더 많은 증거. 나는 높은 독자에게이 기사를 발전시켜 드리겠습니다. -DNR

http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/43568

2010 8월 27일

살충제는 꿀벌 감소에 연루
꿀벌, 땅벌 및 기타 여러 곤충은 서서히 농업 작물을 보호하기 위해 사용되는 영구적인 살충제에 의해 죽음에 독살되고있다. 독성 화학 물질의 작은 복용은 노출에 대한 안전 수준은 없다는 것을 의미한다 시간이지나면서 축적. 살충제의 일반적으로 사용되는 클래스의 장기적인 효과를보고 최근 연구에서 결론 그건.

꽃에서 꽃들이 와글로 벌, 나방과 hoverflies이 중요한 작업을 수행. 농업 작물 중 약 3 분의 이러한 바쁜 곤충, 혼자 영국 경제에 440파운드 석사 년 가치 서비스에 의해 수분된다.

그러나 최근 몇 년 동안 이러한 가치 가루 받이가 인구가 전세계적으로 낙하와 함께 어려움을 겪고있다. 꿀벌은 벌통을 버리진 현상 - - 유럽 및 북미 지역보다 일반지고 특히 꿀벌은 식민지 붕괴 장애 (CCD)와 함께 고통되었습니다.

논쟁은 문제를 해결 swirled하고 있으며, 휴대폰에서 GM 작물에 대한 모든 것은 비난했습니다. 지금 새로운 연구는 살충제가 중요한 역할을하고 있음을 나타냅니다.

12개월 이상 - 가장 최근의 연구는 오랜 기간 동안 neonicotinoid 살충제의 투입을 변화에 곤충의 다양한 노출했습니다. Neonicotinoid 살충제 널리 세계적으로 사용되고, 그들은 곤충의 중추 신경계에 행동에 의해 작동합니다. 화학 물질은 척추 신경 시스템에 대한 약간의 친근감을 가지고, 그래서 그들은 훨씬 덜 독성 포유류와 조류에 있습니다.

연구자들은 긴 기간 (이상 투여하는 경우 곤충을 죽일하는 데 필요한 살충제의 총 복용량은 작은 것으로 나타났습니다 Ecotoxicology (2009) 18:343-354 ). 그것이 오랜 기간 동안 여러 작은 회에 걸쳐 시행 되었다면 꿀벌의 경우, 6000까지 시간이 적은 살충제는 그들을 죽일 필요했다.

Henk Tennekes, 네덜란드의 실험적 독성 서비​​스 (ETS)의 연구에 따르면, 이러한 연구 결과는 완벽한 이해. "높은 노출 수준을 고려하여 시작한 것"이라고 말했다. "그것은 이러한 암이나 사망률로서 초기 효과를 일으킬 수 있습니다. 훨씬 낮은 노출 수준에서는 당신이 늦게 효과를 얻을 수 있습니다. 그러나 결과를 보면, 후자의 경우에도 효과를 생산하는 것들 (합계)을 훨씬 덜 필요합니다. "Tennekes은의 붙임성이 논문에서 연구 결과를 설명 독성 .

그러면 어떻게 이러한 살충제는 강력한 장기 효과를 얻을합니까? 대답은 그들이 작동하는 방식에있다. Neonicotinoids는 곤충의 중추 신경계의 수용체에 레스터 바인딩합니다. "곤충과 같은 수용체의 한정된 금액을 가지고"도 문제가 참여하였습니다 제론 반 데어 Sluijs, 네덜란드 우트 레 히트 대학의 과학자는 설명했다. "피해는 누적입니다 손상이 곤충은 더이상 안되 는건 작동하지 않을 수 있도록 대형까지 모든 노출로 더 많은 수용체가 차단됩니다."

짧은 기간 동안에도 소량으로도 심각한 문제가 발생할 수 있습니다. 낮은 복용에 곤충이 포식자들을 쉽게 먹이를 만들고, 그들의 움직임에 disorientated 이하 좌표가 될 관찰되었습니다. 이와 같은 하위 치명적인 효과는 곤충을 약하게, 그들은 특히 생존을위한 건강한되는 전체 식민지에 따라 사회적 곤충을 위태롭게.

지금 그것은 여전히​​ neonicotinoids는 꿀벌의 CCD의 유일한 원인이있는 경우라고하는 것은 불가능하지만, 그들이 중요한 역할을했기 때문일 것 같습니다. "이것은 neonicotinoids 전세계 사용의 급속한 성장과 일치 2004 년 CCD의 급속한 증가, 설명한다 - 살충제 중 가장 널리 사용되는 클래스를,"반 데르 Sluijs 고 말했다.

현재 살충제는 일반적으로 많은 해충 여부가 있는지 여부에 관계없이, 코트의 종자로 사용됩니다. 그들은 토양과 물에 쉽게 거르기와 곤충에 대한 전체 공장 독성 만들기, 식물에 의해 쉽게까지 촬영하고 있습니다. 그리고 새로운 연구 쇼로, 심지어 매우 낮은 수준에서 그들은 곤충 집단에 큰 손상을 입힐 수있는 가능성이 있습니다. "나는이 살충제는 꿀벌에 덜 독성 및 침출에 적은 경향이 적은 긴 대안으로 대체해야 할 것"Tennekes 고 말했다.

