Escalating Honey Bee Decline Baffles Scientists

Sally Morton, Free Republic, Feb 17, 2007: "The honey bee crisis in the United States has been escalating for several years, rising to "unprecedented" levels of honey bee losses between Oct 2006 and Feb 2007.

The honey bee crisis of 2005, which was blamed on the Varoa mite, decimated as much as 50% of honey bee populations in the US, but was weathered, overcome, and quickly passed out of most people’s vocabulary. I wrote an article about it for Suite 101, which you can read here. In it, I gave a fruit, vegetable, nut and wild plant list dependent upon insect pollination.

Approximately 80% of all insect pollination is accomplished by honey bees. According to the University of California at Davis publication “Don’t Underestimate the Value of Honey Bees,” the remaining 20% of other insect pollinators are drastically reduced in number as well, making one wonder if the problem is the varoa mite or something else affecting the broader insect world. Honey Bee Pollination plays major role in Global Food Supply

The year 2006 passed seemingly without incident relating to honey bees and I breathed a sigh of relief. Why is it worrisome when bees die by the thousands? Three words: global food supply. The lowly honey bee is required for the pollination of a wide range of plants, affecting everything from clover (think cows) to fruits to vegetable seeds. Honey bee-pollinated crops represent more than $15 billion annually to the economy. That does not even take into consideration indirectly affected items, such as beef, milk, cheese, wild animals, or birds."