Honeybee Die-off Continues

 In October of 2008, MoreMarin posted a story about a mysterious mass die-off of honeybees, called Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. Entire hives of honeybees, arguably one of nature's hardest workers, were simply dying and there was no single explanation for the cause.

Fast forward nearly two years and the problem has not abated. In fact, according to this just published article, it's gotten worse.

Honeybees are essential for pollinating huge swaths of agricultural farmland, including the tracts that sit in California's Central Valley. The bees are trucked in by the hundreds of thousands to pollinate the crops, then trucked off to another part of the country to do the same thing. Apparently this year, beekeepers had trouble finding enough viable hives to fill pollination requests in the San Joaquin Valley.

Not good news; no pollen = no food.

Now, a new study just out points to pesticide use as the most likely culprit. The researchers discovered that over 800 samples of wax and bee pollen contained 121 different types of pesticides within the samples. Bee experts worry that hive exposure to multiple pesticides--coupled with things like viruses, weather and poor nutrition--is the likely cause.

At a scientific conference held in San Francisco on Thursday, chemists hope to scrutinize the study findings and take a look at the bee die-off problem. They join U.S. federal, state and local agencies and environmental groups who are all scrambling to figure out why it's happening, and how it can be fixed.
We hope they figure it soon...for everyone's sake.
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Honeybee die-off is not a really a mystery, it's like the environment is talking to us that there is something and we must do something about it.