And Then They Just Disappeared…
The First To Go From Global Warming
A team of entomologists and other scientists studying the alarming die-off of honeybees across the country is expected to report that there are multiple causes of the deaths, called colony collapse disorder. The finding compounds a crisis for growers of crops dependent on pollination. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater (Merced County), gathered reporters, beekeepers, farmers and a UC Davis Extension apiculturist for an update on colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that threatens pollination-dependent vegetable, nut and fruit crops with a value to growers of $15 billion. Of course they only care when it concerns money loss. Of that total, California’s share is $6 billion.
The team of scientists now completing the report and recommendations for the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service is expected to conclude that there are many potential causes of colony collapse, including parasites, mites and diseases; known or unknown pathogens; poor nutrition and stress; lack of genetic diversity; and a combination of several factors.Professor Eric Mussen of UC Davis said he is convinced that a nutritional deficit helps explain how the honeybees were weakened by the smorgasbord of potential causes of death. That is because dry conditions, certainly in California, did not produce flowers in which bees find their required mix of pollens, he said. “I am pretty concerned about it this year because, at Davis, in January we only had 0.17 of an inch of rain and we should have had 4 inches. The early mustard — we never got it,” Mussen said. “In many situations the bees were weakened by not being able to get a nice mix of nutrients that they needed from the pollens, and I think that weakened them,” he said. “Under those circumstances you can take all the other (causes), and there are plenty of them, and combine them together and down go the bees.”
Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., introduced a bill in March that would give the USDA $50 million over five years to study colony collapse, but Cardoza, a fiscally conservative Democrat whose district includes Stockton, Merced and Modesto, said that is too costly and he prefers to narrow the research target. ” That is too costly. Will $50 million solve the problem?
