Will Our Bee Researchers Ever Find The Answer ?
Researchers and bee keepers all over the U.S., mainly in
the south have been experiencing strange and very unusual
things happening in the beehive at the beginning of 2007. A
die-off of many bee colonies was actually noticed during
the growing season last year. The syndrome is known as
"Colony Collapse Syndrome". As many as 90 % of some beehives
have experienced a die-off, mainly in the southern U.S..
Many top bee researchers are deep into studying the possible
cause of the problem and there are some suggestions as to
its possible causes. One is a widespread use of an
insecticide called "imidacloprid", used predominantly here
in the U.S. and banned in most European countries because of
its effects on "pollinators", causing them to loose their
memory and of course loosing their way back to the hive,
disrupting the bee life cycle. This present scourge of the
sudden disappearance of our bee colonies has occurred before
in our history. We have been told that in 1896, a major
die-off of the bee colony population has been recorded by
those who keep records. Is this an occurrence that is possibly
just cyclical in nature ? Sun spots recur about every eleven
years. Being that bees are alive, they are bound by the laws
that all species of the earth have to follow, just as great
Flu epidemics, plagues, etc.. It just looks as though we
homosapiens are the cause of this one ourselves.
Is This The Beginning Of The Way Of The Dinosaur ?
One cause of the demise of the dinosaur, we are told might
have been the slow eroding of their food supplies. This is
one theory, of course, but no one knows for sure. Nonetheless,
we are told that the honey bee is totally responsible for
the pollination and thus the growth of about 30 % of our
fruits and certain of our vegetables, so if we were to lose
a majority or especially all of our honey bee pollinators
for these crops even for one growing season, it would
devastate our agriculture for that period.
Given that The
U.S. is an exporter of many products grown on our farms, it
can readily be seen the affect this could have in many other
countries of the world. We do not want to even think of that
situation ever happening. As a Mr. Albert Einstein once
quoted, "If we were ever to see the extinction of the honey
bee, humankind would follow four years thereafter." The
question might be asked, could this particular incidence be
"the writing on the wall" ? Is it telling us to close the
spigot and relent on our use of insecticides and pesticides,
in order that the next annihilation not be that of humankind ?
We all certainly do hope that our agricultural scientists and
expert researchers find the answers, or at least come up
with a quick fix, so that we can continue to enjoy all of
those wonderful fruit that we always seem to just take for
granted...