저자에 관하여

2010년 3월 30일 - 농업의 미국학과 (USDA) 농업 연구 서비스 와 함께, 미국의 양봉장 사찰단은 , 2,010분의 2,009 겨울 꿀벌 식민지 손실을 결정하기 위해 자발적으로 설문 조사를 실시하고 있습니다. 이 조사를 방금 두드러기가 큰 번호를 가진 양봉을 위해 아닙니다, 심지어 소규모 양봉가 참여하는 것이 좋습니다. 설문 조사는 약 2 분 소요되며, 완전히 익명으로 처리됩니다.

이와 같은 데이터 수집 노력은 식민지 붕괴 장애를 포함한 식민지에 영향을 벌이 관련 질환을 이해하는데 중요할 수 있습니다. 이 문제의 범위가 저조한 이​​해할 수 있습니다. 피터 Borst, 전직 뉴욕주 양봉장 검사관에 따르면, 아무도 진짜로 밖에 얼마나 많은 벌통도 몰라. USDA는 미국에서 2,600,000 꿀벌의 식민지로 추정에서 파생되는 국민 설문 조사 및 농가 설문 조사 (이하보다 네다섯 두드러기) 작은 apiaries의 수천 포함되지 않습니다

취미 양봉에 의해 관리. 전국 설문 조사는 데이터 시작 위치입니다 - Borst의 현지 지식을 바탕으로 지역 양봉가들의 많은 90 %가 국가에 등록하지 당선했을 수도 있습니다.

연구자들이 가까이 우리 농업 세계에서 곤혹 문제를 이해하는 데 도움이 있습니다 참여보다 양봉, USDA가 함께 작동하도록이 더 많은 데이터. 닥터 제프 Pettis, USDA-ARS Bee는 연구소에서 연구 리더는 작년들이 만 절반에 식민지를 관리하는 양봉을 조사한다는 지적. Pettis는 올해의 반응은 더욱되기를 바라고 있습니다. 1

하나 하이브 또는 백과 양봉가를 알고있다면 그들과 함께이 정보를 공유할 수 있습니다. 좋은 연구는 좋은 데이터를 필요로합니다.

양봉님께 :

미국과 USDA-ARS Beltsville 양봉 연구소의 양봉장 조사관은 2009-2010 년 겨울 동안 발생한 겨울 손실을 tabulating에 도움을 찾고 있습니다. 이것은 정부, 미디어, 그리고 연구를 위해 꿀벌의 손실을 quantifying에 중요한되었습니다 지난 3 년간 AIA / USDA 조사 노력을 계속하고 있습니다.

올해 조사는 빠르고 쉽습니다 그리고 전화로 당신의 시간을 필요로하지 않습니다. 그것은 기반 및 자동으로 모든 웹이며, 단지 입력하고를 누릅니다.

에서 우리의 겨울 손실 설문 조사를 작성하는 데 몇 분 정도 소요될하십시오 http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/beeloss0910

이 조사는 2010년 4월 16일까지 실시됩니다.

당신이 다른 양봉이 이메일을 전달면 우리는 또한 그것을 고맙게 여길 것입니다. 자세한 답변수록 좋습니다. 혹시 다른 질문이 있거나 우려 이메일시기 바랍니다 beeloss@gmail.com 또는 Honeybee.Survey @ aphis.usda.gov을 .

귀하의 협조에 미리 감사드립니다.

제프 Pettis, USDA-ARS Beltsville 꿀벌 연구소
데니스 vanEngelsdorp, 펜 주립 대학교
제리 헤이스, 농업의 플로리다학과
듀이 Caron, 델라웨어 대학과 오레곤 주립 대학교

"EPA들이 다른 연구에서 주장 것이 꿀벌에 해를에 대해 충분한 관심을 가졌다면, 그것이 어쨌든 그것을 승인하고 사후 조사를 요청하는 현명 듯,"아론 Colangelo, 자연 자원 방위위원회와 변호사는 말합니다. "EPA의 임무는 화학 물질이 안전 여부에 대해 결정을 내려야하는 것입니다."

Colangelo가오고 몇 년 동안 비슷한 시나리오를 계획 중인데. EPA는 동일한 가족 clothianidin 및 기타 화학 물질을 검토할 것입니다 발표했다지만 2012 년까지. 그러는 동안, 기존의 정책에 따라 새로운 작물에 사용하기 위해 살충제를 승인에서 기관을 막을 수 없네요. 결국 Colangelo는 연방 정부 기관이 농업 관련 산업의 거대에서 망치를들 줄 약간의 자신감을 가지고 있습니다. EPA는 그가 설명, 종종 회사의 요청에 독점적인 이유로 기밀의 테스트 결과를 유지합니다. 회사가 바이엘의와 유사한 공개하게 때까지 공백이나 불일치가 발생할 위치를 결과적으로 그것은 확실치 않다.

"그들이 얼마나 많은 해를 증거 관계없이, 농약은 꿀벌에 대한 영향을 기반으로 시장에 넣어 수 있는지 여부에 대해 결정하지 않아"Colangelo는 말합니다. "EPA는 어쨌든 그것을 승인하고 제품에 경고 라벨을 넣어 것입니다."

살충제의 판매를 중단하면,하지만, 아무 의미 작업이 될 것이라했습니다. 120 개국가 140여 작물 품종뿐만 아니라, 흰개미, 벼룩 체포 및 가정 정원 조경의에서 바이엘 레이블 아래 imidacloprid 사용합니다. 그리고 제품의 특허는 그것이 작은 기업이 수십하여 일반 살충제로 판매되어 있어야합니다 길을 포장, 몇 년 전에 만료되었습니다. 캘리포니아 주에서만, imidacloprid 50 여러 회사에서 판매되는 247 별도의 제품에서 중앙 재료입니다.

