A Very Alarming Fact !

[John_Rambo]

They've had their time, it happens to all of us in the end.

[lingling]

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.

Maybe Vejpong? I would suspect that honey falls under the "liquid content" rules - if airport security can't distinguish between drinking water and liquid explosives then they probably can't see the difference between honey and nitroglycerin.

[Maestro]

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.

I gather it is a new development, starting to happen only now.

Bees hibernate in winter and are left undisturbed and from what I have now read it seems that their disappearance was discovered when the hives were checked after the end of the winter. Normally, when a hive’s population dies because of a disease the hive would be full of dead bees, not in this case. The bees left the hive at a time when they would normally be hibernating. For what reason? I guess the cause will be found sooner or later.

Reports of this happening so far only from North America and Europe, none from Thailand or South-East Asia. Do bees also hibernate in the tropical climate, where there is no winter? Probably not. Could this make a difference?

Seriously, if food production is impaired substantially in counties with a moderate climate (summer and winter) because of fewer bees but not in tropical countries, this could mean an opportunity for Thailand’s and other countries’ agricultural exports. Highly speculative at this point, of course. More likely, the industrialised countries will find a way to produce synthetic food, which then will be an additional drain on crude oil resources. Still more likely, the large-scale disappearance of whole bee colonies is a one-season phenomenon and everything will return to normal within a year or two, and we all got exited for nothing.

--------------

Maestro

[jdinasia]

so ... if the bees are not dead ... just left ... how would ANYONE conclude 'extinction'?

[tracker]

Bees cannot survive for long outside their hive. If they are gone, it means they died.

I dunno if it is related, but i had 4 nests around the house: 1 in the roof-space and 3 in the wall next the house. They all disappeared in the last couple of months.

Since this news surfaced, I went checking and was suprised to find none.

But the banana-trees are flowering and the flowers attract plenty of that small species which are normal on this plant.....

dunno what to make of it....

Hope for the best.

[jumnien]

I've seen no evidence of insects of any kind becoming extinct in my backyard!

[lingling]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/...reut/index.html

[steves_the_1]

Personally i don't find this "A Very Alarming Fact"

if it was something like "mankind on the brink of extinction" well thats a different story

life will go on with or without bees

steve

[PhilHarries]

Personally i don't find this "A Very Alarming Fact"

if it was something like "mankind on the brink of extinction" well thats a different story

life will go on with or without bees

steve

You hope.

[sinom]

Is this akin to the dolphin exodus in Hitch Hikers guide

Do the bee's know something we don't

42 !

[teacup]

Well we don't know for sure that they are dying, only that they are not where we thought they were. I’ve heard (from some researcher) that in general they don’t have a very good short term memory, but not exactly dumb. Could it be that they are now on strike… for better living condition, better foods, and shorter working hours? After all who wants to live in the same box with other 100s of your friends years after years!

Also I've heard that if bees go completely extinct, humans and other animals will have only four years left to live. Why is that? This is what really scares the crap out of me!

[onzestan]

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

what about : "no money - no honey "

cheers

onzestan

[Simmo]

The einstein quote is an urban myth.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/einstein/bees.asp

[KhunMarco]

Don't you all remember , we should all be dead by now, because of the Africanized bees (creepy echoing voice) , no thanks, keeping me afraid to be dead in a few years because of some "confirmed and well researched fact" (my @ss), won't work. I'm not from a certain country I still can think by myself . Thanks again.

[kmart]

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

what about : "no money - no honey "

cheers

onzestan

*arf!*

There is always some nabob of negativity postulating about the end of the world, and omens/ portents of Doom; Nostradamus said,..., blah blah blah.

They obviously should move a bit nearer to a Blowjob Bar, methinks.

[pampal]

This news is a surprise, I have seen many programs about the African "Killer" bees who have moved from South America into North America and are inundating all areas of the USA. From those programs, I surmised that there are no shortage of bees. Now they are saying the bees are all dying off.

[petedk]

I gather it is a new development, starting to happen only now.

Bees hibernate in winter and are left undisturbed and from what I have now read it seems that their disappearance was discovered when the hives were checked after the end of the winter. Normally, when a hive’s population dies because of a disease the hive would be full of dead bees, not in this case. The bees left the hive at a time when they would normally be hibernating. For what reason? I guess the cause will be found sooner or later.

Reports of this happening so far only from North America and Europe, none from Thailand or South-East Asia. Do bees also hibernate in the tropical climate, where there is no winter? Probably not. Could this make a difference?

