"Fruitless Fall"

[rainbowgardener]

OMG... I am reading "Fruitless Fall" by Rowan Jacobsen about colony collapse disorder and the disappearance of bees. In parts it is fascinating, lots of natural history about the life cycles of bees and hive intelligence. But by the time you get 100 or so pages in to it, it gets very frightening and depressing. He makes the case that it is not [just] neonicotinoid pesticides killing them, but the combination and interaction and potentiation of the 14-30 different herbicides, fungicides, insecticides that can be found in most hive wax samples, AND the stress of varroa mites and other imported pests, viruses, fungal diseases, AND the stress of the life we are giving them trucking them around the country, AND the malnutrition from being in monoculture crops (they need a diversity of foods in their diets just as we do) and being maintained on high fructose corn syrup [like living on Pepsi] AND many other stresses. He gives an e.g. of a NY state beekeeper who overwintered his apiary in four buildings to keep the hives warmer. One of the buildings also had a sawmill going all winter, making an off and on terrible screeching noise. By spring all the hives in the sawmill building were dead, while the hives in the other buildings were fine. ... It makes it sound like not only are the bees doomed, but so is all of agriculture as we know it, and perhaps all of the natural world. Perhaps bees are the next canaries in the mine?

Globalization has been pretty much of a disaster for the natural world, moving all kinds of pest insects and diseases to where they have no natural enemies and the plants have no defense against them. Here's a list of pest insects that come in just on imported pine logs: pine loopers, exotic bark beetles, ambrosia beetles, Bark Anobiid of Pine,Sirex Woodwasp, Giant/Dampwood Termites, Drywood Termites,Subterranean Termites. And of course many others by many other routes, the above mentioned varroa mites were imported from Africa in the 1990's, emerald ash borer. Recent imports include Asian citrus psyllid which carries the disease citrus greening, which has been decimating citrus crops, light brown apple moth and on and on. People trying to preserve their crops from these and imported diseases (e.g. anthracnose, sweet orange scab) do more and more spraying and treating with insecticides, fungicides, antibiotics, etc, which just increases the stress on the system.

There's just not enough resources to do the inspections to try to keep all this stuff out. Somewhere else I saw that the rate of new pests coming in has increased significantly since 9/11/2001, because lots of the agricultural inspectors were pulled off of that duty to inspect for possible weapons/ terrorist materials coming in. I suppose eventually some new adaptation/ balance would be worked out, but that would have to occur in evolutionary time periods, thousands of years at least. I don't know if there will be human beings around to see it by then.

[imafan26]

The problem with some of the books like "Silent Spring", is that it is meant to be a wake up call to remind us of our responsibility to be good stewards of the world.

The worst blight on this earth isn't all of the pests varoa mites, hive beetles, or brown tree snakes, it is and has always been people.

In nature there is a balance. All animals eat something and something eats it. But predators and prey are usually in balance unless some human brings in something that competes and displaces what is already there. Nature has designed her own pest controls. Pest plants have pests and animals that eat them and keep them from getting out of control. Invasive alien plants, insects, and other animals that humans import all over the world that get loose in the local environment can drastically change the local ecosystem and can lead to extinction of native species. That is why Hawaii has one of the highest species extinction in the world.

Most of the native plants and animals cannot compete with alien plants and animals since they evolved in isolation and became specialists requiring a very specific habitat.

Nature even has its own pest control pyrethrins are developed from plants, but plants do not concentrate their bug killers and spray it on everything.

The worst of the human blight is the loss of forests and open space that is being replaced by concrete and steel and glass buildings. And of course human activity. Fisherman who consider otters pests because they eat all of the abalone. The otters were there long before them and the abalone really is theirs, concentrated farming and animal husbandry. Pesticides and fertilizers and manures get into the ground water polluting streams, lakes and eventually even oceans. Gasoline engines, landfills, man made fires have polluted this planet so much that the air is no longer clean or clear and there is a haze surrounding the planet.

Eventually, these imbalances will lead to our own extinction.

