BY ANNA HERKAMP
DANVILLE
May 18, 2007 09:04 pm
—
Although national media have devoted significant airtime and print space to the disappearance of honeybees in recent weeks, experts say the loss might have more common, less devastating causes than initially suspected.
A long winter could be one explanation for what researchers are calling colony collapse disorder, or CCD. Researchers and experts also suspect mites, disease or stress from transportation over long distances.
John Cunningham of John’s Honey in Perrysville, Ind., lost 75 percent of his honeybees this winter. He suspects the harsh weather might be the cause, but he’s not sure.
“They’ve got ideas on what (CCD) might be, but they haven’t really come up with an answer yet. How can you fight it if you don’t know what it is?” he said.
CCD is marked by an absence of adult honeybees with little or no build-up of dead bees in the hive.
So far, the mysterious disappearances have not appeared in Illinois, according to the University of Illinois extension office.
Other symptoms include strange food build-ups.
“ … The presence of food stores, both honey and honeybee bread. These food stores are not robbed by other honeybees. When hives are attacked by common hive pests, such as wax moth and small hive beetle, the attack is noticeably delayed,” said the March edition of the Illinois Pesticide Review newsletter.
Cunningham, a hobbyist beekeeper and honey seller, now has 50 hives. Some have been regained from the initial 100 he had last year.
Cunningham believes part of his honeybee loss could be the result of an unseasonably warm winter in December, followed by harsh conditions the following months.
“When it’s warmer, they eat more. When it turned cold, they clustered in the middle of the hive (to keep warm), but the food is on the outside of the hive,” he said, which leads to starvation.
“It’s several things that add up.”
Cunningham sells about 16 55-gallon drums of honey per year. Some drums weigh up to 600 pounds.
He’s not sure how his yield will turn out this year.
Another possible explanation could be related to chemicals from pesticides.
Illinois Pesticide Review suggests the chemical imidacloprid — sold as Merit, Marathon, Provado, Admire and Gaucho — could cause memory loss in bees, which makes them forget their hives’ locations.
This theory would explain why so many bees seem to be missing from hives — they simply don’t return after foraging for food.
Even if CCD appears in Illinois, it will be manageable, local experts said.
The state’s major crops — corn and soybeans — don’t depend on honeybees for pollination.
“Corn is a wind-pollinated plant,” said Phil Nixon, U of I extension entomologist.
Soybean flowers also can develop without help from honeybees.
The crops that depend on honeybees are primarily fruits and vegetables, which comprise a minor portion of crops in Illinois, Nixon said.
States that produce lots of vegetables and fruits depend much more heavily on honeybees, Cunningham said.
In Illinois, if CCD got out of control, farmers who grow melons or berries could see some adverse effects.
Nixon said the theory of migratory beekeeping could hold some water, he said.
When bees are shipped across great distances, they become stressed.
Up to 200 hives travel on a semi or flatbed truck at night. The proximity of the hives, Nixon said, can cause diseases to spread.
Hobbyist beekeepers, however, don’t have to worry because their bees stay local.
Bees transported from one part of the country to another also could suffer because they’re not used to the climate, Cunningham said.
Even though the cause of CCD is still unknown, Nixon is not overly concerned.
“This has happened over and over again in previous years,” he said.
“It’s not a new thing; it just has a new name.”
Other conditions with similar symptoms were called “spring dwindling,” “fall collapse” or “autumn decline.”
“Any year, there are colonies that die out, but this is a little bit unusual. It seems to be more widespread. … They don’t know what’s happening,” Nixon said.
However, Nixon said it’s too early to worry.
The colony loss over the winter is a bit higher in Ohio than what is normal — at 30 percent, when it should be less than 20 percent.
“That’s more colonies than you would expect … but by no means a wipeout. It’s not catastrophic. I suspect Illinois is in the same category as the Ohio beekeepers,” he said.
Some media outlets have suggested cell phone transmission towers could be to blame.
Cunningham disagrees.
“I laugh about a lot of things — that’s one of them,” he said.
ON THE NET
http://www.pesticidesafety.
uiuc.edu/newsletter/html/200702c.html.
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