성명에서, EPA는 농약을 금지하기 전에, 그것이 " '급박한 위험'이 존재하는 것을 발견해야한다고 말한다. 연방 법원은이 조사를 만들기 위해, EPA가 임박한 심각한 피해는 살충제의 사용으로 발생됩니다 실질적인 가능성이있다는 것을, 다른 것들 중, 체결해야한다고 판결했습니다. "EPA가을 뜻합니다 명확히하지 않았다" 절박한 위험 "이유와 꿀벌의 죽음은 해당되지 않습니다.

Mussen가 지적한 바와 같이하지만, 몇 백만 명이 사망 꿀벌은 사업을하는데 드는 비용이있을 수 있습니다. "그들은 꿀벌에 독성 있었다 제품을 등록하지 않은 경우 해충 제어 가능했던 시장에 제품을 많이 없을 것"이라고 말했다.

시장 떨어져 세계에서 가장 유비 쿼터스 살충제를 복용 시작하고 안전한 하나를 발명하는 모든 것은, 국립 꿀벌 자문위원회의 워커를 주장하고있다. "이것은 모든 골프 코스에, 그것은 모든 잔디에. 단지 농산물 아니에요. 그것이 만지지 우리 삶의 한 부분 진짜가 아니에요. "

당신 도움이 농장 빌 기금 확보에 필요한
네이티브 및 관리 POLLINATOR 연구

당신의 상원 의원에 문의하여 농업 가루 받이에 중요한 연구의 지원 상원 의원 박서하여 편지에 서명하도록 요청하시기 바랍니다. 자세한 내용은 아래를 참조하시기 바랍니다.이 편지에 서명하는 의원 마감일은 5월 6일 (수요일)입니다.

당신의 상원 의원 사무실에 대한 연락처 정보를 찾기

감사합니다,
스콧 호프만 블랙
이그 제 큐 티브 디렉터, Invertebrate 보전을위한 Xerces 학회

벌꿀 꿀벌, 자연 꿀벌 감소의 원인과 구제 수단으로 연구 기금을 제공하는 것은 pollinator 절약에서 중요한 단계입니다. 전화 또는 작성하여 상원 의원을, 그들이 중요 가루 받이가 얼마나 알려, 1에게 요청)이인가을 지원하며 2) 연락처 의원은 권투 선수의 사무실이 중요한 편지에 서명하기 위해 잠시 시간을내어 주시기 바랍니다.

의원 박서 편지를 작성했습니다 2008 년 농장 빌에서 허가로 농업 세출 소위원회는 pollinator 연구 프로젝트를 위해 2010 년 회계 연도에 2 천만 달러를 할당할 것을 요청한다. 이러한 자금 관리 꿀벌의 콜로니 축소 장애 (CCD)에 중요한 연구를 지원하여 우리 농업 시스템의 탄력성과 보안을 높일 수 있으며 서식지 보존 및 우수 경영 사례를 통해 꿀벌 네이티브 가루 받이의 건강을 증진한다.

배경
아시다시피, 2008 년 농장 빌 필수적인 농업 서비스 가루 받이가 우리 민족을 제공할 우리의 과학적 이해를 촉진하기 위해 5 년간 1 억 달러를 승인 언어를 포함합니다. 편지는 완전히 최근 입법 합의를 통해 법률에 서명했다 중요한 조항 자금을 요구하고있다.

관리 등 꿀벌, 윙윙 거리다의 꿀벌 및 기타 토종 꿀벌과 같은 원시 가루 받이가, 미국 농산물의 연간 이상 18,000,000,000달러의 생산 (및 27,000,000,000달러만큼)에 필요한 이러한 동물가 35이 필요합니다 세계 작물 생산의 퍼센트. 그러나 2008 회계 연도의 미국 농무부에서 총 pollinator 지출은 기관의 예산의 불과 0.01 %를 차지했다. 가루 받이없이, 알팔파 우리의 현재 수율, 아몬드, 사과, 체리, 넌출월귤, 블루베리, 키위, 딸기, 멜론, 호박, 고추, 복숭아, 배, 매실, 당근, 양파, 기타 종자 작물은 불가능합니다.

2006 년 발생, 아직까지 설명할 수없는 현상이 되나 콜로니 축소 장애 (CCD는) 이미 벌꿀 꿀벌의 식민지가 줄어들고있어 우리 민족이 감소하고, 안정 동물은 식량 생산을 수분의 복잡한 시스템을 우리의 상대적인 무지를 강조했다. 그것은 더 이해하고이 문제를 해결하기 위해 연구를 수행하기 위해 극히 중요하다.

다른 선진국의 연구가 잘 의존 농업과 생태 시스템의 꿀벌과 다른 필수적인 가루 받이의 줄었 존재를 문서화했지만 많은 정보는 2007 년 과학의 국립 아카데미에 의해 포괄적인 연구의 주요 결론이 발견한 미국에 부족한됩니다 대부분의 북미 pollinator 종에 대해 장기적인 인구 데이터가 부족하고 기본적인 생태에 대한 지식이 완전하지 않습니다.

pollinator 연구 자금 것은 우리 나라에서 가장 영양 식량 작물의 건강, 미래, 안전하고, 지속 가능성을 보호합니다. 이 기금은 우리가 그것을 지원하는 과학보다 포괄적인 이해 농업의 지속 가능한 미래를 기준으로 삼을 수 있도록합니다.