In the meantime, we can and should leave the smallest carbon footprint we can as a choice. Choosing not to use pesticides, providing habitats for animals, recycle and dispose of less waste. Bring your own cup to work instead of using disposables. Do not import alien plants and animals that may escape and damage the local environment. Walk or bike more rather than take the car, and of course grow your own food in an environmentally responsible way.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, indeed, it is and has been for a millennium or so human beings who are the main invasive exotic, taking over everything. But globalization of the type I am talking about has really only existed in my life time, easy air travel to everywhere including the most remote locations, completely intertwined global economy, such that any one manufactured article likely has parts in it from around the world, supply chain loops such that we send our waste paper to China, where they turn it in to cardboard boxes, fill them full of their manufactured stuff and send them back to us, pine logs, living plants, produce etc imported world wide, etc etc.

So it is really in my life time that we have started sending insect pests, diseases (of plants and people), weeds, etc so freely and quickly around the world as hitchhikers on all of the above. If a creature is gradually expanding its range in natural time spans, then the environment around it has some time to change with it. When it is suddenly plopped down in a new place half way around the world, nothing has any time to adapt. Despite my best efforts at constantly pulling it, mulberry weed is gradually taking over my yard. It is an Asian import, first spotted in Louisiana in 1964, that has been spreading through the country ever since. It has been in my area about 20 years now. I first noticed it in my yard four years ago.

For awhile I was comforting myself that bees that were kept small scale by organic gardeners/farmers, not trucked around the country, etc would be OK. Then my church tried keeping a hive (with help from an experienced bee keeper). Our bees did great the first year and produced a bountiful honey harvest (of wonderful honey!). They made it through the winter and then in the second year got hive beetles or something and all died.... The best organic gardener/ small scale farmer / beekeeper I know struggles to keep her hives going.

And in case we were thinking oh well the honeybees (which are after all European imports not native to this continent) will be replaced by native pollinators, it turns out the native/ wild pollinators are also in severe decline. We just don't hear about that so much because there's not a whole industry based on them.

[Rairdog]

That's one of the reasons I decided on a Top Bar hive. The bees make there comb anyway they like. The comb is removed and not re-used as in Langstoth. The wax holds all the pests, pesticides and herbicides when re-used and accumulates. They are also forced to make comb a certain size for out convenience which dictates the size of the bee and not their natural gene's producing a certain size. The bees in TBH's can be trained to fend of the SHB and VM's themselves. It might require finding a hygienic queen. Also in a TBH the bees are allowed to make drones whenever and where ever which they can't do in Lang's. This is where the SHB will congregate allowing the bees to control the numbers better. I think this can also be done with foundationless Langs but I'm a newbie.

If you want to watch a good you-tube vid check out Sam Comfort. He goes through how he started off moving bees to orchards, treating, watching them build tolerance and die out. Then he found out how to let them take care of themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOuPA-BUmcE There are 4 parts.

Also check out Phil Chandler vids and books.

[imafan26]

The UH beekeeper said that because of all the stressors on the bees, imodiclopid, sevin and other insecticides, loss of habitat and a variety of pollin and nectar plants, hive beetles, varoa mites, ants and people who kill beehives because they choose to nest in their yard, etc., the only bees that will survive will probably be the managed hives.

We lost the first set of hives to ants that attacked the hive. The bees were still around, they just abandoned the hive because of the ants. There was a huge wasp nest that was found in the ground and destroyed. I read up on it and those wasps actually feed on ants. Wasps though, do not make good neighbors.
The hives are inspected weekly and treated for mites and hive beetles every three months or so. So far the hives are thriving and expanding. We were able to split the hive and someone was able to recapture some bees that had swarmed onto a nearby tree. We also have been able to bottle some honey. I still have half a bottle left. It is yummy.

I take care of the herb garden so the bees visit the flowers every day. I don't cut the basil flowers off anymore since they really like the basil. There are also sunflowers, marigolds, dill, fennel, pineapple sage, and onions in bloom. Besides the apiary for the honeybees in the orchard, there is a leaf cutter bee house and we have bamboo bundles hanging in a tree for the carpenter bees. Although the carpenter bees still try to nest under the building. I do not use many chemicals in the herb garden, the fennel takes care of almost everything. I do use sulfur as a fungicide but only when I need to. The spittle bugs are unsightly but don't do a lot of damage, so I just cut them off and dispose of them. Birds, gotta beat them to the figs and peppers. I do have to move my pepper plants when the pepper weevil shows up.

