Community | November 23, 2011 | 80 comments

Up to 12 Million Bees Found Dead in Florida | No One Knows Why [???]

source: http://majortrend.tv/611/up-to-12-million-bees-found-dead-in-florida-and-no-one-knows-why/

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Up to 12 million bees found dead in Florida and no one knows why

By Eddie Sage on 05 October 2011

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Authorities have already ruled out disease, including the infamous “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD), as the cause of a recent honeybee holocaust that took place in Brevard County, Florida.

The UK’s Daily Mail reports that up to 12 million bees from roughly 800 apiaries in the area all dropped dead at roughly the same time around September 26 — and local beekeepers say pesticides are likely to blame.

CCD is the term often used to describe the inexplicable mass die-off of honeybees around the world, which typically involves honeybees leaving their hives and, for whatever reason, never finding their way back home.

Mass die-offs associated with CCD often occur at seemingly random locations around the world, and typically involve a gradual process of disappearance and eventual colony collapse — and the dead bees are typically nowhere to be found.

But the recent Florida event involved hundreds of colonies from 30 different sites in a one-and-a-half mile radius literally dropping dead all at the same time and leaving their carcasses behind, which is why authorities have dismissed CCD as the cause.

Based on the appearance of the dead bees, as well as the synchronous timing of their deaths, pesticide sprayings appear to be the culprit in this case. “I’m a pretty tough guy, but it is heart wrenching,” said Charles Smith of Smith Family Honey Company to News 13 in Orlando. His family’s company lost an estimated $150,000 worth of bees in the recent die-off.

“Not only is it a monetary loss here, but we work really hard on these bees to keep them in good health.”

The Florida die-off coincides with a recent county-wide mosquito eradication effort, during which helicopters flew over various parts of the county and sprayed airborne pesticides.

Officials, of course, deny that this taxpayer-funded spraying initiative had anything to do with the bee genocide, though.

“The fact that it was so widespread and so rapid, I think you can pretty much rule out disease,” said Bill Kern, an entomologist from the University of Florida (UF) toFlorida Today. “It happened essentially almost in one day. Usually diseases affect adults or the brood, you don’t have something that kills them both.”

Many of the beekeepers who lost their hives in the mass killing raised their bees to sell to American farmers, who then used them to pollinate food crops. Because of their massive losses, many of these beekeepers could end up losing their entire beekeeping businesses.

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80 comments // Up to 12 Million Bees Found Dead in Florida | No One Knows Why [???]

  • polychromata
    • +1
      polychromata  

    • This happening shows the lack of concern agencies have for trying to manage delicate ecosystems as a whole. Just like the sink hole problem's in the winter when the groves spray massive amounts of water during a freeze. The idiot wind don't take in consideration of the larger effect & a domino problem occurs. I thought we knew better, but studpidity survives.

    • 6 months ago
  • GO_REALLA_1
    • +1
      GO_REALLA_1  

    • Many Humans will attempt to write this off as Global warming, since the media isn't promoting this story. However, All this is due to our life styles as a "Civilization." This is a result of what we have done to this planet!

    • 6 months ago
  • richardparks
  • EdJoyProductions
  • coolplanet
    • +4
      coolplanet  

    • I just phoned my family in Hawaii and mentioned this mass bee death in Florida.
      I was shocked to learn that the same thing is happening in Hawaii. Within the past month they said 2/3rd of bees have died from 'small hive beetles.'

    • 6 months ago
  • KB723
  • Hardytoo
  • coolplanet
  • KB723
  • Johnny_Los_Angeles
    • +3
      Johnny_Los_Angeles  

    • the Earths magnetic field is collapsing get ready for 2012
      Most people dont know that Mars once had a magnetic field and an atmosphere and liquid water on its surface but because it is 1/3 the size of the Earth its iron core stopped spinning sooner and the magnetic field collapsed allowing the solar winds to strip away the atmosphere killing the planet. The Earths magnetic field is weakening and destablizing (dont believe me look it up) its just a matter of time before our magnetic field collapses and it could happen at any time.

    • 6 months ago
  • artemis6
  • Persistent_Voice
  • artemis6
  • Varex_Sythe
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      No. It's a part of a "composite sign". As in many faceted. Earthquakes alone are not the sign. Chronology alone is not the sign. An asteroid just just missed hitting the Moon two times (coming & going) alone is not "the sign".

