Save the Bees!

[beac]

More bad news for bees and a petition you can sign to try and help them:

(received from CREDO this morning)

Since 2006, U.S. honey bee populations have been in precipitous decline, with some estimates suggesting losses as high as 30% per year. While that's terrible, the problem is far greater than just the loss of a species. Without bees, our food supply is in serious danger. Pollination by honey bees is key in cultivating the crops that produce a full one-third of our food.

A leaked memo suggests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ignored the science linking the pesticide clothianidin to the bee die-off.

Now the EPA is considering whether to renew approval of clothianidin. Submit a comment asking EPA to reject this dangers chemical that is killing honey bees - hurry, the comment period closes on Tuesday:

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/epa_bees/?r_by=35258-68532-X2uOPGx&rc=confemail

(posted this in Gardening Forum as well, but even non-gardeners need bees!)

[G_j]

1. Done

thank you for posting!

[LiberalEsto]

2. A bit more about this pesticide

"The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority notes that clothianidin ranks “among the most highly acutely toxic insecticides to bees” through contact and oral exposure.[28] A large number of published studies have shown that low levels of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide chemically similar to clothianidin, produces sublethal and behavioral effects in bees, including disorientation and effects on foraging, learning performance, motor coordination, and food consumption"

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothianidin

[G_j]

4. wow!

that they would even consider renewing approval!

[LiberalEsto]

11. More about the first EPA approval:

"EPA officials first gave the a-okay to Bayer CropScience's toxic pesticide clothianidin in 1993 based on the company's own flawed safety studies. But now it has been revealed that the EPA knew all along about the dangers of clothianidin and decided to just ignore them."

A leaked document "which was written by the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, explains clearly that "[c]lothianidin's major risk concern is to nontarget insects (honey bees)" and that "[a]cute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis." The letter was in response to a request from Bayer to have clothianidin approval expanded for use on cotton and mustard in addition to its other approved uses."

Link to above material: http://www.naturalnews.com/030921_EPA_pesticides.html

This linked article also notes that France, Italy, Germany and Slovenia have banned this pesticide.

Here's a link to an EPA letter about clothianidin: http://www.scribd.com/doc/46041897/Clothianidin
I don't know if this is the same as the leaked document referred to in the other link. It mentions that this pesticide is toxic to aquatic invertebrates, birds and mammals.

[G_j]

21. should be considered a serious ethical/criminal matter,

beyond scandalous..

[LiberalEsto]

31. That was in 1993

There might be a statute of limitations or something.

We need keep them from expanding use of it, and petitioning like mad to ban it altogether.

[G_j]

41. Kick..

[beac]

5. Nasty, nasty stuff.

Ugh. I'll never understand how people can be so short-sighted and put today's profits over the long-term survival of the planet.

[jwirr]

6. What are these pesticides being used for? What do they get rid of other than bees? And also where

is it used? What areas?

[HopeHoops]

3. Done. I think other chemicals are also involved, but this is a start.

I've got one of the only non-poisoned lawns in the neighborhood. It's also the one with the most bees (of many varieties) and the birds seem to intuitively know our yard is the best place to search for food. They avoid the recently poisoned ones.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. ...

Thank you!! I've lived out in the boondocks for about 10 years and no one uses pesticides on their lawns. There's plenty of wildlife of all kinds and loads of fireflies in the summer. Sooooo beautiful.


I don't see as many honey bees as I used to.

I was chatting with a local beekeeper who does not bring her bees to agribusiness, monoculture plots. She said her bees are doing fine. It's the agri-bees who are in trouble.

[HopeHoops]

10. It depends on how close you are to poisoned fields. They'll end up there.

I don't see nearly as many and we went two years without seeing any. Fortunately other types of bees (like bumbles) will pollinate crops, but I don't think anything is as efficient as honey bees. I've also seen the poor things spinning around on the ground (on their way to death) and that's new. I never saw that as a kid or even as a gardener until about ten years ago. I don't buy the mites or virus bullshit. Agribusiness poisons everything.

Buy local when you can. I shop at a family owned small chain grocery store and they do everything they can to buy from local farmers. They also have a lot of organic produce and contrary to popular belief, it doesn't have to cost more. Sometimes it is actually cheaper. They don't have to pay for all of those chemicals, so in that respect their production cost is less. Occasionally there are cosmetic differences, but so what? Oh, and local honey is readily available and far superior. The commercial stuff just doesn't have the same flavor intensity. I'll be deeply sad if that becomes scarce.

[brewens]

8. I can tell you for sure something is wrong. It's been a long time since I went out

and saw honey bees on almost ever flower or dandelion. You don't have to worry about stepping on them anymore where I live. I still see them but not anywhere as often. In fact you know it's an issue when you ARE noticing whenever one shows up. That used to be something I was so used to, it didn't even register.

Another effect is the number of different types of wild bees I see. Bumble bees, yellow jackets and these tiny little guys I never noticed much before. I'm thinking that's because of lack of competition from all the honey bees we used to have.