People do not realize how much of the food we eat are dependent on insects for pollination. There was a video I saw awhile back that showed what the grocery vegetable aisle would look like if all the bees were gone. Half of the produce would be gone.

[applestar]

I think one of the biggest problem is that humans have it in their big heads that they are smart and know what they are doing. They create "controlled" environments and try to selectively kill off or bring in organisms. Or they just kill everything when only specific organisms are causing the problem. Superbug.

I was fancifully thinking that If the globalization allowed predators and other natural controls free access, then maybe it wouldn't be as much of a problem. Instead, one pest species is accidentally imported, and one predator species is intentionally imported in an attempt to control it.... Then -- surprise! -- the predator species sometimes turns out to cause it's own problems.

[Susan W]

Doom and gloom. and a bit of a wake up call or rather a nudge. The situation is without boundaries, and lends to hundreds of discussions. Most people reading this agree to less blatant use of pesticides and herbicides.

We are aware of the honey bees as we depend on them for pollination, wax and honey. They were 1st brought with the Euros in the 17th for honey and wax. They spread out from the cultivated gardens, moving west one step ahead of white settlers. I can't help but think some native bees were displaced. I don't know the hierarchy of bees, but I do notice more bumble bees and some natives in my urban yard than honey bees, though neighbor across the street has a hive.

As for plants, they have been traveling the globe as long as people have traveled, either hitch-hiking in baggage or brought for reasons. We consider some plants native as they are everywhere, though first brought with a purpose. We do this on a regular basis now as we like pretty plants, flowers shrubs and trees in our yards. Who-ever thought privet was good is not right in the head.

Then if you get into diseases and such, there are volumes. One obvious is the Native Americans lack of resistance to some diseases brought with the Euros. For plants, just look at the notes on downy mildew on basil.

It is good for the environmental folks to have stand-out popular vote victims of bad chemicals etc. Silent Spring had the bluebird as a 'star' and one thing lead to another to not use DDT. Bees are stars and gets the attention of regular people. Now we have the Monarch butterfly and the milkweed. No one cares about milkweed, though now perhaps concerned about protecting hedgerows and not using certain chemicals to help protect a butterfly.

Just a few thoughts on this issue. Sigh

[imafan26]

Before the varoa mites became such a big problem, the local bee (which looks more like a fly and is solitary), would forage alongside the European bees. The European and Carpenter bees tend to like different flowers. The Carpenter bees like the purple flowers more but there is overlap. Both bees and other beneficials all seem to like sunflowers.

[rainbowgardener]

PS Rairdog - the Fruitless Fall author does really recommend those top bar hives. He has a very interesting piece in there about how the TB's work to let the bees adapt to the season better and control the mites naturally on their own better.

[ButtsBees]

It is a known medical fact that farmers and those in close proxemity have much higher rates of cancer than those away from those areas. https://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=2480
The CCD has been on going since 1996, orginally called dwindling.
Bees cope with natural sources of pests, environmental change that takes many years not months, as a clear cut forest. These are man made culprits. The 'I want it now!' chemical industry promises a no work garden. It has in fact proven to be more work in the long run. Super weeds, low nutrition crops, polluted ground water...etc..

Apis mellifora does not displace natives. They share food sources and some are better pollinators of specific plants than others. Destruction of habitat is a big cause. Bumble nest in the ground, so concrete and plastic mulch are problems. Mason bees only fly a few hundred yards compared to a honey bee that flies about 1.5 kilometers. Leaving a compost pile and brush for all beneficials to nest in. Masons can be housed in bamboo or wood drilled with holes of the right size. The Monarch has declined by 90% ! Destruction of habitat is the maincause. Milkweed is killed by round up and others like it. It is killed by drift of application and by direct application. When it is used it remains in the soil. It does not break down nor 'wash' away.
We try to build off of the small bioshere that is our yard. I see more bugs , birds and more since we came and began organic gardening, beekeeping. Almost a safehaven in the midst. Now if we get more little havens , spend our dollars on only those that see like we do,that DO like we do maybe the dots will begin to connect!