Is the sudden lack of Honey Bees as dire as Global Warming? or worse?

Question

This year is different. They're gone. 1/3 of USA food supply affected this fall. which is worse?

jadalina;
i saw a scientist on CNN that was saying the bees had a form of auto immune disease or a type of bee AIDS. the bee specimens had several diseases in them and she didn't know why.

Answer 1

I live in AZ where 90% of the honey bees are now africanized bees...don't miss them. I will miss the fresh fruit and veggies tho!

Answer 2

Remember that there were no honeybees before white settlers came to the U.S. These are european honeybees. Plants can also become pollinated by wind, hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths, although bees are better at it for crops because the farms are usually very large. There are also a good number of commercial facilities that routinely raise new bee colonies (and can make queens) indoors, and I presume they are ramping up production even higher this year to replace lost colonies.
There is some thinking that an insecticide is causing the bees to get lost and not make it back to the hive, which would be good news in that eliminating the pesticide should straighten things out quickly, but organic farms are also losing bees, so it casts doubt on the insecticide theory.
At any rate, I would guess this to not be as serious as global warming.

Answer 3

It's got more to do with varroa mites and invading African bees than global warming. My uncle raised honey bees for years, finally cut his losses and quit because the mites were decimating his hives. Around here, there's a few beekeeps who will bring hives to your cotton fields to pollenate, talked to one of the guys about bringing some hives for my orchard, he's been having problems with African bees killing off his European honey bees and taking over the hives.

I'm so retarded, I misread the question thinking you were asking if the lack of bees was a result of global warming. This is what I get for answering questions at 3 am.

Answer 4

No. It's some insect rights group sabotaging the honey supply so 'the poor bees won't feel exploitated'. But like typical liberal idiotic reasoning, they poisoned the bee hives to do it.

Answer 5

The africanized bees are better pollenators and honeymakers. The problem is that they are not domesticated, and are extremely aggressive.

Today here is sunny, warm, neither windy nor rainy and there are NO bees making my blooming trees hum. None.

Answer 6

It is bad that is for sure.