Do we have the world's bee problem under control? If so, what was the final cause of the missing bees?

Answer 1

No the bee problem is getting bigger. The current thinking is that one of these following is the cause, or a combination of them.

1 Lack of diversity. We by and large have 1 breed of bee doing all the pollination. So if a this particular breed becomes susceptible to a particular disease or toxin then it affects virtually all of our bees because they are the same breed. Nature doesnt like Mono anything, she likes diversity.

2 GM (genetically modified) crops are in wide use in the US and we have lost control. Some of the GM crops have built in pesticides by producing toxins that kill insects. Bees are insects. They also produce unatural proteins which cause allergenic or toxic reactions in insects.

3. Pesticides and Herbicides - to combat the growing resistance to synthetic poisons, the chemical companies are coming out with new and more powerful poisons each year. Some nicotin based poisons have been positively identified as the cause of some bee colony kill offs.

4. Stress - todays bee farming basically mirrors that of beef and chicken production. The shipping back and forth to pollinate crops for a fee is placing alot of stress on bees and its getting worse because they are shipping more and longer distances because of the bee epidemic. Also the breeding practices used in these mega bee farms are causing multiple problems. The bees are 1.5 times larger than normal raised bees and this makes them more susceptible to mites so they have to be sprayed with larger doses of poisons to control the mites.

5. Fungi nearly all of the tested bees from die off have been tested positive for 2 types of fungi known to be toxic to bees. They also test positive for nearly every known bee virus which seems to indicate something is depressing their immune system.

These are the leading suspects but nothing yet has tied it down to just one of them. The affected colonies are usually suffering from multiple causes listed above. There is hope though. Organic bee producers are experiencing no die offs. They way they breed bees and keep them eliminates causes 2,3,4 and 5.

Answer 2

Jean, are you talking about the accidently-released "Killer bees" of South America [African bees hybrid' with european honey bees] from the 1950's that have migrated as far as Kansas now? There seems no stopping them at this point because govt agencies from the US to points south did MINIMUM work to round up and destroy these insects from the get-go.
I fear getting a spot out in the Texas countryside because these dangerous toxic (because their voracious attacks) insects are being 'discovered' at random all over my county. They get the few located & kill them, but the regular honey bees can not compete with them, and are being forced out of their territories and die out.
Perhaps, scientists can come up with a virus or parasite that will hone in on JUST the killer bees, ignoring our domestics. Until something like this is perfected...then our native honey trade will suffer, and there will be risks country & city to being outside and disturbing a nest.
090207 5:50

Answer 3

They have not figured out what is going on with the bees, but I did a report on it and beekeepers are losing there bees by alot, but this a while ago. So I'm not sure what is going on.

Answer 4

No, we dont