mystery bee deaths may be caused by parasitic fly

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Well I been following the mysterious bee deaths for a while now. If you dont know, bees are dying by the hivefuls all over the US. Blame has been going around from replacement royal jelly from China, to chemicals on farmers' fields to some mystery disease. But what bee keepers say whats happening is that bees are leaving the hive and dont come back. Some are calling it hive death syndrome cause over a matter of a week the whole hive can just vanish without a trace.

Well a parastic fly has been discovered that preys on the bees and makes them disoriented and they just fly off and die to hatch the fly's larve.

here's the article

http://www.mail.com/scitech/news/949334 ... related1-8

Jojo

Jojo, I've actually known for quite a while that the bee problems weren't caused by agriculture. We grow a lot of wheat on the land that is flat enough, and raise cattle, goats, and sheep on the rest. My area is chock full of wild bees. This time of year they are all over the place on warm days. So, either the parasitic fly hasn't made it here yet, or these bees are immune to its effects.

ya I knew it was more than just chemicals because of the beekeepers description of what happens. They dont say they die when they are at a being rented at the farmers field or on the way back. They usually vanish at the beekeepers home, they leave the colony and never come back. Within a week they are all gone.

I am hope they have solved the mystery and now the hard part begins. How to kill the parasitic flies without killing the bees??

It is imperative that they solve this problem because without bees being rented to farmers fields for mass pollination, crops that depend on cross pollination will not be steady enough to make it to market, even with the wild be population.

I dont know if the parasitic fly only preys on the honey bee or if other bee populations are affected as well. From what I have seen, other bee populations are doing fine.

Jojo

Just came across this story and was actually here to post it. Someone beat me.

It's definitely interesting. I hope it does turn out to be a big step toward a solution. There are an awfully lot of people who really don't think about how much is linked to (virtually dependent on) honeybees.

Yes, there are other pollinators. No, it's not the end of the world. But it's major.

If this turns out to be the cause, it's going to put a small kink in some environmentalists' tails. *shrug*

Ya its kinda amazing that alot of people dont either understand the enormity of this honeybee death problem or just think of them as just little bugs with no relation to our lives.

However there was a small south american country that did manage to kill off all their polinators by using pesticide regularly during blooming season. They have to hand polinate every bloom using a small feather duster thing on a long stick. This causes the cost of their fruits and vegtables and some grains to be highly expensive because of the labor involved in mass hand polinating.

However in the US, most farmers that expect polination services from beekeepers have to avoid pesticide dusting until after polination is done.

Jojo

Well, let's find something that will kill off the damn parasitic flies.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

They will find out when the price of fruit and vegetables goes through the roof.

ruveyn

Hmm, I've lost 3 hives in the last 2 years, though none of the deaths were just disappearances like the article described. My first two fell to an unusually cold and wet spring, and we *think* the queen died at an inopportune time and caused the last hive to collapse. It's amazingly fast, and you just feel sick going to check on a hive and having mounds of dead bees come tumbling out the bottom.

I didn't know you kept bees. Cool!
I think when the queen bee dies, a chemical is released and all the other bees quit eating, they have high metabolisms and their little bodies die shortly after. Mass suicide.

I didn't know that mosture will kill bees, I know they dont do well in the cold.
Is there a way to insulate them from spring cold snaps??

I hate you had to see that. I bet the clean up was rough.

I felt that similar sick lead drop in my stomach when I went outside on a unexpected cold spring morning to find my pitcher plant and venus fly trap killed by the frost so badly they were black.
Carnivous plants are another special interest of mine. They are just so freakin cool.
.
Mom wont let me have one right now cause she thinks we are moving soon. I dunno, but I might just get me one anyway.

Are you still in the bee keeping??

Jojo

^

Technically my wife is the beekeeper, but I do most of the actual heavy lifting when it comes to maintenance and feeding and such, just not so much of the research and study. Our hives are empty at the moment, but we're going to be getting some new packages this spring, as well as a third hive. My wife wants to try keeping several different species this year, and hoping that some of the hybridization that occurs produces a stronger bee. It's kinda cool, my current house has a deck that we keep the hives on to keep them away from animals and the yard service people, and when the sun is out the bees swoop off the end of the deck in this shimmering swarm headed for the neighbor's fruit trees. We are going to insulate the hives this year if it stays nasty, the issue is that they can overheat as well, so you don't want permanent insulating but rather some kind of removable cowling. The cold snap was in our first year of keeping, so we didn't even realize anything was wrong until it was too late. If it gets too cold, the bees huddle together for warmth and can't leave the huddle without freezing, so it's actually possible for them to starve to death with plenty of food in the hive.

There are over 100 of our crops that require pollination services by beekeepers.
Also some grains are cross pollinated too.
Wheat is usually cross pollinated by the wind though, so is corn, (if there is strong enough wind) but some others like clover need pollinators. Clover is used in cow feed
Even worse, The US lost nearly half of its honey bee population last 2 years due to Colony colaspe disorder.
With all of the press focused on the politics and things like that, the CCD is not getting the coverage it needs.
I talked to some people who know nothing about it.
This epidemic has gone global partly because people have bred the genetic diversity out of the western honeybee which is globally used so when something like this parasite comes along...the bees have no genetic protection from them. Kinda like mono cropping.

If something is not done soon we will see the day of hyper-inflation on crops not too far in the future. France was hit hard, but has managed to bounce back some. China has really been struggling with it too.
The native bee population cannot keep up with the industry's need, however the dutch have been using bumble bees with good success.
However bumble bees cost more to keep up with and have shorter lives than honeybees.
However they seem to be immune to the parasite. So they might have to be the alternative if honeybees face worldwide extinction.

My suggestion is to put genetic diversity back into the western honeybee gene pool. You cant use chemicals to kill all these parasites without killing the bees too....pesticide is pesticide...bees are insects too.
But you can breed the western honey bee to become immune to the parasitic fly. Problem solved.

It is essentally the same problem as monocropping but with a live insect. Add genetic diversity to monocrops that are devistated by insects or disease and the crops can develop defenses against these things.

Jojo

hybridation is a great idea....more beekeepers need to do this.
Good luck! I bet your neighbor enjoys the fruit of their labor...literally
you ought to take a pic of the bees flying in one mass for the fruit trees. That would be cool. I wish I could afix a small camera on a bee...that would be soo cool.

A good insulator that would be easy to remove is strawbales, make sure you wrap them in something so the bees dont end up hiving in them too. They make a good outdoor insulator.

It would be cool if ya'll blogged about it.

Jojo

The Fly itself looks like a cross breed of a Human Flea and a generic Fruit Fly, something that makes me wonder where our natural food suppy is going to fade in 100 years.

1. There are other pollinators besides bees.

2. There may arise a mutation among bees which are not killed by this nasty Fly.

3. This is not likely, but a nano-bee might be developed that does pollination and cannot be killed by insect bites.

ruveyn

Where did this ugly little thing come from? Was it always with us? Did it migrate from somewhere else? Or is it a recent evolutionary monstrosity?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer