Disappearing bees mystery no closer to being solved

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – that’s the name given to the latest threat to the survival of the European honey bee.

CCD is characterized by the unexpected die-off of entire bee colonies. For unknown reasons commercially managed hives are suddenly abandoned and bees, by the millions die unexpectedly. Millions more simply disappear without a trace.

Laura Grandin is a beekeeper in Vancouver. “In 2006 in France, five million bees died in a 24 hour period,” she said, “and to this day they don’t know why.”

Grandin said in cases of colony collapse disorder, flourishing hives suddenly depopulate leaving few, if any, surviving bees behind. What beekeepers find when they open their collapsed hives is the honey and “bee bread” but the bees are all gone. At other times the queen and young bees remain but they soon starve when reserves of food run out.

In the Apiary Inspectors of America’s 2010 report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research Center, etymologists said that for 2009 and 2010 - 28 percent of all U.S. beekeepers reported that they lost nearly 44 percent of their hives.

The warnings about the “vanishing bee” began in 1923, when scientist Rudolf Steiner predicted that in 80 to 100 years European honeybees would be gone. His dire predictions may be coming true with the discovery of CCD.

Reports continue to surface from across the U.S. and around the world that bees are disappearing en masse from hives with no clear explanation as to why.

Beekeeping has been part of human agriculture for nearly 10,000 years. Now, Steiner’s dire predictions about the disappearance of bees has spurred etymologists, beekeepers (Apiarists) and farmers to look for ways to preserve the European honey bee.

Dean Spellman owns Spellman’s Apiaries in the town of Orchards. He has thousands of bee hives spread throughout California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho that pollinate every thing from carrots to apples in Washington, to almond trees in California. He has about 150 hives placed in farm fields and meadows throughout Wahkiakum County. “Last year, I lost 40 percent of my hives,” said Spellman.

Businesses like Spellman’s Apiaries earn roughly over $100,000 yearly placing their hives on farms to pollinate crops. This year Spellman, to recover, had to divide his remaining hives in half. That process weakened his entire business. He is convinced it was CCD that caused his hives to come apart.

In recent years the USDA’s Research Department discovered that bee numbers along the east coast and in parts of Texas have fallen by 70 percent.

It’s the same story in California. Scientists report the state’s honey bee population dropped between 30 to 60 percent since 2006. And according to estimates from the USDA, bees have vanished across a total of 22 states.

The destruction of bee colonies in the U.S. has researchers stumped. At first they thought it was a tiny little monster called the varroa mite that sucks the fluid from the bee. They also considered an intestinal parasite called nosema, along with a tracheal mite that clogs the bee’s airways.

All three parasites were thought to attack honey bees in their hives and wipe them out, but studies have shown that’s not the case. None of these parasites were the main cause of CCD. It was found however, that the parasites do weaken the colonies.

The scientists say bees found in the devastated CCD colonies all seem infected with multiple micro-organisms known to cause serious illness in bees. Etymologists trying to unravel the “sick bee mystery” believe that perhaps a new pathogen or chemical product is the culprit weakening the bee’s immune systems.

Spellman said there is plenty of on-going research into CCD but as a beekeeper he has an idea about where the problem lies. “I’m pretty sure it’s the new genetically modified insecticides and fungicides farmers are using on their crops and in their fields” said Spellman.

Spellman said his hives failed after he took them to pollinate the crops and orchards in Eastern Washington. He believes the ongoing research into CCD will eventually show it’s a combination of factors causing bee hives to fail.

He also predicts the real culprit is probably a new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids that are responsible for CCD.

“The neonicotinoids in combination with various fungicides are what’s killing off the honey bee,” said Spellman. “These are genetically modified pesticides and not the kind where the insect eats the plant and then just dies. Neonicotinoid poisons enter the bee and accumulate in its nervous system.”

Spellman said bees ingest the genetically modified poisons as they collect the contaminated pollen, then eat the honey. Eventually the poisonous build-up weakens the bee’s immune system. “It actually gives them something similar to AIDS,” said Spellman, “and then they can die from any, or all, of 12 different viral infections.”

“There’s also another problem,” said Spellman, “after the neonicotinoids are ingested and bees gets sick with viruses and fungi, the poison causes them to develop a form of Alzheimer’s. That’s why the hives are often empty. The bees simply fly away and forget where they live.”

Spellman said neonicotinoids are poisonous compounds that operate at the genetic level. They are derived from nicotine. The genetic compounds are designed to enter the plant after the seed is coated with the chemical. As the seed grows it absorbs the poison and genetically reproduces it as part of its defense mechanism against pests.

The USDA says the jury's still out on whether neonicotinoids poisons are causing CCD. Though there is no conclusive data yet on the insecticides, many countries in Europe have banned the poisons after several studies in 2005 indicated the chemicals may possibly harm bees. Other studies have shown no such effects.

In daily life we pay no attention to the vital role bees play in keeping the planet’s entire ecosystem in balance. Spellman said each year bees pollinate millions of varieties of flowers, vegetables, fruit and citrus trees and berry fields and all crops throughout the world – most of which humans eat to survive.

“Bees contribute about $15 billion a year to our U.S. economy,” said Spellman, but, he warns, “If we lose them it will cost the world a lot more than just money.”