2018-07-26

We're Still Killing the Bees

It seems that the apparent cause for the honeybee holocaust is man made and takes the form of fungicides and pesticides which result in pollen containing residues of spray treatments.

    nosema ceranae
Testing was done where healthy bees were fed pollen which was contaminated with these chemical residues and their health diminished — the hallmark of this so-called "colony collapse disorder" being a susceptibility infection by a fungal parasite called Nosema ceranae.

These revelations, though edifying ... are not the whole story.

It seems that the plants from which bees consume nourishment consist of local flowers, weeds, and such which are not the crops receiving the fungicide and insecticide treatments; but those plants likewise are contaminated.

worker honeybee    
We require the bees for effective pollination of vegetables and fruits. Manual pollination is a tedious and daunting task when applied to commercial operations.

We presently require more than half of the entire bee population in the country just to pollinate some food crops we already have.

This is a critical problem caused by the indiscriminate use of insecticide and fungicide spraying operations.

Organic gardening is looking better and better at so many levels.

I just hope it's not too late.