Mystery killer silencing honeybees. 1 comment

8 Mar 2007 @ 19:53, by Unknown "When the bee has vanished from the globe... mankind will have four years left to live..." –Albert Einstein Researchers from state and federal agriculture agencies have been frustrated in their search for a cause because affected hives are often empty except for the queen and a few bees. The number of bees in a hive typically diminishes over a period of days to the point where there are very few or none left. There is no indication of where the bees have gone or what drove them away. How to study the problem if there are no bees to study? Guesses have been made as to some of the possible causes of the bee disappearance. Here are a few of them in no particular order: Pesticide exposure? Nosema disease? Tracheal mites? Nutritional shortages? Environmental conditions? Toxic pollen or nectar? Genetic disorders? Colony stress? Viral infections? All of the above? Some of the above? None of the above? Agronomists estimate Americans owe one in three bites of food to bees.

1 comment

---

Your Name:
Your URL:	(or email)
Subject:
Comment:
	For verification, please type the word you see on the left: