Honey Bees Disappearing!

[CraigD]

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.

This is strange.

I have never seen bees atracted by light.

Like Michaelangelica, I’m puzzled by the claim of bees being attracted to a light. For all practical purposes, except for a few species, bees don’t fly at night when lights are on and visible, so can’t be attracted to them.

 

My guess is that it’s either a coincidence corresponding to a normal seasonal die-off, some sort of freaky mating behavior , or the bees (or wasps – note earlier in the thread the discussion of how commonly the suborders are confused) are getting lured to their ends by something other than the light. It might be an abnormal “colony collapse” –type die-off, but to be sure of that, you’d need to find evidence of tens of thousands of dead bees.

 

A few questions: How many dead bees are “large numbers”? Are we talking about ten a day, a hundred, or more? Do they doomed bees appear mostly at a certain time of the day?

 

Are you sure all the bees crawling under the door are dieing? Or are healthy bees coming and going, and the dead ones just unfortunate stragglers? Is there anything in the house that the bees seem attracted to?

 

Much insight might be gained if someone paid close attention to the bees for a full daylight period. There’s really no substitute in naturalism for long and careful watching.

 

I suspect that once your friend gets his door seals fixed so that bees can’t get in, the bee-corpse pile-up will end. Sometimes Hymenoptera behave in ways we humans, with our substandard chemical sensor suites (noses), never can make sense of. :)

[C1ay]

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.

 

Is your friend the scientific type that might try an experiment? I wonder what happens if he changes the bulb to incandescent. Maybe even some different colors. It would be interesting to know if the fluorescent lamp is really a contributing factor.

[Buffy]

No, he's a sales guy! :)

 

These were my own observations:

 

There were dead bees inside and outside, thus making it clear that the "incapacitate and crawl" scenario is most likely.

 

There was a dispersal pattern around the light itself, indicating a possible relationship, but not clear, because it wasn't a very large area and there were more heading in the direction of the door. I did see one bee heading for the light in the daytime: light was on. Who knows, there may have actually been a hive being built through a crack there!

 

Don't fluorescent lamps put out some E-M waves in addition to light?

 

Accumulation was in the 4-5 dozen range over what he claimed was "a few days". I personally have never seen bees "piled up" before, which is why I took note of it.

 

They were dead, but they definitely looked like bees and not wasps. I hate them both so I was not about to do an autopsy.

 

Honey of a mystery,

Buffy

[EStein]

They may have been transendental bees that "saw the light", felt they had served their purpose, and buzzed off the great bee-yond.

[freeztar]

Who knows, there may have actually been a hive being built through a crack there!

 

That would be my primary suspicion. Yellow jackets are notorious for building nests in between wood shingles and paneling of houses, so much so in the South that there is an entire business market dedicated to their removal.

 

Perhaps he has his house sprayed with pesticides and the unsuspecting bees go into the paneling and come out (both inside and outside) confused and dying.

 

Although the "mysterious science" part of me secretly hopes that a certain spectrum of light is responsible, as C1ay pointed out above.

[freeztar]

They may have been transendental bees that "saw the light", felt they had served their purpose, and buzzed off the great bee-yond.

 

Boooooooo! :)

[Buffy]

That would be my primary suspicion. Yellow jackets are notorious for building nests in between wood shingles and paneling of houses, so much so in the South that there is an entire business market dedicated to their removal.

Chink in this theory: Its a Spanish California house: the outside is 2-foot thick stucco on brick (one of those places that *needs no air conditioning in Southern California* because its so unbelievably well insulated), so there's not much space in there except for conduit, and certainly not much wood for wood-loving wasps/jackets. Like I say, IANAE ("I am not an Entomologist"), but I'm pretty sure these were indeed bees...

 

Need Gil Grissom on this case,

Buffy

[freeztar]

Chink in this theory: Its a Spanish California house: the outside is 2-foot thick stucco on brick (one of those places that *needs no air conditioning in Southern California* because its so unbelievably well insulated), so there's not much space in there except for conduit, and certainly not much wood for wood-loving wasps/jackets. Like I say, IANAE ("I am not an Entomologist"), but I'm pretty sure these were indeed bees...

 

Need Gil Grissom on this case,

Buffy

 

I was using yellow jackets as a local case (I know they are not true bees). Given this particular building, I suppose my original theory is dead in the water. Have you asked him/her if they have the place sprayed or if they've done any pesticide work themselves?

[Buffy]

Have you asked him/her if they have the place sprayed or if they've done any pesticide work themselves?

He hasn't yet because its a very recent effect, and he knows his neighbor does have a beehive because they have engaged the pest control folks, and had been watching the bees come over for a couple of weeks.

 

Free honey,

Buffy

[FrankM]

Bees are not the only pollinators that are disappearing.

 

Bumblebees are responsible for pollinating an estimated 15 percent of all the crops grown in the U.S., worth $3 billion, particularly those raised in greenhouses.

 

Bumblebees Begin Vanishing Act

[EStein]

Bees are not the only pollinators that are disappearing.

 

 

 

Bumblebees Begin Vanishing Act

They're probably peeking at us from behind some flower, laughing---laughing 'cause we fell for the ol' disappearing bee gag---AGAIN!! :hihi:

[Michaelangelica]

Honeybees may not be unwelcome tourists after all

 

Friday, 19/10/2007

 

A top US Agriculture Department researcher says Australian honeybees may not be the source of a virus that's killing US bee colonies.

 

National Program Leader for Bees and Pollination, Kevin Hackett, says his agency is within weeks of making a recommendation to USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on whether to ban imports of Australian honeybees.

 

But Hackett says there is so far no firm evidence the Australian bees are the source of a virus, suspected of destroying a quarter of US beehives last winter.

 

"We're looking into seeing when the virus occurred in the United States," he says.

 

"At this point, we could just as well assume that it came from the US to other countries, as other countries to the US."

 

Mr Hackett says there is today an association between the virus and so-called Colony Collapse Disorder.

 

Other countries importing the bees, including Canada, have not had the disease.

 

Nor, has Australia.

Honeybees may not be unwelcome tourists after all - 19/10/2007

[EStein]

I think the disappearing bee thing has been a played up a bit like the global warming scam....Just an educated opinion.

[InfiniteNow]

I think the disappearing bee thing has been a played up a bit like the global warming scam....Just an educated opinion.

 

Unfortunately, it is precisely this opinion which implies a lack of education.

[Michaelangelica]

I think the disappearing bee thing has been a played up a bit like the global warming scam....Just an educated opinion.

I think it is because Yanks aerially spray with too many pesticides (esp. orthophosphates- what Hitler used to kill Jews, gypsys etc etc - and synthetic pyrethroids)

Aerially spraying is hardly a targeted way of getting rid of "pests".

[EStein]

I think it is because Yanks aerially spray with too many pesticides (esp. orthophosphates- what Hitler used to kill Jews, gypsys etc etc - and synthetic pyrethroids)

Aerially spraying is hardly a targeted way of getting rid of "pests".

 

Obviously, it's not about the bees; it's about "Yanks and pesticides." You've already made up your mind what caused the "mass extinction." You show your colors, all too easily.

[EStein]

Unfortunately, it is precisely this opinion which implies a lack of education.

Thank you for your smart remark.:) By the way, what are your credentials?