A Very Alarming Fact !

[Dario]

Dear all,

I have just read a very alarming article in the Swiss daily TAGES ANZEIGER. It reports about a phenomenon which scientists are unable to explain, because it has never happened before: 60-70% of Amrica's bee population has vanished without any explanation. It didn't happen over a long period of time, it happened suddenly within the timeframe of weeks and months only. What is even more alarming is the fact that similar news surfaces in Poland, Spain and partly in Switzerland. I just talked with my 85 year old father in Switzerland who still has beehives and he knows very well about the situation.

I have just learned what Albert Einstein once said, I quote the last paragraph in the aticle which is following hereafter in English:

"Wenn the bee disappears from our planet, then human beings have only four years left to live; no bees anymore, no pollination anymore, no plants anymore, no animals anymore, no people anymore ..."

Here is the article in German:

http://tages-anzeiger.ch/dyn/wissen/umwelt/729927.html

Here is another article in English:

Albert Einstein speculated that "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left."...

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/...icle2314202.ece

Let's hope that the worst is not going to happen ...

Edited March 18, 2007 by maestro
German text removed, lengthy quote shortened. Links left intact.

[tijnebijn]

Well if our time comes it comes,but I do not think so.nature always will come up with something.

maybe some smart people in the Prehistoric time said when the dinosaurs are gone there will be no life for us anymore....That's why we can live how we live now.If we are gone,the world proberly will get something better back,not to difficult though evrything is better then polluting the atmosphere....

No I do not worrie for this scenario

[Johpa]

How can you be worried about bees whilst we are still fretting about the paternity of Anna Nichole's baby?

[goldfish]

Well if our time comes it comes,but I do not think so.nature always will come up with something.

maybe some smart people in the Prehistoric time said when the dinosaurs are gone there will be no life for us anymore....That's why we can live how we live now.If we are gone,the world proberly will get something better back,not to difficult though evrything is better then polluting the atmosphere....

No I do not worrie for this scenario

My money's on the cockroaches

[jdinasia]

Thailand?

[Dario]

Thanks maestro for the editing!

I just found this:

Now in Spain, hundreds of thousands of colonies have been lost and beekeepers in northern Croatia estimated that five million bees had died in just 48 hours this week. In Poland, the Swietokrzyskie beekeeper association has estimated that up to 40 per cent of bees were wiped out last year. Greece, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal have also reported heavy losses.

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../14/wbees14.xml

[Maestro]

Interesting articles, Dario.

Ah, yes, JD, topics in this forum should be related to Thailand. My first thought when reading this story was that if food production drops sharply in highly developed countries because the bees are dying off, then Thailand – and other lesser developed countries – will get higher prices for their food exports and will have to produce more.

--

Maestro

[John_Rambo]

At last!

I've been praying for those sods to get their comeuppance for a while now.

Any chance we can have the Wasps next?

And i wouldn't worry about Einstein's abilities to predict the future, Nostradamus he is not!

Edited March 18, 2007 by John_Rambo

[pumpuiman]

Honeybees have died off in Texas -- as well as much of the rest of the nation -- due to an invasion of varroa mites, a tiny species that feeds on the blood of honey bees. That deadly parasite comes on the heels of an infestation in 1984 of tracheal mites followed by the invasion of Africanized honey bees and the dumping of Chinese honey on the U.S. market.

"As a result of these events, the number of commercial resident honey bee colonies has dropped in Texas from about 200,000 in 1985 to less than 100,000 today," Frisbie explained.

Control of the mites in hives managed by beekeepers has proven difficult, according to Dr. Rodney Holloway, Texas Agricultural Extension Service pesticide assessment specialist.

A quote from a 1999 article

[pumpuiman]

Bees, via pollination, are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food U.S. consumers eat. But in the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population—which most farmers depend on for pollination—has declined by about 50 percent, scientists say.

Unless actions are taken to slow the decline of domesticated honeybees and augment their populations with wild bees, many fruits and vegetables may disappear from the food supply, said Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at Princeton University in New Jersey.

National Geographic October 5, 2004

[Dario]

Thaland related?

Yes, I guess so, Albert Einstein did not mention that Thai people would be spared from dying. No frankly, I think this topic needs to be known by every human being, not only scientists...

[Maestro]

I've been praying for those sods to get their comeuppance for a while now.

I, on the other hand, love bees. They, and the products of the beehive – honey, royal jelly, propolis – are marvels.

Did you know that wounds infected with a bacillus that is resistant to all known antibiotics can be successfully treated with honey?

--

Maestro

[jdinasia]

hmmm I aint seeing even an indirect Thailand connection ... unless a study of bees has been done here!

[Mossfinn]

I've been praying for those sods to get their comeuppance for a while now.

I, on the other hand, love bees. They, and the products of the beehive – honey, royal jelly, propolis – are marvels.

Did you know that wounds infected with a bacillus that is resistant to all known antibiotics can be successfully treated with honey?

--

Maestro

Nope, didn't know that, I too like Bees, they have a graceful movement about them, considering by some scientific thinking, they shouldn't be able to fly in the first place!

The pollination %'s really give food for thought, if you excuse the pun.

Good Luck

Moss

[Mossfinn]

A Thailand slant then,

On one of my visits to the wife's village, the brother decided to give me a delicacy of fresh wild honey, complete with the comb, after digging in, it was only then I noticed all the larvae inside the comb that I had bitten into.

