Honey Bees Disappearing!

[max4236]

Here's a strange random observation:

 

A friend of mine has a house in Los Angeles. He's got a screw-in fluorescent light by the front door. There's a bee hive next door, and the bees are attracted to the light and are for some reason dying in large numbers on the front porch. Because he's having work done on it, there's a large gap underneath his front door and the dying bees appear to crawl under the door and there are a dozen or so spread across his entry hall every morning.

 

There do not appear to be any shorts or even exposed wires on the light that they might be getting shocked by, so this proximity does not seem to be any indicator of the direct cause.

 

Anyone know what to make of this?

 

Are they just putting the bzzt in bzzz,

Buffy

 

I wonder if it's the emf higher frequency harmonics from the compact florescent interfering with the bees internal communication network/gps system? It's puzzling. He should try different types of bulbs and blocking the visible light from the bulb to see if it affects their behavior. If it is an emf thing I wonder if lining beehives with a metal mesh would help limit their exposure.

 

I've spotted a few bees waiting to get inside my greenhouse and a few hanging around the apple tree blossoms. They're just starting up so I'm not sure yet how the bees are fairing this year. They looked healthy and up to their normal routine.

[Moontanman]

That is correct. In our locality, the bees are starving to death.

They're so bad off you can actually see their tiny little rib cages.

Some are so weak from hunger, volunteers are spoon feeding them pollen.

It may bee too late.

 

Bees do not have rib cages..... they have exoskeletons that stay the same size from the time they break out of their pupa. An undernourished Larvae can result in a smaller bee but not a skinny bee. Adult bees eat very little pollen, they eat nectar. Bee grubs eat pollen, I used to Keep bees, Bees are very cool and get so used to their handlers they will allow you to take honey without stinging. And yes they are in trouble but lets not give them properties they do not have. I think insecticides are at the root of the problem, too many people are obsessed with killing anything they don't like or perceive as a threat to their control of the environment. I've even seen people hire an exterminator to kill all the small lizards that crawl around the exterior of their houses! We humans need to understand we are part of nature and our efforts to separate ourselves from nature will only be frustrated by unforeseen consequences. I never kill anything that isn't a direct threat to me, I even relocate poisonous snakes if I can.

[Moontanman]

I wonder if it's the emf higher frequency harmonics from the compact florescent interfering with the bees internal communication network/gps system? It's puzzling. He should try different types of bulbs and blocking the visible light from the bulb to see if it affects their behavior. If it is an emf thing I wonder if lining beehives with a metal mesh would help limit their exposure.

 

I've spotted a few bees waiting to get inside my greenhouse and a few hanging around the apple tree blossoms. They're just starting up so I'm not sure yet how the bees are fairing this year. They looked healthy and up to their normal routine.

 

I'm not sure if I would jump to an EMF problem from the light, more likely the bees are atracted to the UV the light is giving off. Bees can see UV we cannot, if your friend changed to a warmer bulb the bees might stop visiting it. I have noticed a lack of bees in my area this spring, my yard is full of white clover, honey bees are usually all over the white clover but this year I see no bees at all.

[EStein]

Bees do not have rib cages..... .

 

You caught me. Thanks to a dog skeleton and a little Photoshop magic, I thought I could pull it off. I see you do not believe everything you read. I don't, either. I'll believe the seriousness of the bee "die off" when I see honey disappear from the grocery shelves. I rank the bee thing right up there with global warming.....nonsense:)

[Moontanman]

I decided to take a little informal look at my yard to see if I had many bees, I have 3/4 of an acre, most of it is thick with white clover. This time of the year bees should be as thick as flies on road kill. I looked over my yard as closely as I could but I couldn't even find one bee:shrug: I know that one yard does not make a bee problem but it is difficult to explain in normal context. I have been thinking of setting up two or three colonies of bees at the back of my yard. I wonder if they will thrive due to a lack of competition or if they wil die out?

[EStein]

I have been thinking of setting up two or three colonies of bees at the back of my yard. I wonder if they will thrive due to a lack of competition or if they wil die out?

 

Please do and report back. I love anecdotal evidence because it is always the more interesting!

[Michaelangelica]

I think insecticides are at the root of the problem, too many people are obsessed with killing anything they don't like or perceive as a threat to their control of the environment. I've even seen people hire an exterminator to kill all the small lizards that crawl around the exterior of their houses! We humans need to understand we are part of nature and our efforts to separate ourselves from nature will only be frustrated by unforeseen consequences. I never kill anything that isn't a direct threat to me, I even relocate poisonous snakes if I can.

When I used to run a Plant Nursery many people would buy a plant, then ask, "What will I spray it with?"

Un-bloody-believable.

 

I can't believe the amount of aerial spraying states like Florada do in the USA. This is such a holocaust approach killing everything in the environment-good and bad.

 

As for bees being attracted to light; that is so bizarre Buffy.

I have NEVER heard of that and I used to keep bees (Yes they were so tame I didn't need protective clothes just a smoker -you do need the right strain and the right queen though)

I haven't even heard of them foraging at night.

They do navigate by using the sun and ultra-light GPS systems :eek_big:.

