Bee Facts
Colony Collapse Disorder
The sudden and mysterious worldwide disappearance of bees poses very serious problems. As an artist, passionate gardener, and lover of fruit and flowers, I am shocked by the severity of this devastating situation.
HOW SERIOUS IS IT?
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) currently affects more than 25 countries worldwide. In 2005, for the first time in 85 years, the United States was forced to import honeybees in order to meet its pollination demands. Over the past twenty years, the honeybee population experienced a dramatic 40 percent decline from nearly 6 million to less than 2.5 million. By early 2008, one in three hives in the United States was left lifeless. In France, the death rate is 60%, while in Britain it’s been estimated that honeybees could be extinct within ten years. In Sichuan, China, where widespread use of pesticides has led to honeybee extinction, the pollination must be done by hand. First the pollinating tool is created by finding baby chicken feathers and attaching them to a bamboo stick with string. Then the feathers are dipped into ground pollen, which is then tapped onto trees in the spring. It’s a ritual that’s been practiced by the people of Sichuan for more than 20 years and, without it, trees in the region cannot produce fruit.
Three quarters of the world’s 250,000 flowering plants, including fruits and vegetables, require pollination in order to reproduce. More than one-third of the entire food industry requires pollination by bees, including the crops used to feed livestock. The 35% of U.S. crops pollinated by honeybees includes almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, cucumbers, blackberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, avocados, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash, pumpkins, oranges, grapefruit, kiwi, cranberries and strawberries, and are indirectly responsible for the production of such things as cheese, milk, ice cream, meat, cotton and coffee. The bee is a highly developed and socially sophisticated creature, and fundamental to our existence on this planet. The connection between bees and the world’s ecosystem is undeniable. If a cure for infected honeybees is not found, by the year 2035 there will be no more honeybees, and three quarters of the world’s flowering plants, including fruits and vegetables, will have completely died out.
WHAT CAUSES IT?
In addition to malnutrition, environmental change-related stress, tainted pollen from genetically modified crops, mites, bacteria, insect diseases and viruses (autoimmune and others), the culprits are:
Dangerous pesticides.
According to a 2003 French government report, Bayer’s seed treatment GAUCHO pesticide was noted as a key factor in the mass poisoning of hundreds of thousands of honeybee colonies.
Migratory beekeeping.
Honeybees are homebodies. The colony is a close-knit group that loves the comfort of its warm, super-organized home to return to at the end of the day. Transporting colonies to meet pollination demands across the country and the world is traumatic.
Cell phone radiation and electromagnetic waves in the environment.
There is a theory that the radiation given off by mobile phones and other high-tech gadgets is a possible answer to the mysterious disappearance of the honeybees. Radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the home-loving species from relocating the hive. The vanished bees are never found, and are thought to die singly far from home. At present there are over 2.5 billion cell phone users in the world. Satellite radio and constant electromagnetic background noise disrupt intercellular communication within individual bees. Dr. Carlo of Landau University claims that within 72 hours entire bee colonies can disappear as a result of the proliferation of electromagnetic waves.
Parasites and other bees that might normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go near the abandoned hive.
BEES AND HUMANS
For thousands of years, humans have been fascinated with honeybees and craved the products that bees provide for nutrition. Paleolithic art featuring bees in Altamira, Spain suggests that early man gathered honey 11,000 years ago. The developing trend towards sedentary life eventually changed the relationship between humans and bees from hunting to keeping. In the Fertile Crescent, sedentary agricultural practices began about 7,000 years ago with the domestication of wild animals, plants and the honeybee. In the Nile Delta, Egyptians created artwork portraying the practice of apiculture or beekeeping 4,400 years ago. Today, honeybees are being trained by the U.S. Army to detect landmines. The goal is for bees to recognize the smell of TNT and associate it with food.
We must stop treating bees like machines. Even machines break down. Severely weakened, honeybees have been pushed to the point of collapse.
This summer I planted my terrace in NYC with foliage that bees love; lavender, purple flowers, and sunflowers. It wasn’t long before they came in droves. I purchased and raised ladybugs – an alternative to bug spray – to take care of the aphids. In restoration ecology these actions are known as the field of dreams hypothesis: If you build it they will come. We have a moral obligation to protect the bees so they can regain their life forces and heal the wounds we have inflicted through greed, ignorance and shortsightedness. By planting flowers, reducing electromagnetic waves, not using pesticides and creating awareness through art, we can protect this irreplaceable species.
©2008, JUDI HARVEST