The best I can do I am afraid

good Luck

Moss

[jdinasia]

A Thailand slant then,

On one of my visits to the wife's village, the brother decided to give me a delicacy of fresh wild honey, complete with the comb, after digging in, it was only then I noticed all the larvae inside the comb that I had bitten into.

The best I can do I am afraid

good Luck

Moss

I LOVE local honey!

[bina]

actually can become thailand oriented if u take in to consideration the that the farmers who need bees wont have them for fertizing their crops. not sure how rice is fertilized but bees are neccessary for many many fruits and veggies. in other countries bees are rented by the day for fertilizing fields and bee rustlers (i kid u not) steal the hives for the bees and the honey. so now issaan will be w/o song birds, wild animals and bees. no bees, no fertilized plants. no fertilized plants, no food. no food, economic depression. country folks inundate the cities. etc. etc etc. now its thailand related.

bina

[bmanly]

What about the poor Issan people who catch the bus down to areas like Pattaya with boxes full of their home grown honey? I mean the people who walk around all day selling honey which comes in ex Sang Som bottles and they carry it around in the baskets hanging off their shoulders, it would certainly affect them. By the way I have never tried this honey, is it any good?

[Tony Clifton]

I have listened to quite a few radio interviews on the subject of the disappearing bees. So far, biologists and apiary farms are clueless. Studies so far have shown that previous diseases found in hives, caused by mold or mites, have not been detected and are not the cause of the massive disappearance. Some apiary farms have even moved their hives from the northern parts of the U.S. down to California in order to avoid the massive loss, only to see their hives ruined as well in the end.

[jdinasia]

actually can become thailand oriented if u take in to consideration the that the farmers who need bees wont have them for fertizing their crops. not sure how rice is fertilized but bees are neccessary for many many fruits and veggies. in other countries bees are rented by the day for fertilizing fields and bee rustlers (i kid u not) steal the hives for the bees and the honey. so now issaan will be w/o song birds, wild animals and bees. no bees, no fertilized plants. no fertilized plants, no food. no food, economic depression. country folks inundate the cities. etc. etc etc. now its thailand related.

bina

Bina

I believe that Thai honey bees are too aggressive to be farmed the same way as in other places ...

and it would only matter here if this is a REAL event that is also happening here

[Ulysses G.]

The sky - in Thailand - is falling!

[Naam]

"Wenn the bee disappears from our planet, then human beings have only four years left to live; no bees anymore, no pollination anymore, no plants anymore, no animals anymore, no people anymore ..."

the good news is that we don't have to worry about currency exchange rates... in five years (or so)

[Mighty Mouse]

Bee hive people.

Could this be the end of the birds and the bees stories?

BManly, I have tried the bottled Thai honey. It tastes nice but I won't buy it cos I just don't know what other additives might have been put into the bottle.

[Naam]

How can you be worried about bees whilst we are still fretting about the paternity of Anna Nichole's baby?

i am innocent! please don't tell my wife.

[jbowman1993]

I have an Aunt who raises honeybees. She has said this story is news to her, and to the hundreds of other beekeepers she associates with. Sounds like bs to me.

[andook]

Bee hive people.

Could this be the end of the birds and the bees stories?

BManly, I have tried the bottled Thai honey. It tastes nice but I won't buy it cos I just don't know what other additives might have been put into the bottle.

I buy the locally bottled stuff, and its great! No problems.

Seems like the crux of the bee problem in the US is the stress induced forced migration of colonies to breed with others?

China is also "dumping" cheap honey into their market. No surprise there....

[lingling]

A couple of months ago I noticed a lack of bees in our flowering mango trees. See this thread http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=103706

Somehow they got pollinated anyway and the trees are packed with mango.

Unfortunately someone stole the single mango that I had been keeping a special eye on - it was a giant one around 1kg.

[Dario]

I have an Aunt who raises honeybees. She has said this story is news to her, and to the hundreds of other beekeepers she associates with. Sounds like bs to me.

It ain't no bs, my friend. Don't throw such words without thinking before. Please tell your aunt to check it out on the web. Just put in: bees vanished or something similar and she has enough to read for the next 24 hours. My father doesn't know how a computer looks like, he's 83 and he knows all the facts.

[Mighty Mouse]

I buy the locally bottled stuff, and its great! No problems.

I have to agree that it does taste nice but I just wonder how hygienically it was bottled....besides, I doubt that I'd be able to get it through Customs at Sydney Airport.

I usually take Australian honey with me each time I visit Pattaya. I get sick and tired of eating strawberry jam on my toast every morning.

This revelation on the demise of the bee population is a bit of a worry. I'm surprised that there hasn't been more coverage of these reports in the news.

[Dario]

I buy the locally bottled stuff, and its great! No problems.

I have to agree that it does taste nice but I just wonder how hygienically it was bottled....besides, I doubt that I'd be able to get it through Customs at Sydney Airport.

I usually take Australian honey with me each time I visit Pattaya. I get sick and tired of eating strawberry jam on my toast every morning.

This revelation on the demise of the bee population is a bit of a worry. I'm surprised that there hasn't been more coverage of these reports in the news.

Villa Market in Bangkok (but you might try all the others such as Foodland, Carrefour, Tesco, BigC, etc.) sells among others bee honey produced by a Thai company starting with the letter V ..., but I forgot the name. It retails for 179 Baht or used to. This is a GREAT honey I can highly recommend and I hope you wouldn't get any nasty surprise at Sydney airport. But be sure that on any other honey bottled by "amateurs" they would jump on.