 

 

In an emergency, bees can be fed sugar-water. Boil the water, dissolve the sugar and place in a shallow saucer near the hive. Replace frequently to keep it clean and disease free.

[EStein]

When I used to run a Plant Nursery many people would buy a plant, then ask, "What will I spray it with?"

Un-bloody-believable.

 

I can't believe the amount of aerial spraying states like Florada do in the USA. This is such a holocaust approach killing everything in the environment-good and bad.

 

 

What? Spraying for insects is done worldwide. It's a good thing. What do you have against the good people of Florida that you would single them out? Spraying insects has saved millions of lives. Have you ever heard of malaria? Thank God I don't live in your pretend world.

[Michaelangelica]

What? Spraying for insects is done worldwide. It's a good thing. What do you have against the good people of Florida that you would single them out? Spraying insects has saved millions of lives. Have you ever heard of malaria? Thank God I don't live in your pretend world.

Spraying should be done carefully, selectively and at the appropriate time in the insect's life cycle. Wherever possible, targeted biological or genetic control should be used. There are only a few varieties of mosquitoes that are a problem to humans. Most provide food for fish, frogs and other wildlife and are a part of the ecological food chain, that we too are a part of.

One major problem of many pesticides is that they biologically accumulate up the food chain. Eventually we end up with the biggest pesticide dose- being at the top of the food chain.

Indiscriminate aerial spraying with an air-force bigger than that of most nations, as in Florida, is a shotgun approach ultimately destroying the ecology and creating dependence on continual escalating spraying and eventually target-insect resistance to the spray. An expensive price to pay for Florida tourists too cheap to buy some DEET.

[EStein]

An expensive price to pay for Florida tourists too cheap to buy some DEET.

 

That's just plain silly!

[Michaelangelica]

That's just plain silly!

As in "exhibiting or indicative of a lack of common sense or sound judgment "

How?

Why?

Which part of the post?

[DougF]

That Michaelangelica is referring to is this link

Mosquito Information Website - Mosquito Management - Integrated Mosquito Management (IMM)

that I posted is this thread http://hypography.com/forums/medical-science/7705-ddt-should-used-7.html#post178402 (my post #65)

 

Rotor Craft

 

Rotor craft are seeing wider use for adulticiding . Many programs which operate them for larviciding duties will change the spray equipment and also adulticide with them. Additionally' date=' programs will use them for adulticiding smaller areas that have difficult obstructions or meandering shapes. They are more maneuverable than fixed-wing aircraft and can be serviced at field sites thus reducing ferry times. Air speeds are somewhere between 70 knots for piston-engined ships and 110 knots for the faster light turbines.

 

[b']In 1996, organized MCDs in Florida listed the following aircraft used for adulticiding:[/b]

Fixed-Wing Aircraft

 

12 Douglas DC-3/C-47

 

3 Beech 18/C-45

 

1 Beech King Air C-90

 

1 Beech Queen Air

 

1 Beech Twin Bonanza

 

2 Piper Aztec

 

4 Cessna 337

 

Helicopters

 

2 BellUH-1B

 

9 Hughes/MD 500 C, D & E

 

2 Bell 206

 

3 Bell 47

 

4 Hughes 269 A, B & C

[EStein]

That Michaelangelica is referring to is this link

Mosquito Information Website - Mosquito Management - Integrated Mosquito Management (IMM)

that I posted is this thread http://hypography.com/forums/medical-science/7705-ddt-should-used-7.html#post178402 (my post #65)

 

We should go back to using DDT.

DDT: A Case Study In Scientific Fraud

http://www.jpands.org/vol9no3/edwards.pdf

[freeztar]

We should go back to using DDT.

 

What relevance does DDT have with the topic?

[maikeru]

I decided to take a little informal look at my yard to see if I had many bees, I have 3/4 of an acre, most of it is thick with white clover. This time of the year bees should be as thick as flies on road kill. I looked over my yard as closely as I could but I couldn't even find one bee:shrug: I know that one yard does not make a bee problem but it is difficult to explain in normal context. I have been thinking of setting up two or three colonies of bees at the back of my yard. I wonder if they will thrive due to a lack of competition or if they wil die out?

 

I haven't seen bees visiting flowers and my Asian pear trees in bloom now in my backyard, either. The past couple days have been warm. Nothing. Also in the field where I go running I haven't seen bees among the flowers. Something seems slightly off.

 

Estein, your newer posts are not contributing to the topic, but rather inflaming sensibilities.

[Michaelangelica]

We should go back to using DDT.

DDT: A Case Study In Scientific Fraud

http://www.jpands.org/vol9no3/edwards.pdf

We have, or haven't you noticed?

How much DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons do you have in your body?

You will soon have a lot more.

 

As for swallows, one dubious scientific report does not make a "spring".

Perhaps we should all take up smoking cigarettes too?

 

I am sure aerial DDT spraying with the private state air forces of the USA would destroy what is left of the USA ecosystem.

 

You haven't answered, or addressed, my question.

[EStein]

What relevance does DDT have with the topic?

 

Very relevant to the anti spray folks...then again, you're probably too young to remember the banning of DDT.