will last now is the question, it may all be tough times ahead), and wait until conditions are better before they reimerge from wherever they've been.
Bees now, I don't know of that bees can do that.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:29 PM on June 23, 2015
Oh and PS, all these critters need habitat, places to live, feed, and raise their young. I have been rehabilitating my blighted suburban lawn, replanting with a large variety of native plants and leaving places where no mowing is done. It has been infinitely gratifying to watch it turn from a lifeless waste to a place thriving with insects and other wildlife.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:34 PM on June 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:34 PM on June 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by showbiz_liz at 12:03 PM on June 19, 2015 [15 favorites]