These practices may help alleviate loss of honeybees
-
Honey bees owned by beekeeper Monroe Cressley of Franklin Township, Pa.
Share with others:
Q. I have been reading about the recent problems with honeybees and was wondering if home gardeners can do anything to help them. Part of what I've read indicates that systemic insecticides such as imidacloprid are responsible for the problem, yet I notice you recommend it from time to time in your column. Aren't there other products you could recommend?
A. Honeybee colonies throughout the United States and Europe are being impacted by a phenomenon now called colony collapse disorder (CCD). Beekeepers began reporting abnormally high losses in the winter of 2006. Researchers from Penn State's Entomology Department have been studying the problem ever since. CCD is characterized by the mysterious absence of adult bees in or around hives, living or dead. In many cases, bee larvae and honey reserves, perhaps a few young adults and a queen are present, but the majority of adult bees seem to have vanished. Even more curious, the honey in hives that have been impacted by CCD is slow to be taken by other bees or animals that would typically rob an unprotected hive of its stores. Although similar "disappearances" have happened periodically since the mid-1800s, the record level of losses now have made this a research priority for entomologists from across the country. Researchers estimate that one-third of honeybee hives in the United States have been wiped out by the phenomenon. Ice cream maker Haagen-Dazs is funding CCD research at Penn State and the University of California-Davis entomology departments because roughly 40 percent of the brand's flavors come from fruits that depend on bee pollination.
All of the research I have read to date points to a perfect storm of environmental, arthropod and disease factors that have resulted in CCD. Urban sprawl has reduced habitat for honeybees by replacing native flowering plants with exotic species that often do not produce pollen and nectar necessary to provide sufficient food resources. Lawns are routinely sprayed to control broadleaf weeds such as dandelions, and grasses do not provide the kind of pollen and nectar that supports bees. Hives that go into winter without sufficient food reserves (honey!) are doomed, especially wild hives that do not have a human keeper to supplement those reserves through lean winter months.
First Published April 10, 2010 12:00 am
