Do the Honey Bee! Rap Video Builds Buzz About Threats to Bees

In honor of National Honey Bee Awareness Day, five creative brothers from Los Altos, California made a rap video in which bee-costumed dancers shake their stingers to raise awareness about the plight of honey bees worldwide.

With some heavy reliance on Auto-Tune and the backing of the bee angels at Häagen-Dazs, Max Lanman, a 21-year-old senior at Yale majoring in film studies, directed, edited and photographed a short video featuring four of his brothers and a bunch of friends. One of the brothers, Connor Lanman, wrote a book called “Plight of the Bee” that originally caught Häagen-Dazs’ attention.

The choreography in the video is a nod to the “dance” that honeybees do when they return to the hive after a good round of pollinating. Check it out:

“We’re hoping that “Do The Honey Bee” will help raise honey bee awareness in a fun and original way, and appeal to the greater population,” Max Lanman told The Huffington Post.

Learn more about the challenges facing bees at HelpTheHoneyBees.com.

Link [The Huffington Post]

Organized Criminals Stealing Bees in the UK

Organized networks of thieves are sneaking around under cover of night, stealing something very valuable by the millions. So what else is new, right? Well, what they’re taking isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill loot. Beekeepers in Britain are waking up to find entire colonies stolen, and the culprits are more than likely not your average criminals, either.

From The Guardian, via Treehugger:

The sharp decline in Britain’s honeybee population following the arrival of varroa mites and two consecutive harsh winters has led to premium prices for top-quality bees and a black market trade in stolen hives. In the latest incident, more than a million were taken from a strawberry farm near Telford, Shropshire. Thefts of 12 hives in Whitby, North Yorkshire, and three from the New Forest in Hampshire have also been reported, as well as cases in Norfolk and the West ­Country.

David Sutton, the National Bee Unit inspector for western England, said: “You used to get the odd one or two, but not like this. People are realising the value of bees now because they are very scarce.”

And the culprits may be in the beekeeping community. Tim Lovett, president of the British Beekeepers Association, said: “To steal bees, you have to know what you are doing. Beekeepers are now on the lookout. It’s a vicious circle. You lose more bees, the price of bees goes up and the risk of them being stolen goes up.”

So, basically, Britain has a Beekeeping Mafia? An image springs to mind of mobsters in suits and mesh beekeeper veils, opening suitcases full of beeswax-covered frames abuzz with stolen bees for the boss to scrutinize.

This problem isn’t limited to Britain. Some beekeepers have resorted to using alarm systems to keep their hives safe from thieves, including gadgets equipped with Bluetooth that wirelessly notify the hive owner via cell phone if the hive is moved.

But, hey, bees are extremely valuable. Most of us didn’t begin to realize that until populations around the globe were threatened. We need those little buggers to pollinate our crops so we can eat. Practical things like bees, in the long run, are more valuable than any jewels in the world.

Link [The Guardian]

Photo credit: Flickr user hoyasmeg

Colony Collapse Disorder Appearing Again in East Coast Hives

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting unsettling losses to their hives – up to 90%, in some cases. The phenomenon, called Colony Collapse Disorder, was first reported in Western honey bee colonies in North America and has since cropped up around the world. Late last year, however, bee populations seemed to be growing again, and beekeepers reported that things were going just fine – until now. CCD is appearing once again in hives on the East Coast.

In Florida, one beekeeping operation went from nearly a thousand colonies to just 50 in only three weeks – a loss of about two colonies an hour, 24 hours a day for three weeks. Samples showed that the ‘Nosema’ disease was present, but not at deadly levels.

From The Daily Green:

Initially, in colonies that were apparently healthy, samples indicated that there were usually two to four viruses present … garden variety types, the researchers said. But when the colonies began to show signs of problems, the samples indicated there were seven to nine viruses present in the bees. As the colonies continued to rapidly dwindle, virus samples showed that at the end, only one or two viruses remained … the same as were there at the beginning. So were these tiny villains the killers? Did they provide the stress that allowed others to take advantage, weaken the bees, then finish them off at the end? The Nosema disease that’s attracting attention was part of the complex … but what part? There wasn’t pesticide or nutritional stress. If, indeed, colony collapse disorder is a pathogen, this is the prime example of what it looks like. No cell phones. No pesticides. No bad food. A complex of viruses, bacteria and … and what?

Colony Collapse Disorder is still largely a mystery to scientists, but for all our our sake, let’s hope they figure out a way to stop it soon. Last year, it was reported that CCD was a threat to the world food supply and might drive up food prices. It’s easy to forget how much we depend upon bees to pollinate crops.

Link [The Daily Green]
Photo credit: Flickr user Todd Huffman

Honeybees Susceptible to Cocaine Addiction

Despite the fact that cocaine repels most insects, researchers have found that honeybees can become addicted to the substance and even suffer withdrawal symptoms. Bees on cocaine behave the same way humans do, throwing themselves into highly energetic dance routines and talking incessantly to their nest mates.

From The Guardian:

The research, carried out at Macquarie University in Sydney, examined the behaviour of the bees after returning from a trip looking for food.

“When foraging honeybees discover a particularly good source of pollen or nectar, they fly back to the hive and perform a symbolic dance for their nest mates,” said Dr Andrew Barron. “This is a specialised form of communication to tell their nest mates about the rewards they have found.”