이러한 노력에 도움을 주셔서 감사합니다.

자르기 가루 받이 장치로 2008 년 농장 빌 혜택에 대해 자세히 알아보십시오 >>
Xerces 사회 농업 Pollinator 보존 프로그램에 대해 자세히 읽어 보기 >>
Xerces 사회 Pollinator 절약 자원 검색 하기 >>
Xerces 사회 Pollinator 보전 간행물 카테고리 보기 >>

XERCES 사회에 대해서
Xerces 사회는 무척추 동물과 그 서식지의 보존을 통해 야생 동물을 보호하는 국제 비영리 단체입니다. 30 년 이상 들어, 협회 invertebrate 절약, harnessing 과학자의 지식과 보존 프로그램을 구현하기위한 시민의 열정의 선두왔다.

LD _50은 무엇을 의미합니까? TLV는 어때?

LD _50은 치사량 50냅니다. 그것은 명시된 수준의 동물이나 곤충의 인구를 시행하면 검사 인구의 50 % 치사량이 될 것이 소재의 금액입니다. 0.015의 예제와 LD _50? G / 배신자 kg의 1조분의 15가 노출되는 꿀벌의 50 %를 죽일 것을 의미합니다. LD _50은 제품 개발 기간 동안 실시한 안전 테스트를하는 동안 설정됩니다. (로 돌아갈 것으로 확인되었습니다 무엇 )

TLV 또는 임계값 한계 값, 반면에, 자주 MSDS (물질 안전 데이터 시트) 또는 제품의 레이블에 인쇄 직업적 노출 수준입니다. 그것은 사람이 안전하게 해당 제품에 노출이 될 수도있는 최대 레벨 때 라벨에 설명된 직원 보호 장비에 따라 사용 인치 수준은 금액 노동자가 불리한 건강 효과없이 일하고 평생 동안 하루 하루를 노출하실 수 있습니다 믿고있다. TLV는 TLV 값은 일반적인 흡입하거나 피부 노출 관련이 있기 때문에 안전하게 섭취하실 수 있습니다 금액에 관계하지 않습니다.

CCD와 살충제에 대한보다 다양한 세부 정보 : http://montcobee1.farming.officelive.com/CCDUpdate.aspx

Mysterious Bee Deaths Strike Central Valley
http://www.valleyvoicenewspaper.com/vvarc/2007/february212007.htm

By Steve Pastis

February 21, 2007 - San Joaquin Valley - A mysterious ailment is killing off bees in Tulare County and across the country. Given the name “Colony Collapse Disorder,” the new disease has wiped out bee colonies in 21 states so far.

The loss of bees in the Central Valley is expected to have a negative impact on crops such as avocados, cherries, plums, alfalfa seeds, pomegranates and kiwi. The bee shortage may hit almonds the hardest during the time of year when half of the country's commercial bees are brought into the state to help launch what should become a $1.4 billion dollar harvest. Even more bees will be needed over the next few years as California almond production is expected to expand to more than 750,000 acres by the year 2010.

“I've lost over 2,000 bees over the last two months,” said David Bradshaw, owner of Bradshaw Honey Farms in Visalia. He had about 4,200 bees but is now down to less than 2,000.

Recently, he was visited by research teams from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Montana. The teams took samples to study and dissect more…

UPDATE 3/14/09 - The Greenwich Post newspaper reported in 2008 that McNitt's honey testing “found no trace of another insecticide called Imidacloprid “… Jim McNitt commented on my first post , however, that Eliza just won again this year two top Life Science prizes at the 2009 Connecticut Science Fair for her continued research on pesticides in honey (read his blog ). Most notably, he writes that she in fact did find imidacloprid in her testing. “This year, Eliza used HPLC to examine pollen, beeswax, beebread and dead bees gathered from the Arboretum hive for traces of imidacloprid… Her work confirmed the presence of high levels of imidacloprid both in the hive and on the extremities of the Arboretum honey bees.” So, what's the story behind the story, here? Why did the newspaper report the contrary? Did last year's research methods differ from this year's? Was there a sudden spike in imidacloprid usage near the Arboretum study location in the past year? Stamford, CT is a place of wealth and immaculate lawns. It would be nice to see a survey of the gardeners and home owners about what products they put on the lawns. Do they use any of those recently banned in Canada ? Would the local garden supply shops provide stats on sales of certain products for local research purposes? Mr. McNitt says's he'll send me the link to her research PDF for us to post here. I can't wait. Thanks for keeping us posted. [ his response and link is here : McNitt 2008 Research.pdf ] (Photo by Frank LaBanca )

• What are the possibilities of other high school students around the country sending samples to Greenwich High School for testing?
  
• Could there be a continuing research program set up there?
  
• What are the costs to the school for conducting the tests?
  
• Is it complicated to test using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) technology?