I'm in a small north central Idaho city.

[HopeHoops]

12. Those "tiny little guys" do most of the pollinating in my gardens.

And yes, we get excited when we spot a honey bee. Everyone comes over to look at it like it was a baby praying mantis or something (which we also have in the yard every spring). If anyone finds an egg sack I tie it to the lilac bush in the perennial bed next to the vegetable gardens. Between them and the spiders, we don't have too many pest problems.

This past summer was encouraging. I kept the grass high so the clover and dandylions would attract bees. It seemed to work. I think both are pretty anyway. Uniform lawns are boring and ugly, and you only get those with poisons and way too much nitrogen. It's February and I have the best looking lawn around - the poisoned ones are all browned out and nitrogen burnt. I mean good grief, when it is 100 degrees out and hasn't rained for two weeks the grass goes dormant. The LAST thing it needs is fertilizer!!!

But the chemical trucks still come by on a regular schedule. If the shit is so safe, why do the workers wear protective breathing apparatus and thick rubber gloves to apply it? And how about those little flags they put in the yard to warn you that there's poison everywhere. WTF is WRONG with people? They let their kids play in these yards. I'm afraid to even think about what that's going to lead to down the road. The only thing I EVER remember anyone putting on the yards when I was a kid was lime - not pellets, the powder. And even then we couldn't play in the yard until it had been watered or it had rained.

Poison, poison everywhere and way too much to think.

[brewens]

14. I used to hydroseed yards. The seed mix we used didn't have a lot of bluegrass. That's

the reason for a lot of ugly looking yards early in the spring and fall. It's the first to turn brown and the slowest to green up. we did push an organic fertilizer that a local produce store sold because he was the bosses buddy and it worked well.

One thing that was nice, every year I did that we got a nice vacation in the hottest part of the summer. New yards didn't do well in that much heat. Excessive wattering new grass made it prone to a kind of fungus that killed it.

Hydroseeding works pretty well but it's not really necessary. You can do just as well hand seeding. One thing that's a scam, is if you let a landscaper talk you into putting down a layer of some kind of organic eco-mulch. Good topsoil and fetilizer is 100% effective.

I was on a job where we were subcontracted to spray yard, and a wealthy customer had gone for the eco-mulch. We were told to be there first thing on a Saturday to hydroseed. The landscaper had his guys there finishing up the prep work and had the load of eco-mulch there in a dump truck. The homeowner wasn't there, and as soon as they were ready we started seeding, and the load of mulch drove off headed back to the landscapers yard. He never got the mulch he paid for, and with the layer of hydromulch we put on, he was never going to know.

[HopeHoops]

15. I don't rake the yard. The clippings degrade naturally - like they should.

[brewens]

16. You might want to power rake it every few years to get rid of the thatch buildup. n/t

[HopeHoops]

30. Oh it does quite well on its own.

Even without the poisons and fertilizers, we still have to mow as often as everyone else. Curiously, come August, ours is one of the only yards that's still green! The others are burnt. We also have two dogs so the front areas tend to be well fertilized on their own but also have brown patches because they both like the same few spots to pee. I just put down a little dirt and throw some seed on those patches and two weeks later they're fine - then comes more pee. Losing battle.

[LiberalEsto]

20. Some of those tiny little guys might be mason bees

I didn't know what they were until I saw one in action the year before last. It was fascinating.

The male mason bee was watching over a posse on female mason bees foraging on the blooms of Lamb's Ears (stachys byzantia) in my garden. A big bumblebee tried to join them for a share of the nectar.
The little male mason bee zoomed up to the bumbler and gave it a hard head-butt.
The bumbler backed off for a while, then tried again.
Wham, another head-butt.
The mason bee kept it up until the bumblebee got the idea and left.
He was not going to allow anything to intrude on his females.

This behavior was so unusual that I looked it up on the internet.

Some of these small bees, including mason bee females, pick the fuzzy stuff from the lamb's ears to line their nests.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. DONE! and kick and rec

this is so important!

Let's keep this kicked till Monday night!!!!

[beac]

13. It IS important and I'll shamelessly self-kick and gladly take your help with the kicking.

[beac]

48. Kick! n/t

[RC]

17. A parasitic fly that hijacks the bees' bodies...

"Northern California scientists say they have found a possible explanation for a honey bee die-off that has decimated hives around the world: A parasitic fly that hijacks the bees' bodies and causes them to abandon hives.

Scientists say the fly deposits its eggs into the bee's abdomen, causing the infected bee to exhibit zombie-like behavior by walking around in circles. The bee leaves the hive at night and dies. The symptoms mirror colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly disappear.

<SNIP>

The combination of a parasite, pathogens and other stressors could cause die-off, lead investigator John Hafernik said. The parasitic fly serves as a reservoir that harbors pathogens -- honey bees from parasite-infected hives tested positive for deformed wing virus and other pathogens, the study found."



http://www.startribune.com/nation/136876153.html

[OriginalGeek]

25. Holy SHIT! Beedy snatchers!

Zombee apocalypse!