      But it came close. The Moon barely scooted past its path, then as the Moon circled around the other side it was barely ahead of the asteroid a 2nd time. NASA somehow failed to point that out. They prefer you not know when you're about to die.

    • 6 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • wtthfkovr
    • +2
      wtthfkovr  

    • Remember several years back the uproar over funding for research as to why bees were dying off, claiming it to be frivolous goverment spending. Guess which party that was and guess how long man will last with out bees

    • 6 months ago
  • cherry5000
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • cherry5000:

      Mass Die-offs of a species is more than "Global Warming" => it is a Sign, like a road sign on the Highway of Life telling us Get off the Highway or, BUILD A NEW HIGHWAY.

      Something is terribly wrong on Planet Dirt.

    • 6 months ago
  • PigFarmington
  • tverdell
  • EthicalVegan
  • Hardytoo
  • EthicalVegan
  • Cruzankenny
    • +4
      Cruzankenny  

    • If we continue to ignore the Canary in this Coal Mine. If it's a friggin pesticide, it should be easy to identify in a 3 mile diameter. If complete hives are killed near the outer circumference, it has to be inside a 1 or 3/4 mile radius.

    • 6 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • dryeraser
    • +6
      dryeraser  

    • IT'S THE PESTICIDES! Yes it kills plant eating bugs and may prevent diseases to those plants, but HELLO... it's unhealthy for the bees that pollinate the plants. Bees work in harmony together ...if one falls ill, THEY ALL DO... and it's clockwork for them when it comes to pollinating plants and making that honey. Think back to the movie Avatar and the tree of life. With corporations, it's always about the profits over the environment... they don't give a crap. They'll only wake up and do something about the situation when they're publicly exposed.

    • 6 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • dudefromtherock
  • Hardytoo
  • Earl_Dixon
  • JustZ
  • nikonwilly
  • EthicalVegan
  • JanforGore
    • +5
      JanforGore  

    • Neonicotinoids. And sorry, but spraying this crap is not working to keep bees healthy. They are killing them and the biodiversity that brings life to the world. This is very sad.

    • 6 months ago
  • artemis6
  • bailey78
  • shengled
  • infiniteblackbox
  • bailey78
  • infiniteblackbox
  • bailey78
  • ecoalex
    • +6
      ecoalex  

    • >“Not only is it a monetary loss here, but we work really hard on these bees to keep them in good health.”<

      Really? feeding them HFCS and keeping them dosed with tetracycline and pesticides for the mites? Really?

      Funny how conventional farmers say they are good stewards of the land and take good care of their animal/bees,when they are dousing them with chemicals.

      This is the difference between organic and conventional agriculture.

      look for a major crop planting,and the chemicals associated with the planting or timing of a pesticide most likely a nicotinamine.

    • 6 months ago
  • maasanova
    • +3
      maasanova  

    • I used to see bees all the time when I was a little kid. I can't even remember the last time I saw a regular honeybee, although I do see the occasional bumblebee.

    • 6 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • Leen61
    • +7
      Leen61  

    • "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left." -- Albert Einstein

    • 6 months ago
  • tverdell
  • Leen61
  • EthicalVegan
  • Wyley_Wombat
    • +4
      Wyley_Wombat  

    • "The Florida die-off coincides with a recent county-wide mosquito eradication effort, during which helicopters flew over various parts of the county and sprayed airborne pesticides.

      Officials, of course, deny that this taxpayer-funded spraying initiative had anything to do with the bee genocide, though."

      And when they start getting crop failures because of insufficient pollination they will still be denying it. Humans are always trying to "improve" nature with results such as this.

    • 6 months ago
  • figure8
    • +12
      figure8  

    • I am starting to leave a patch of weeds in my yard. It hit me the other day as I was cutting the grass and watching all the activity around the weeds... Bees LOVE the little flowers. Rather than pulling the weeds or spraying to kill them off,
      I left about a 5x15 and a smaller 4x8 patch in my yard and these areas are full of life.

    • 6 months ago
  • figure8
  • Gravity_Man
    • +6
      Gravity_Man  
    • figure8:

      You have a yard? Wow. I have an apartment manager who hires people to spray garbage around without telling anyone they're coming so the children's legs don't get against the grass til it dries.

      Insect spray absorbs through skin pores while still wet.

      We are also the bees. We spray poor people's children.