Looks to me like future students at Greenwich High could expand on McNitt's research and follow in her award-winning footsteps. They have a great research location, ability to survey properties within a 4 mile radius of the hives and perhaps even discover and map the places where the bees are picking up imidacloprid, down to the product name. The next test in the Greenwich High School CCD Research Program should be of the water supply , an often overlooked source of contamination - bees drink water and use it to cool the hive! Science teacher Andy Bramante may need some TA's, too. - DNR

———————

3/13/09는 - 어제 나는이 젊은 여성에 대한 몇 가지 2,008 소식을 게시하고, 오늘은 그녀가 영화 제작자보다 더 과학 연구원 있는지! 자체 고급 분광학 및 크로마 토그래피 기술을 가지고만한 고등학교가있다면 그것은 그리니치 고등학교 것입니다. 행운의 소녀. 나는 나에게 그녀의 연구에 대한 링크 (사용 코멘트)을 보내 엘리자을 기다리고있어 ... 축하합니다! 당신은 대학까지 순항을 싸요. (Stick with the hard sciences ;)) -DNR

Mar 12, 2008
Greenwich High student wins science competition
http://www.acorn-online.com

Eliza McNitt, a Greenwich High School junior, captured top honors at the 45th Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium for an original research project that traced the migration of pesticides through the production of southwestern Connecticut honey.

In addition to a $1,000 scholarship and letter of recognition from Gov. M. Jodi Rell, McNitt will represent Connecticut at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at Orlando, FL, in May. The symposium program is sponsored by the US Army, Navy and Air Force in an effort to encourage original scientific research at the high school level. Courtney Fogwell, a GHS senior, was selected as a National Symposium alternate for her project analyzing the environmental impact of artificial-turf playing fields.

Eliza and Courtney were among 13 state finalists who made oral presentations before an audience of more than 300 fellow science students, parents, teachers, and jurors at the University of Connecticut in Storrs on March 10. Both students were mentored by GHS science teacher Andrew Bramante.

“While extensive work has been done on the presence of residual insecticides on fruits and vegetables, there has been little significant scientific research on residual pesticides in honey,” Mr. Bramante said in a release. “Eliza came to me with her project on the first day of class. I almost fell off my stool when I heard it.”

Eliza says that the topic was indirectly inspired by her grandfather, a chemical engineer, who is fastidious about washing and peeling fresh produce.

“If there are insecticides on an apple,” Eliza said. “It made me wonder if they could also be present in honey.”

She found an ideal controlled research environment at the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford, which maintains an apiary in the middle of its 30 acre property. James Kaechele, arboretum education director and beekeeping specialist Andrew Cote´ made honey samples available along with detailed records of pesticide applications.

Eliza tested the arboretum honey using advanced Spectroscopy and Chromatography technology that had been donated to the GHS science program.

“I was incredibly fortunate to able to perform my own analysis,” she says. “GHS has equipment that you can't even find in most colleges.”

Her tests revealed the presence of a component of the pesticide Neem Oil — which is widely used in organic farming. Neem Oil is made from the fruits and seeds of Neem, an evergreen tree common in India, and is not thought to be harmful to mammals, birds or bees.

The fact that Eliza found no trace of another insecticide called Imidacloprid may have implications in the search for a cause of the mysterious syndrome known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which worker bees abruptly disappear. CCD is considered a serious threat to the pollination of food crops in the United States and Europe.

“Imidacloprid is under investigation as a contributing factor in CCD,” she said. “The fact that it is not present in the Arboretum honey could suggest that it is killing or disorienting worker bees so they cannot return to the hive.”

The topic will be something she'll tackle in her next GHS science project. [ see McNitt's followup here ]

My recent visions include creating a Live Hive ™. A Live Hive ™ is a high-tech monitored beehive complete with internal, infra-red micro video cameras, chip-tagged bees, microphones to monitor hive audio, external camera to monitor comings and goings, temperature sensors, solar panel - all data fed live to schools around the world via the Internet - LIVE 24hrs. It's a Real World Beehive Show. We need our young to observe bees, for the sake of their own survival. We can now computer-record thousands of hours of high quality audio without a problem, enabling us to observe the change in frequencies within the hive, which I believe is key to understanding honeybee health and intention. ( UPDATE: oops… This cool hive webcam seems to have had my idea already!) Here's a cool example technology below (not German).

Furthermore, undergraduate UNC student, Andrew Pierce, et al found that the queen doesn't decide hive actions herself, but rather “older workers gave signals to the queen and to the rest of the colony that it was time to swarm and leave the hive. Later, they were able to observe inside the swarm itself and see workers give the queen a signal, known as 'piping' that tells her to fly.” ( read: University of North Carolina at Charlotte) How did they do this?

Today I discovered a gem of an article published four years ago in Der Spiegel magazine from Germany (below) that lifts my hopes that my Live Hive ™ concept will become reality sooner.

“ In an experiment that's the first of its kind worldwide, they are creating precise movement profiles for their winged subjects. To this end, tiny transponders have been attached to the backs of thousands of bees. Each radio chip costs one euro and is attached to the bee with a dab of shellac. The chip weighs only 2.4 milligrams, about one-thirtieth of the maximum load a bee can carry, and therefore doesn't present much of a impediment to the insect.”

The gear exists on the consumer market , we just need to buy the parts off the shelf and deploy the Live Hive ™ in concert with thousands of observing students of all ages to give researchers feedback and notes to accelerate our open knowledge. Google's computer array should be suitable drive space. Wikipedia that! Pollinatethis!