[bvar22]

18. DURec and a kick from our Bees.

Small scale, decentralized, organic BeeKeeping & Farming is one of the answers.

Killing Monsanto and the other out of control Toxin Manufacturing Giants and Corporate Monoculture is another.

Waking Up the idiots in the suburbs who obsess about their Lawns is another.


Our two colonies made it safely through the rather mild Winter,
and are already actively foraging among the very early Spring blossoms.
We are planning to expand to four colonies this Spring.

[beac]

19. Grrr.... "lawns" drive me crazy.

Grass is fine, but the people that want a uniform carpet of kelly green perfection are ridiculous.

Glad to hear your bees are doing well. Saw a few around here the other day when it was 60 degrees. Snow predicted for tomorrow, so I hope they're tucked up tight back in their hive.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

22. kicking for the beeeees

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[beac]

23. Thanks, "honey"!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

26. :)

I love them, what can I say?

Little sweeties! Specially when they're wearing their pollen pants-- Looks like little bloomers.




(I love bumbles and carpenter bees too---well, not thrilled about what carpenters do to your house, but they're big and cute and fat.)



and here's another kick

sign that petition, people!!!!!1

[beac]

32. Buzzing by for a Sunday kick! n/t

[beac]

33. Kick! n/t

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. kicking again! For more SIGNATURES

I put this on my facebook page yesterday, by the way

More signatures please!!

[beac]

45. Thanks for doing that.

I'm not an FBer myself, so I appreciate the help spreading the word.

[Snake Alchemist]

39. I don't believe that is a bee.

Looks like a bee fly to me.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

42. gadzooks!

I think you're right!



there go my credentials as a bee lover.....

let me try that again:

AND, she's wearing her Pollen Pants

[Snake Alchemist]

44. I'm sure they appreciate the incredible complement about their mimicry though.

Maybe I should have gone with Bee Alchemist.

[onestepforward]

24. Signed! n/t

[beac]

27. Kick!

[catchnrelease]

28. Absolutely signed!

Our front yard is all CA native plants--NO LAWN, no pesticides or fertilizers. I was out yesterday watching the honey bees foraging in the Ceanothus/California Lilac, which is one of the early bloomers here. They were all over it. In the back yard we have some vegetables and fruit trees, and happily the bees are going to town in the Apricot and Nectarine trees. I also love to see the Carpenter Bees, and have put pieces of old tree stumps/branches out and they do use them. And the little mason bees are fun too.

We used to have a huge honey bee colony under the eaves of the neighbors garage that backs up to our property. For several years I watched it, praying the neighbors wouldn't see it and have it destroyed. Luckily they never went back there and saw it, but 2 years ago the colony was abandoned. Don't know what happened, but a beekeeper that I've used to move a couple of swarms we've had, said that it's not all that unusual. She said that they sometimes will just move to a new location. But we still have lots of honey bees, so I guess they set up a new home in the area. I do find dead bees on the patio sometimes, so I'm always a little worried that something (bad) is going on to cause that.

[fasttense]

29. About 2 years ago, the bees in my very rural area disappeared

But they have started a come back. I have a Russsian olive bush that blooms in the fall and keeps blooming until the frost with the most wonderful aroma. This year when I walked by the bush, it sounded like it was alive. Honey bees were all over it. It made a buzzing noise that I hadn't heard in years. I know they say Russian olives are invasive but this one is a volunteer on top of shale rock, nothing else grows there. So, I let it live. I think the bees are glad I did.

[beac]

34. Comment period closes Tuesday, so please sign if you haven't already. n/t

[limpyhobbler]

36. I used to hate bees, but now that they are gone I miss them. k+r

[BlancheSplanchnik]

37. Monday am kick!! Sign the Petition!!

Please!!

Simple, easy, takes 2 minutes!!

[beac]

38. Kick! n/t

[beac]

46. Kick! n/t

[flamingdem]

40. Please comment!

We nees the bees

[beac]

43. We sure do!! Thanks for signing/commenting (and the kick!) n/t

[Relentless Bitch]

47. DUR

ec!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

49. one more kick and a cute pic

SLEEPY BEE

Honey bee asleep during cold weather http://www.arkive.org/honey-bee/apis-mellifera/image-A18941.html

[beac]

50. I know just how he feels.

Thanks for your help with helping the little guys!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

51. she...little girls, ya mean

the worker bees are all female; so is the Queen, of course.

The only males are the drones, whose only function is to fertilize the queen.




I love that pic. So cute! I can imagine her little tiny bee voice, "Phew! Ah'm pooped!!"

[beac]

52. Doh!

Shame on me and my gender goof. Obviously, I need more pollen in my diet.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

53. LOL! Well, it can bee difficult, but once you see one up CLOSE.....