    • 6 months ago
  • squarethecircle
    • +4
      squarethecircle  
    • figure8:

      you'd love my backyard. Despite the town ordinance against tall lawns I can't bring myself to use the endless amounts of fuel it takes to keep it cut and it reminds me of the fields around my childhood home back in VA. We have more life in our yard than the any other lawn around.

    • 6 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • attilatheblond
    • +5
      attilatheblond  
    • squarethecircle:

      I got our little front yard turned into a wild meadow, and I always toss out some food crop seeds too. The birds love the kale, especially in January when it is still sorta alive and the cold has changed the plant's chemistry to where it has higher sugars counts. Vit C AND plant sugars for energy. My Montana yard look like a Hitchcock movie what with all the birds who enjoy the environment we have evolved.

      Planting turnips, radish, kohlrabi in some flower beds provided some good soup veggies and great soil conditioning, breaking up our heavy clay, killing the bad nemotoads and encouraging the good ones, plus putting down some nitrogen and making for better environment for beneficial soil bacterias. The organic material plowed in works well too! And we noticed there weren't as many mosquitos or 'no see 'ems' in the areas with the turnip/kohlrabi/radish cover crop.

      Sunflowers, and some orach added height and color, and we found out red winged blackbirds LOVE the orach seed, so we added a bunch of them to the yard regulars this fall. Clover mixed with rye for the three tiny plots of grass for me and the dog to relax in. Clover is also great around tomatoes if you are in a very hot/dry place. Keeps soil cooler, retains moisture, feeds nitrogen which tomatoes love. Also keeps bad weeds down. Place is full of great little frogs, toads, lizards all summer. Boy does that help with the bugs!

      Some pots with flowers to keep the bees happy, but yeah, numbers way down and that worries us a lot. Small family of bats summer between the old basketball backstop and the wooden garage.

      Harvest rainwater. Keep skitters out of rain barrels by simply cutting large circles of window screening material, sewing on fabric to make a drawstring casing, putting in some cord and putting it over the barrels. No larvae killer chems in that precious water!

      Now, my front yard looks 'weedy' to some, but it is brimming with life, always a surprise, and an ongoing experiment which we tweak each year. Square footage of actual 'lawn' (rye and clover with chamomille tossed in) about 300sq feet front and back combined. Food producing (for us and the birds) 1000+ sq feet.

      Fertilizer? Use green manure tilled in, rotate the type every couple of years. Bunnies love our place, and a whole lotta other critters too. This is where old cats come to sleep in the sun or cool shade and just enjoy nature. All around us is hell.

    • 6 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • attilatheblond:

      Wow. You could set up a 24 hour survellance cam on your yard animals and using timed delay say, 15 minutes of filming every 8 hours or something, then make a movie.

      Or set it up where people all over the world could tune in and watch Real-Time. Just when I come over and GRAZE some of the vegetables you'll TURN IT OFF THEN, RIGHT? RIGHT?!

    • 6 months ago
  • attilatheblond
    • +1
      attilatheblond  
    • Gravity_Man:

      Actually, a 'dog cam' on the 90 pound hound would work better. He LOVES any small critter, birds, bunnies, the old cat, the kitten who both drop by, the frogs (he tries to bring his favorite frog in for the night after 'last call' potty break) snakes. lizards, children.

      He does not like the sharp shinned hawk that comes to pick off sparrows. He runs him off. The sparrows grab sunflower seeds I put under the car in winter (thwart the hawk and keep them available in snow) and then hop over to dine almost at the dog's feet as he reclines and surveys his kingdom.

      Yep, dog cam would get the best stuff. He even watches the geese and cranes fly by.

      You can come graze any late spring, or summer day. Great salad greens and other tasty things. Best time is late summer, for the black prince tomatoes and fresh basil low fat pesto. TO DIE FOR!

    • 6 months ago
  • oboith
    • +2
      oboith  
    • attilatheblond:

      I'm sure most of the readers here don't understand the bio-dynamics you're describing, however you have made your own Garden of Eden. I kept bees several years here in the Appalachian Mountains and it was a marvelous and educational experience. I hope the unknowable powers that decide "man's" fate understand our ignorance and persevere.