Finally, Richard C. Hoagland unearthed an interesting nugget about hive sounds in a beekeeper's recording of a hive noise he heard twice, last back in 2006 - Hoagland played the sound on Art Bell's radio show (part 9) during a show about Colony Collapse Disorder (along with a bunch more about torsion field energy, and theories that bees build “small cell” comb for the sake of frequency resonance improvement at smaller, natural sizes than with larger, human-prompted foundation size cells… He mentions nothing about mite survival rates in large vs small cell… I appreciated Bell's critical interviewing.) Sort of funny to hear this guy Hoagland reading from BWrangler's website on Art Bell's radio show. Need to learn more about torsion field physics and hexagons. Dr. Adrian Wenner's work on bee communication is noteworthy for this project, too… Has someone already created the Live Hive? Who wants to fund it for me?

02/21/2005

Big Brother in the Beehive
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,343559,00.html

By Hilmar Schmundt

Bees become increasingly intelligent as they age. They suffer from occupational diseases and travel astronomical distances to produce a jar of honey. Using state-of-the-art monitoring technology, researchers from the German city of Würzburg are revolutionizing our image of mankind's third most-important working animal.

A snowstorm is raging outside the beehive. Inside, number 6085 is making herself comfortable at a cozy 25° Celsius (77° Fahrenheit) and with an extra serving of sweet nectar.

6085 is a sprightly senior who spends her summers working outside. But for now she is a homebody, spending her time in a world almost entirely of her own making. Her fellow bees expend almost half of their energy making sure their hive is cozy and warm in the winter and pleasantly cool in the summer. The community strictly monitors family planning and carefully controls the intelligence of its offspring. 6085 lives largely sheltered from natural calamities that plague other creatures. Hunger and infirmity are a problem that haven't plagued bees for over a million years.

“These living conditions sound like something out of a science fiction novel,” says neurobiologist Jürgen Tautz. The white-haired, 55-year-old sits in his office on the second floor of a converted house on the edge of an orchard within sight of the University of Würzburg campus. To convince his skeptical audience that number 6085 truly exists, he proposes an expedition into the exotic world of the bees. Tautz walks down a flight of stairs into his laboratory, where three experimental Plexiglas beehives have been constructed. The beehives even have names, written on paper labels — “Maja,” “Willi” and “Flip.” About a thousand honey bees are crowded into each beehive, including the worker bee identified as number 6085. The Plexiglas window to the hive is warm to the touch, especially near its center, where the royal household crowds around the queen with her long abdomen, making sure she is kept warm, well-fed and clean.

“Bees have achieved many of the things that remain the stuff of dreams for humans,” says Tautz, bright-eyed and speaking with a hint of a local dialect. “We can learn a great deal from them.”

Old bees are the smart ones

CREDIT: DDP / Fiola Bock / Beegroup Wuerzburg

CAPTION: A tiny microchip enables scientists to track the habits of bees.

The members of his 20-member research team routinely astonish the professional world with their articles in such highly-regarded professional journals as Science , Nature and Zoology . Peter Fluri, the director of the Swiss Center for Bee Research in Bern, is impressed by Tautz's work. “The results coming out of Würzburg are remarkable,” he says, “and their significance extends well beyond the world of bee biology.”The “Beegroup” laboratory routinely dismantles theories previously regarded as scientific certainty. Until recently, for example, zoologists believed that during the famous tail dance, only those bees directly surrounding the ceremony are quickly informed about a source of nectar. However, the Würzburg researchers discovered that the dance is in fact a refined form of more…

This blog gets a fair amount of traffic, and this commentary on “colony collapse disorder” from a well-known pollination broker in California deserves attention. Also interesting is to read what he had to say about the idea of “beekeepers receiving government subsidies” almost 10 years ago in 1999. This topic is current again in the news .

–DNR

http://www.beesource.com/pov/traynor/bcdec2008.htm

DECEMBER, 2008 issue BEE CULTURE

Joe Traynor

The following is distilled from the reams of disparate dispatches from the CCD front. I have tried to condense this mass of information into a coherent whole. None of what follows is original — all has been expressed in one form or another by others.

When CCD first came on the stage in 2006-2007, a number of possible causes entered the stage at, or close to, the same time:

Drought in many areas
Difficulty in controlling varroa mites
Nosema ceranae (believed to be widespread since at least 2006)
Decreased bee pasture + increased corn acreage
Chemical buildup in comb
Neonicotinoid pesticides

A good argument can be made for any one of these as the main, or sole cause of CCD; a better argument for a combination of two or more. If only one of the above had occurred, it would have been much simpler to either designate or eliminate it as the cause of CCD.

Based on field reports, CCD can devastate a given apiary in a short period of time, sweeping from one end to the other, leaving previously populous colonies with only a handful of bees and a queen. Since rapid decline of an organism (consider, as many have, a honey bee colony to be an individual organism) is typical of a pathogen, current thinking is that a pathogen, either N. ceranae or a virus (or a combination of both) is the basic cause of CCD.

If a virus causes CCD, is it a new “super” virus, or one of the known bee viruses – Kashmir, DWV, APV et al. — or perhaps a mutation of a known virus to a more virulent form? We don't know, but assuming that a virus causes CCD allows us to speculate on remedial measures.

Consider other CCD-like problems in humans and plants:

In each of the above instances, the Target can withstand the Vector in the absence of the Pathogen – mosquitoes are a minor concern to us if they don't harbor a pathogen; without a READ THE REST…

(Beyond Pesticides, March 4, 2009) The Ontario government is set to announce sweeping new regulations that will prohibit the use of 85 chemical substances, found in roughly 250 lawn and garden products, from use on neighborhood lawns. Once approved, products containing these chemicals would be barred from sale and use for cosmetic purposes.