But after dabbing low doses of cocaine on the bees’ backs before they went out, the researchers observed that when they returned they were more likely to dance for their nest mates, and performed particularly vigorous routines explaining where the food was located.

The dance language gave Barron and his colleagues an indication of what was going on in the bees’ brains. Rather like a cokehead in a crowded nightclub, cocaine made the bees much more enthusiastic communicators. This was not simply because they were generally more energetic: the extra enthusiasm was in order to communicate with nest mates.

When the researchers forced the bees to go ‘cold turkey’ by removing the cocaine, the bees displayed withdrawal symptoms. Given a learning test to see how they were doing, the bees’ performance crashed.

The researchers said that the bees’ dance moves weren’t wild and out of control, but actually rigidly structured. And, they didn’t begin their frenzied dancing during inappropriate times or in inappropriate places. No word on whether they’ve begun pacing and fidgeting or frantically organizing their kitchens at 3am.

Link [The Guardian]
Photo credit: Flickr user david.nikonvscanon

The Lost Ladybug Project: Help Scientists Save Disappearing Ladybugs

First it was bees, which are important to the balance of the environment in so many ways – especially pollination.  Now, populations of ladybugs around the world are inexplicably disappearing, and these once-ubiquitous little beetles also perform an important service in the natural world: controlling the population of harmful crop-destroying insects.  After noting a sudden, startling drop-off in the numbers of ladybugs in the Northeast, scientists have launched a nationwide project in the hopes of discovering the cause of this disquieting development.

From MSNBC:

“We don’t know why this happened, what impact it will have on controlling pests or how we can prevent more native species from becoming so rare,” said John Losey, a Cornell University entomologist who leads the Lost Ladybug Project.

Funded by a $2 million National Science Foundation grant, the project is recruiting citizen scientists, particularly children, to search for C-9 and other ladybug species and send photos of them to Cornell for identification and inclusion in a database.

“The scientific end of our project is, there are so many ladybugs, so many places to look for them and not very many entomologists, so we really need help building a database and mapping out where these beetles are,” said Leslie Allee, a Cornell research associate.

The C-9 ladybug is the nine-spotted Coccinella novemnotata.  Children between the ages of 5-11 in Native American, rural, farming and low-income areas are especially encouraged to help in the Lost Ladybug Project, taking photos of any ladybugs they find and sending them to Cornell for identification and inclusion in a database.  The organizers of the project hope that they’ll be able to excite these children about science and conservation of the natural world as they carry out this important research.

Scientists don’t yet know whether the disappearance of the 9-spotted ladybug will spur a swell in the population of crop-devastating pests – it’s not clear whether other varieties of ladybugs will be as effective.  It’s thought that the disappearance is likely tied to a combination of habitat loss and invasion of foreign competitors or predators.

For more info on the Lost Ladybug Project and how you can help, check out LostLadybug.org.

Link [MSNBC] + [Lost Ladybug Project]
Photo credit: Flickr user peasap

‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ in Bees Could Affect Food Prices

As if we needed another thing pushing up the cost of food, it’s now looking like the mysterious malady facing bees across the world may affect food prices as well. We need bees to pollinate crops in order to grow fruits, vegetables and grains. We need to grow this food in order to feed our livestock. So, when the bees aren’t pollinatin’, we’re facing big problems.

From The Huffington Post:

About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Research Service.

“If there are no bees, there is no way for our nation’s farmers to continue to grow the high quality, nutritious foods our country relies on,” said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. “This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore.”

Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.

The idea of bees no longer being around to pollinate crops is extremely scary. The mysterious ‘colony collapse disorder’ isn’t the only problem – it’s also the fact that pollution in the air changes scent molecules, making it harder for the bees that remain to find flowers. Time to start growing as much of your own food as you can, people. Not that that will save us from the potential disappearance of bees -–but it will at least help protect your family from skyrocketing food prices.

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Flickr user blondyimp

Pollution is a Bitch: Flowers Losing Their Scent, Bees Losing Their Way

A rose by any other name smells as sweet as umm… well… not much.

A new study suggests that flowers are actually losing their aroma due to pollution from automobiles and power plants. Some are also guessing that this finding might explain why bees are dwindling in numbers in some areas of the world.

Researchers at the University of Virginia have been studying how the scents of flowers travel in the wind, finding that the scent molecules bond with pollutants such as ozone. The result: floral aromas are destroyed. Pollution is actually chemically altering flowers.

“The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters [3,300 to 4,000 feet]; but in today’s polluted environment downwind of major cities, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters [650 to 980 feet],” said study team member Jose D. Fuentes.

This means more than a lack of au naturel floral scents for us humans to enjoy. It could also have potentially disastrous fallout in the natural world. Bees depend on scent while seeking flowers out. If they can’t find the flowers, they can’t pollinate them – and guess what that means? Not just a decline in bee population. Bees are significant pollinators of many agriculture crops and native plants. The effects of flowers losing their scent could mean problems with food sources the world over. Scary indeed – do you need any more reasons to cut your carbon emissions?!

This news seems to provide a grim window into a sci-fi future that could have come from the mind of a literary great: one in which food has lost its flavor, and nature has lost its color. Sure, 1984 is my favorite novel and I’m known for gloom-and-doom paranoia, but is it not getting more and more likely?

Link [LiveScience]

Photo: Flickr user zaphodsotherhead