The bees are gone. They never returned this year. I've been reading about it, but I noticed it in full today. No bees on the hundreds of dandelions on our non-chemicalized lawn. Not one bee, did I see, flitting about my daffodils. Now the flowers are mostly gone too and the bees never showed up. The only bees that are plentiful (much too much) are the large and clumsy carpenter/wood bees. They are putting lots of nice holes in my house but there isn't much pollination going on.
I've read theories on the reasons... electromagnetic waves/cell phone towers (the bees can no longer navigate properly)... fungus or virus... global warming... pollution... contrails. What does it matter which particular evil we've created that has no doubt caused this? It doesn't. This is big news... this could mean drastic and dangerous decreases in food supply in a very short time... and it scares the crap out of me.
I don't like to get stung, but we need bees. I really wonder, are they just elsewhere in the world or did we kill them? Are there any bees where you are? Does this not freak you out?
It freaks me plenty.
Comments (31)
Actually, the bit about cell phone towers is completely false. As you know, theother23 is a tower crew foreman and has been in the industry for 10 years. Oddly enough, some varieties of stinging insects are drawn to the towers and thrive there. One of the things that he installs are microwave dishes (I won't get into the technical end much). A human can't get too close to a microwave dish because it will burn you from the inside out. For whatever reasons, bees love to build nests inside of these things. I have no idea how they don't get fried, but apparently they prosper there.
Then again, maybe that's where they all went!
(In our area, bees have been seen in abundance. And, yes, it is scary [when their absence is noted], just like the changes in hundreds, or maybe thousands, or other small insects, mammals, and birds.)
I did hear about the bee illness that juliepersons is referring to.
I've seen one or two and a couple of bumble bees. But we usually get them later in the year.
The bees are getting mites and we don't know why but I think it may have to do with global warming. And basically if all the bees go away we end up screwed
Funny you should mention this today. Our lilac bushes are all in bloom and I noticed there are no bees buzzing about them this year. I was sniffing away at the blooms and noticed I wasn't having to worry about snorting a bee up.
What other countless horrors are we commiting?
I remember hearing about some kind of disease/parasite that's affecting the honey bees this year. I haven't noticed any kind of abundance, but we don't usually get many until early May (which is...wow...soon). Maybe it's just the prolonged cold that you've been experiencing?
There are so many things to worry about lately that I've lost track. :I All I know is that nature has a way of healing herself...and this bee shortage is probably a one-year kind of thing, just like all of the other fluctuations that nature goes through as time moves along. :]
it was sooooo fun
someday my kids can laugh at that picture, i'm pumped
COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER (CCD) – A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
James E. Tew (Ohio State University)
I very nearly don’t know what to say about this issue. The publicity on this subject has exceeded any science supporting a causative agent. Giving it a new name and saying that it is worse than previous outbreaks have given the condition an emergency status that has elicited what I have called electronic hysteria. see full text (pdf newsletter)
Since the global ecosystem is altered
by selfish humans,
bees may be the one suffered from this...
Maybe the bees are just late? Our trees budded late because they started to re-bud in the middle of winter... maybe the bees are delayed too?
It made me think of you. It also made me smile. And itch. To do the same!
I never heard about disappearing bees.
I found a dead one in my lamp today. Electricity killed that one, but not quite so indirectly. Not to make a joke... that is truly alarming.