On November 7, 2008, the Ontario government released a proposed new regulation containing the specifics of the Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act, passed last June. Then, Ontario joined Quebec in restricting the sale and cosmetic use of pesticides but environmental and public health advocates said then that the new law preempted local by-laws and actually weakens protections in some municipalities with stronger local protections. There are over 55 municipalities in Canada where the residential use, but not sale, of pesticides is banned. The prohibition of these 85 substances is the latest step in this Act. The proposal contains:

• List of pesticides (ingredients in pesticide products) to be banned for cosmetic use
• List of pesticide products to be banned for sale
• List of domestic pesticide products to be restricted for sale. Restricted sale products include those with cosmetic and non-cosmetic uses (ie, a product that's allowed to be used inside the house but not for exterior cosmetic use), and would not be available self-serve.

The 85 chemicals to be prohibited are listed under “Proposed Class 9 Pesticides” of the Act. Among the 85 pesticides banned for cosmetic use include commonly used lawn chemicals: 2,4-D (Later's Weed-Stop Lawn Weedkiller), clopyralid, glyphosate (Roundup Lawn & Weed Control Concentrate), imidacloprid , permethrin (Later's Multi-Purpose Yard & Garden Insect Control), pyrethrins (Raid Caterpillar & Gypsy Moth Killer), and triclopyr.

However, golf courses and sports fields remain exempt. The use of pesticides for public health safety (eg mosquito control) is also exempt. The proposed regulation would also allow for the use of new 'notice' signs to make the public aware when low risk alternatives to conventional pesticides are used by licensed exterminators, such as the use of corn gluten meal to suppress weed germination in lawns.

The prohibition, once passed, would likely take effect in mid-April. Stores would be forced to remove banned products from their shelves or inform customers that the use of others is restricted to certain purposes. Residents must then dispose of banned products through municipal hazardous waste collection, and use restricted products for only prescribed purposes. Errant users would first receive a warning, but fines would later be introduced.

By 2011, stores will be required to limit access to the pesticides, keeping them locked behind glass or cages and ensuring that customers are aware of limitations on use before taking them home.

In light on impeding legislation to restrict pesticide use, the Canadian division of Home Depot announced on April 22, 2008 that it will stop selling traditional pesticides in its stores across Canada by the end of 2008 and will increase its selection of environmentally friendly alternatives. Other garden supply and grocery stores have already stopped selling certain pesticides in Ontario.

This proposed prohibition would have the most impact on 2,4-D, the most popular and widely used lawn chemical. 2,4-D, which kills broad leaf weeds like dandelions, is an endocrine disruptor with predicted human health risks ranging from changes in estrogen and testosterone levels, thyroid problems, prostate cancer and reproductive abnormalities. A recent petition filed with the US Environmental Protection Agency and supported by Beyond Pesticides calls for the cancellation of 2,4-D, its products and its tolerances in the US

Other lawn chemicals like glyphosate (Round-up) and permethrin have also been linked to serious adverse chronic effects in humans. Imidacloprid, another pesticide growing in popularity, has been implicated in bee toxicity and the recent Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) phenomena. The health effects of the 30 most commonly used lawn pesticides show that: 14 are probable or possible carcinogens, 15 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 24 with neurotoxicity, 22 with liver or kidney damage, and 34 are sensitizers and/or irritants.

Reference: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/news/2009/030401.php

(Mainichi Japan) March 4, 2009

There are too few honeybees in Japan. While one immediately associates the busy yellow and black insects with honey, Japan's honey production is not the area of agriculture most threatened by the decline in the bee population. Fruit and vegetable farmers also depend on honeybees to pollinate their plants, and the shortage of bees has gone so far as to create fears of a produce shortage, one that could threaten dinner tables across Japan.

“I didn't think for a moment that we would have a shortage,” laments Osamu Mamuro, president of Mamuro Bee Farm in Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture, as he stands in front of one of the firm's beehives. Mamuro Bee Farm supplies honeybees for pollination to farmers.

In a normal year, from now through spring, Mamuro would be busy buying up honeybees from beekeepers in and outside the prefecture and distributing them to farms. This year, however, Mamuro has found it difficult to meet demand, and deliveries to customers will drop to less than half the usual amount.

“If this keeps up,” Mamuro says, “it'll be the end of my business.”
CAPTION: “The honeybees just don't gather,” laments Osamu Mamuro, president of Mamuro Bee Farm in Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture. (Mainichi)

Honeybees are essential in the pollination of fruit and vegetable plants such as strawberries, watermelons, melons, eggplants, Japanese pears, cherries, blueberries and so on. Fruit and vegetable producers buy honeybees just for pollination purposes and release them in their fields and greenhouses.

The honeybee shortage is attributable to a sharp decrease in the number of those kept by beekeepers. According to Maruto Tokai Co., a major supplier of honeybees to agricultural cooperatives all across the country, the crisis has become severe enough to “threaten the destruction of the industry.”

A sudden drop in the honeybee population is not an experience limited to Japan. In fact, a similar shortage began in the United States three years ago. The autumn of 2006 to the spring of 2007 saw a particularly alarming decline in bee numbers, when around 30 percent of American bees suddenly disappeared, a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The underlying cause of CCD is as yet unknown.

