Decline in Honey Bees

Wow, this is serious.

My guess is that either pesticides, GM crops, pollution, or a virus are the culprits.

Or a combination of those.

Larry,

Independent TX voter

as a property mainteance man ,i was recently called to a timber house because of a Bees nest in the wall, on inspection this report was correct,Honey Bees through a hole in the timber, not wanting to kill them i contacted bee keepers and arranged to remove them , a week later i went to the house to remove the panel to expose the nest for removal,only to discover that Wasps had taken over the nest, and no more Honey bees to be seen, perhaps this is happening everywhere. The slow moving, 'single sting' bees are no match for the fast and powerful 'multi-sting' european wasp, I have seen a wasp attack and kill a large Dragon-fly.

Bottle of mead in the US is now $15, and rising fast.

Species populations rise and fall, sometimes periodically, for many reasons. We have been measuring these things for only a few decades and only a handful of species have been studied to any degree of accuracy.

Why the decline? Who knows. Ever hear of the locust swarm of 1875? 3 trillion locust dakened the skies and brought starvation to the plains.

By 1903 that species of locust was extinct and no one knows why. If it had not gone extinct the plains would have been closed to farming.

What about the bees? Don't blame man. People kill relatively few bees. Bees can live off domestic crops and suburban gardens as well as they can live off native species.

And don't blame global warming. That would result in a northern spread of their range, not a decline in numbers.

This IS serious!