Dead Bee's

[BloomingMarvellous]

On my walk to the Farm shop I saw at least 30 dead or dying Bee's on the pavement. I can only assume that they've all been hit by vehicles. Can a Bee survive the impact of a car or Lorry at 40 miles an hour does anybody know.

[Cellarman]

Bee's what? Or should that be Bees? Pedant or what!!!

[loripo]

And there was I getting all interested in the possible reply Just because I've ssen quite a few dead bees around where there isn't any traffic passing. Do they just die in harness so to speak - a lot have been hanging from flowers.
( I have checked my grammar - whew)

[PMG]

Bees do seem to be dying in numbers and in places where I haven't seen a lot dead before but as for being hit I should guess that their bodies - like just like ours - will disintegrate when hit full on at 40mph and above. They may survive a glancing blow or a 'slide' up a windscreen at slow speeds but I don't suppose anyone has a definite answer to this....

I found a dead dark green fritilliary butterfly beside the A66 in Cumbria last week whilst bending down to photograph a big patch of orchids. The fritilliary had obviously been hit by traffic and I found it quite scary to be knelt down beside this major road with waggons whizzing past me at 60plus mph....

Pauline

[Cellarman]

There are frequently news items about the fate of bees (and other insects) because of supposed climate change, viruses, alien invaders etc, but no one seems to look at the fact that many bees feed on flowers that are found on farmland, and what happens on farm crops? Poisons added by the ton through spraying. Surely this MUST be the biggest danger to insects which rely on pollen. I also have to wonder about hanging baskets too - are they sprayed with chemicals which are detrimental to insects?

[Hedera]

Farmers have to notify local beekeepers if they are going to spray, as a courtesy now. Sprays are listed and if the wrong ones are used it is death for the colonies. A few years ago a local farmer used some stuff which was lethal and lots of hives were decimated.

[eucera]

Originally Posted by Cellarman

....but no one seems to look at the fact that many bees feed on flowers that are found on farmland, and what happens on farm crops? Poisons added by the ton through spraying. Surely this MUST be the biggest danger to insects which rely on pollen. I also have to wonder about hanging baskets too - are they sprayed with chemicals which are detrimental to insects?

I really don't think this is correct. LOTS of people have been looking at the effects of pesticides on bees. The French led the way (check out any number of papers by Gerard Arnold and Agnes Rortais). There are a number of outputs from the EU-funded ALARM project that have looked in detail at the effects of environmental chemicals on pollinators and pollination services in northern Italy (lead author Claire Brittain in conjunction with Marco Vighi's lab in Milan). Papers by Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter's team in Goettingen and Bayreuth have shown that a loss of semi-natural grassland is a major driver of bee loss in Germany, causing a decline in bee diversity and a reduction in pollination services to wild plants and crops

As far as honey bee decline is concerned, pesticides can certainly be a contributor to decline, but they are not believed likely to be the smoking gun (Apis decline has continued at the same pace in France as elsewhere in Euope despite banning certain insecticides).

By far the most likely causal agents are pathogenic viruses that are spread by Varroa mites. Work is ongoing and widespread across the whole European continent and in the US. The EU has funded a programm called COLOSS (Welcome to the Website of the project COLOSS! — COLOSS) to look at losses of Honey bees. A new project called STEP (Status and Trends of European Pollinators) has just been funded by the EU and will kick off in February 2010. This will look at the whole gamut of potential drivers of loss, and quantify the potential effects. Expect a whole pile of papers from these projects in the future.

[Cellarman]

I've ressurected this post because of an item in the latest RSPB magazine which states that some research HAS linked the death of honey bees to a group of agricultural chemicals, namely neonicotinoids.