In Japan as well, in the past several years there have been instances of sudden mass die-offs and disappearances in honeybee colonies in Iwate Prefecture and Hokkaido.

The Japan Beekeeping Association (JBA), composed of 2,500 honeybee professionals, undertook a survey of its membership to determine the breadth of the honeybee population decline. The survey, which received responses from 36 percent of the association's membership, was conducted by a three person team, including Kiyoshi Kimura, head researcher at the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, and Tatsuhiko Kadowaki, associate professor at Nagoya University, from August to December last year.

The survey revealed that one in four respondents had “experienced sudden losses of honeybees.” The scale of these losses varied, but “the number of beekeepers to lose large numbers of bees was more than we expected,” says Kimura.

Kimura visited the United States in December last year to observe the American situation.

“There have been small-scale honeybee losses for many years, but a massive collapse like they had in the US is very unusual,” says Kimura, comparing the Japanese problem with the American CCD crisis of three years ago. “We must investigate the situation in Japan.”

Japan is home to many small-scale beekeeping operations. Unlike their American cousins, beekeepers in Japan do not often transport their honeybees long distances, meaning there is less stress that could affect the survival of the insects.

According to the JBA, Japan imports the vast majority of its honey, with only around 6 percent coming from domestic producers. As such, the honeybee population crisis “will not interfere with domestic honey production.”

However, the shortage of honeybees means real problems for fruit and vegetable farmers, who need the insects to get on with the vital work of pollination.

“From now on, it is possible that it will be increasingly difficult to secure honeybees for the purposes of pollinating eggplant, melon, watermelon and other produce plants,” says the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“We are desperately trying to collect enough honeybees,” says the Inba agricultural cooperative in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture, as its members prepare for the watermelon pollination season in April. Uneasy voices can also be heard among strawberry, Japanese pear and melon farmers in nearby Tochigi Prefecture. The honeybee shortage means that these and other farmers may have to resort to pollinating their produce plants by hand.

READ STORY http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090304p2a00m0na002000c.html

The Co-op today became the first UK supermarket to ban the use of a group of pesticides implicated in billions of honeybee deaths worldwide.

It is prohibiting suppliers of its own-brand fresh produce from using eight pesticides that have been connected to honeybee colony collapse disorder and are already restricted in some parts of Europe .

The Co-op said it will eliminate the usage of the neonicotinoid family of chemicals where possible and until they are shown to be safe. The Co-op has over 70,000 acres of land under cultivation in England and Scotland, making it the largest farmer in the UK. Since 2001, it has already prohibited the use of 98 pesticides under its pesticide policy.

Simon Press, senior technical manager at the Co-op group said: “We believe that the recent losses in bee populations need definitive action, and as a result are temporarily prohibiting the eight neonicotinoid pesticides until we have evidence that refutes their involvement in the decline.”

Laboratory tests suggest that one of the banned chemicals, imidacloprid , can impede honeybees' sophisticated communication and navigation systems. It has been banned in France for a decade as a seed dressing on sunflowers. Italy, Slovenia and Germany banned neonicotinoids last year after the loss of millions of honeybees. And the European Parliament voted earlier this month for tougher controls on bee-toxic chemicals.

Read rest: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/28/bees-coop-pesticide

Fox News gets some points for actually interviewing a beekeeper about the current pollinator crisis and dedicating five minutes to it, with a cute studio backdrop with props and all (you go, David Burns!)… My question to Fox News host, Neil Cavuto, “if the Corn (syrup) industry can get paid NOT to grow corn in US through the subsidy programs for decades, and the obscene pork riders can go unchecked, unreported, unchallenged during the Republican Congressional bills for your War, etc, isn't it obtuse to challenge the nation's beekeepers in their attempt to find financial relief along with Wall Street and Detroit?!” Beekeepers literally put food on your table! Oil Industry/US automakers flew in private jets to DC to get a giant taxpayer handout for actually failing to produce a product that meets modern needs (sustainability, fuel efficiency, etc.). $150 million is a drop in the bucket to protect the food supply.

Thank you, for creating the dialog, Fox News. However, you supported giant government for the War Industry for 8 years, plus. You can't backpedal now when a truly important industry needs 100% bailout relief and subsidy. Cavuto, taxpayers should fund and are happy to fund beekeepers because of their role in farming and food. Your free market is a myth, get over it. Let the auto industry collapse and support the industries that we really need: farmers, pollinators and other sustainable enterprises.

The Obama Team should be setting benchmark goals of doubling or tripling the nation's beekeeper population, which has been dwindling steadily ever since the 1950s' suburban sprawl of monocultural, agri-chemical food production began spreading here. I've suggested in the past that the Veterans' Administration deploy a program to train returning Vets to become beekeepers! Pay them, train them, redeploy them - in the peaceful fields of the united States. They will heal. They will rediscover the meaning and beauty of being human through nurturing this magical relationship with these insects, and our society needs to heal them to heal us. -DNR

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,488487,00.html

www.mymapsplus.com/kml/ colonycollapsedisorder news.kml

This snapshot of Colony Collapse Disorder news stories comes from 2007. It's been the only Colony Collapse Disorder news .kml file on the Net for a long time. Why is that?… It's become stale, some of the original website source links are broken, but the the summaries exist and it's interesting none the less. David Grogan was a student at Tufts University when he manually created this map using RSS and google. I'm working on an updated version that automagically updates the map with new stories from google news, similar to how www.healthmap.org works.