I saw an article on BBC News a few days ago about the sudden disappearance of bees. One explanation that was put forward (but without any scientific proof) was the increase of radio waves and that maybe these waves were killing off bees. I didn't really take much notice of the report at that time. Maybe there is more information on BBC World's website.

[britmaveric]

Oh well...

[bartender100]

All to do with mobile phones apparently

By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the cellphone could cause massive food shortages as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by cellphones and other high-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops.

Late last week, some beekeepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the United States, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

Full story

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&a...90610628C964265

[Maestro]

Apiologists do not seem to be seeking much publicity but gradually they are being sought out by the media for interviews, for example at the 100-year celebration of the apiology centre Agroscope in Liebefeld, Switzerland.

This winter was mild and the bees were able to fly at these temperatures. In a beehive, when bees feel that they are going to die they will, for hygienic reasons, fly away so that they do not have to be carried out by their colleagues.

Source: Peter Gallmann, apiologist at Agroscope, Liebefeld, Switzerland, during interview with Swiss television (in German language).

Other interesting information given in that news programme:

– After cattle and pigs, the bees are the third-most important domestic animal. They pollinate up to 90% of plants.

– That bees die is nothing new, but the fact that entire populations of a beehives fly away to die is a new phenomenon.

– The consensus is that a combination of the aggressive Varroa mite, viruses and bacteria is the cause of the mysterious disappearance of bee populations.

Reports of genetically modified plants or electronic waves emitted by mobile telephones being responsible for the increased death rate of bees would appear to be unfounded scaremongering of groups opposed to these new technologies.

--

Maestro

[jEFFREYk44]

This thread has certainly created quite Buzz

Edited April 23, 2007 by jEFFREYk44

[qwertz]

They've had their time, it happens to all of us in the end.

Hm...no more honey..............

[AmeriThai]

This news is a surprise, I have seen many programs about the African "Killer" bees who have moved from South America into North America and are inundating all areas of the USA. From those programs, I surmised that there are no shortage of bees. Now they are saying the bees are all dying off.

Killer bees are inundating ALL areas of the USA? In the Pacific Northwest there's not so much as a muffled buzz of Killer Bees. Don't think I've heard of any swarming around any of the New England states either.

[Jingthing]

OK, folks, you have to read this. Just run on the latest Bill Maher show. Cell phones are implicated.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/t...d-_b_46410.html

The bees are disappearing. In massive numbers. All around the world. And if you think I'm being alarmist and that, "Oh, they'll figure out some way to pollinate the plants..." No, they've tried. For a lot of what we eat, only bees work.

If it comes down to the cell phone vs. the bee, will we choose to literally blather ourselves to death?

And yes, this is Thailand related. Thailand is part of the earth.

Personally, I am fatally allergic to bee stings, so this is kind of mixed news for me.

Edited April 23, 2007 by Jingthing

[britmaveric]

Oh because some non-experts says it - makes it true?

[qwertz]

Or is the industry perhaps priming us for the launch of their new generation of bee friendly but very expensive cell phones and already bribing the governments to outlaw the current ones? Anyway, how many queen bees do you need to make a hive? Hasn't LOS got enough of them?

[Jingthing]

Oh because some non-experts says it - makes it true?

Doesn't make it not true either. Anyone have any good scientific sources about this news?

Well, something is really happening, it seems:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6438373.stm

Edited April 23, 2007 by Jingthing

[britmaveric]

Oh because some non-experts says it - makes it true?

Doesn't make it not true either. Anyone have any good scientific sources about this news?

No, from what gather its all second hand info - most of it being discussed on boards or blogs. Just food for thought wireless technology ie mobiles have been around for sometime - so why all of a sudden a dramatic disappearance in Bee(s)? It seems to me general root cause analysis would determine if it were mobiles - whats diff now compared to past years?

Edited April 23, 2007 by britmaveric

[Jingthing]

It seems clear the cause is still unknown, and also clear that it is important to find the cause quickly. Hopefully, it is fixable. That we don't yet know. If it isn't fixable or politically possible to fix in time, egads ...

Edited April 23, 2007 by Jingthing

[quiksilva]

So Einstein said we have 4-5 years after the bees go? Hmm that would approximately coincide with the end of the long cycle in the startlingly accurate Mayan Calendar, in Dec 21, 2012.

Conspiracy theorists and Hollywood directors rejoice!!

The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!