Suresh

I recently saw reports that there has been a big, unexplained decline in honey bee population in the U.S. Yesterday, Dutch TV reported that 75% of bees have disappeared this year. WTF is going on?
A very scary old bee keeper appeared on the screen at the end of the shot and suggested that when the bees die, the people will die too..
Scooby Doo should be drafted in to solve this mystery ASAP!
Collapsing Colonies: Are GM Crops Killing Bees? - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

jonc

Blame it on global warming, its the cause of everying these days...

TelBoy

Hottest April for 300 years by over THREE degrees, no rain in many parts of the South East for nearly seven weeks. All just coincidence of course.

DCI Gene Hunt

There's a strain of hornet that's attacking bee colonys' at present, they're 'super hornets' and are attracted by bee honey, they are impervious to bee stings and can kill a 1000 bees per hornet before they become to weak & die.... so 10 hornets can wipe out an entire colony!

Twas on News recently, so all the bees are either dying or fecking off

PeteBrant

So what was the cause of the hotter April 300 years ago?

Abdabz

It's been hotter before and that was pre industrialisation... So just behive!

Seriously, I read its because bees can hear our mobile phone conversations and can intercept our text messages... The content of which (in many cases) startle the innocent bees, causing them to crash into things and die

TelBoy

Too many bees

Jamie

Could be death!

TelBoy

Actually the proper answer is "since records began", which is even more worrying, given that there isn't really any proof that Earth was any warmer than this at any period since Mediaeval times. We're just making it hotter much, MUCH faster than our predecessors ever could.

SJ_Skyline

I blame Tony Blair.

Abdabz

Funniest post of the week

If it's meant to be serious it's imbecilic!

Mick

iTrader: (1)

From the US

Your Spot for Futures Trading, Commodities Info, Ag News, Successful Farming Tips & More

Quote:

LAST WEEK’s WEATHER TREND (1-7 APR): Temperatures plummeted as a strong Arctic cold front dove deep into the South late in the week. There were 100s of record low temperatures across the U.S. with the Southwest being the one exception.

So not exactly 'Global' warming - a warm patch around TelBoy though

Mick

stara

well i hope the bees don't all die, as most life on earth won't be far behind as we need bees to pollenate plants, and we need plants for food and oxygen....and another interesting theory is that the earth is gradually entering a warm phase and has been so for hundreds of years but this has been largely un-noticed due to the pollutants in the atmosphere created during the industrial revolution reflecting the suns rays back, but now everyone is trying to reduce airbourne particles and pollution, this un-natural barrier is becoming less and less, and the warm up is appearing to accelerate. This was noticed during a survey of the intensity of the sun in Israel in the early '80s and a subsequent survey in the early 2000's.

TelBoy

Don't be a patronising ****.

Given you obviously know SO much about it, enlighten me as to the error of my ways.

TelBoy

What has American weather got to do with UK weather? Wasn't the cold spell in the USA also some sort of record? I'm pretty sure it was. Ok so it's not an overall "warming" i'll concede, but aren't the shifts in global weather patterns concerning anybody except me? Seems like it. Still, as long as we're allowed to drive our Subarus, i'm sure we'll all be ok in the end.

Nido

I'm sure that if the Government introduced a "bee tax" then that would solve the problem

Duck_Pond

I blame the exam boards - they've made the GCSEs and A Levels so easy now that no-one gets Bs anymore

Leslie

It is quite serious really as Stara says. We do need the bees for the reasons he stated. The balance of nature is being disturbed significantly and that cannot be a good thing.

It could be pesticides, a virus which was mentioned last year, or attack by those hornets or a combination of all that.

I think that the wholesale use of pesticides now is going to do the world a great deal of harm and we may well find in the future that extended exposure to them is doing us harm as well, despite what they say!

Les

Mick

iTrader: (1)

Tel - its the fact that in one part of the world we are getting record high temps whilst in another they are getting record low temps! - I don't understand how that can back up 'global warming' - that's all I'm saying

The Great Global Warming Swindle - Documentary Film - Google Video

Bravo - agree with you that massive deforestation is not a good thing. - but even in this country we now have laws about height of trees and bushes used a fences - apparently they can legally be limited to 6 feet. everywhere around us trees are being removed and not replaced, schools (dangerous), golf courses etc, land is being cleared & millions (well it seems like that ) of houses being built - on land that previously used to flood If builders want to remove a tree they just factor in the extra cost of the fine they will get for 'accidentally' damaging the tree - it is greed, selfishness and a lust for power that runs this world!

Mick

TelBoy

Just because one or more areas of the world have been experiencing record cold temperatures doesn't mean the overall trend is inexorably warmer, you know that, right?

Mick

iTrader: (1)

Excellent!

We seem to have loads of those big Humble Bees/ Bumble Bees around this year...

jonc

May-bee (*ho! ho! ho!*) theres a conspiracy to raise the price of honey?

lpski1

WW2 bombs ?

rallying1

Honey bee colonies have been serverly hit by the Veroa mite which lives on the bee as a parasite and ends in the bees death, this mite is a major concern to bee keepers arround the world but it has hit the UK in a big way over the last few years.

No I'm Not a bee keeper I am in Envronmental health and have a lot to do with Pest Control before anyone asks.

By the way as an Authority we do not kill honey bees unless it is a last resort, we prefer to get bee keepers to pick up swarms, but due to the varoa mite they are reluctant to pick them up in case they are infected and they transfer that to the other hives.

God that was boring wasnt it?

Karl 227

All of the ants keep dying over here in Germany in the woods, there's millions of them that just "die" all of a sudden, I think it's all a bit weird

TelBoy

David, nope they definitely said by over three degrees, but that might have been specific to certain counties, not sure. Can't be bothered to dig out the story but i still think there are too many warning signs to which people are oh so happy to KEEP looking for exceptions, asking about 1943 or whatever. The fact is things are changing pretty damned rapidly, and even though HRH Charlie can be a bit of a fruitcake, i wholly endorse the sentiments in his speech on Monday. I only hope the grandchildren of those now in denial don't have to ask some searching questions of their grandparents in years to come.