    • 6 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • Hardytoo
    • +2
      Hardytoo  
    • attilatheblond:

      One cool thing that I heard about was from a fellow on the radio, telling of his additional ways to attract and protect honey-bees. Sounded like he had a rail type fence - he drilled a hole into the top of each fence post, and every single one attracted a pair of bees.
      I've got a couple of small Mason bee houses on my deck, and in spring & summer, lots of bright flowers to attract them. The houses aren't much - just a small sheltered place with drill holes into the wood. Plan is to put up a few more this spring. We are in terrible trouble with the loss of bees - truly, our food supply depends on pollination.
      An old friend of mine (and his wife) left their jobs (both biologists) mainly to manage their own apiary; they lost over half of their bees to colony-collapse "disorder." It's been tragic for them. They sell honey in specialty stores, they make candles, and much more. Over the past ten years and with a few side "home industries," they've "made a go of it."

      I am in total AWE of your efforts!!! And you look after the bats too - which keeps the flying insect problems in-check. It sounds like you've put much thought into your yard-planning. Remarkable planning, and I'll bet it's taught you new things each season.
      I might just sneak across the border and take up residence in your Montana yard.
      Sounds like a natural paradise, congratulations to you ATB.

    • 6 months ago
  • oboith
    • +2
      oboith  
    • squarethecircle:

      Thank you so much...It's nice to think I'm not alone in my observation of the chaos mankind is foisting on our planet because of greed and ignorance. Indeed, we must "endeavor to persevere". Thanksgiving is truly an uplifting celebration..have a memorable one.

    • 6 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
    • +1
      EthicalVegan  
    • attilatheblond:

      I live in a townhouse, so am stuck with only a somewhat narrow patio running the length of my home.

      Everyone else in this complex cemented or bricked-in their patios and put in bbq-whatevers.

      I, instead, turned over the dead soil, then began working in compost, manure, lime, and some other things. Slowly but surely, I now have a patio totally filled with nothing but living plants, flowering bushes, vines, fruit trees... along with some really nice wind chimes. There's a bat house, as well, which is thrilling.

      A few neighbors walk by and grumble about "the f--king jungle," but most others love that it's so wild and beautiful and sweet-scented. And it's ever-changing in colors and composition.

      I even have two [small] below-ground level compost pits... one to fill, one to empty each year, just the way my mother always did in our lovely garden back home in New Jersey.

      As a result, I have lots and lots of non-human visitors always hanging out. It makes me quite happy.

    • 6 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • Hardytoo
    • +2
      Hardytoo  
    • EthicalVegan:

      That sounds so beautiful, EVegan - I've got a tiny patio, but it has lots of flowers, tomatoes, pole beans and many bees - quite luckily, and with a little special care with shallower containers, our climate on the south-coast allows us to have flowers that bloom all year (mostly pansies and the other hardy types in the winter, but still - flowers). They bring the birds in the winter months when it's dark and rainy. A little cheer.
      Your patio sounds great - my bee houses stay put (let the neighbors complain), and in the long lane-way between my patio and a very tall stand of evergreens, owls train their young to hunt on autumn nights (I can hear them quietly and cautiously "hooting") and bats swoop at the night insects (all summer and autumn). It's wonderful to sit out there quietly at night and just drink it all in. So many don't realize how we could lose all of this, so fast.

    • 6 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • squarethecircle
  • squarethecircle
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  

    • Microwave radiation. Scrambled eggs for brains these bees have. Their thin skulls aren't thick enough to stop IPv6 rays that we needed for all the new gadgets.

      =>>> The Rule is => Our Greed exceeds Their Need.
      =>>> The Rule is => Our Greed exceeds Their Need.
      =>>> The Rule is => Our Greed exceeds Their Need.
      =>>> The Rule is => Our Greed exceeds Their Need.
      =>>> The Rule is => Our Greed exceeds Their Need.

      Good-bye Mr. Bees, Mrs. Bee, Children Bee.

      Thanks for all the fish.

    • 6 months ago
  • attilatheblond
    • +1
      attilatheblond  
    • Gravity_Man:

      I always wonder about what all our electronics do to their navigation. Especially worried about all the cell towers. Can't be good for them. Can't be good for us. Possibly one of the reasons for so much ADD or whatever they keep claiming boisterous kids have?

      We feed our kids crap. We spray crap in the air. We send all sorts of stuff through the air, we drop shit outta planes....... No way to treat the Mother. No way to raise healthy anything.

    • 6 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • NiceN
  • Anonmaly
  • Hardytoo
  • EthicalVegan
  • Hardytoo
  • EthicalVegan
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