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Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

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Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#51

Post by henearkr »

kibwen wrote: post #13

This article buries its lede, which is about how honey bees get all the attention but are at less risk than wild bees: > And that brings us to the actual problem. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is only one of about 20 thousand different bee species. The non-honey bees are usually referred to as wild bees, and each location has its native species. According to an estimate from researchers at Cornell University in 2006…

The whole point of being alarmed of the Bee Apocalypse is that you look at the honey bees as an indicator, just like the lichens on trees are an indicator of air pollution (few lichens mean a bad air quality).

When honey bees are dwindling, pretty much all the insects are too.

The Bee Apocalypse has not gone anywhere, it's just still here, and it is in fact an Insect Apocalypse, which is many orders of magnitude worse.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#52

Post by epgui »

40four wrote: post #4

Great article! One of the first I’ve ever seen that breaks down the complexities of the bee problem in a thoughtful, reasonable way. The slew of articles we’ve seen is the last 5-10 years about the ‘Bee Apocalypse’ were largely either highly misleading, poorly researched, or just plain biased by one agenda or another. It used to make me really angry. I’m sure I could dig up past rants I’ve made about it here on HN. V…

What’s on the agenda, please?

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#53

Post by synu »

michael1999 wrote: post #45
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, why would beekeeping harm wild species please?

For the same reasons that domesticating any animal leads to the extinction of the wild variant - habitat displacement - competition for food - disease

Aren’t there still some wild dogs, cats, horses, sheep, goats, and everything else humans have domesticated? Or are you being very specific about what went extinct, or maybe predicting future extinctions (in which case I’m curious more about what you mean?)

Edit: sorry if the question came off as rude and that’s why it was downvoted, I was sincerely curious what you meant.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#54

Post by epgui »

excalibur wrote: post #35

> Whatever happened to the Bee Apocalypse? The same thing that happened to the regular apocalypse. It's still moving closer every day, it's just taking longer than anticipated and causing some to lose patience.

These things tend to happen slowly and then very, very quickly.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#55

Post by chrisan »

photochemsyn wrote: post #6

(1) Stop using neonicotinoid pesticides. There are plenty of alternatives for protecting food crops from insect infestations, such as neem oil applied as a foliar spray or a soil soak in response to infestations. Neonictoninoides are based on the tobacco nicotine molecule structure, but are typically chlorinated and modified to make them more persistent and toxic to insects relative to animals. There's a good argumen…

Is neem realistic for large scale farms?

We use it in our personal garden, but you need to continually re-apply every 4-5 days with really good coverage for a period of time for it to be effective. It has been hit or miss for us. If neem doesn't work then its oh well, plant something else, but we aren't selling a crop.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#56

Post by synu »

MrYellowP wrote: post #8
40four wrote: post #4

Great article! One of the first I’ve ever seen that breaks down the complexities of the bee problem in a thoughtful, reasonable way. The slew of articles we’ve seen is the last 5-10 years about the ‘Bee Apocalypse’ were largely either highly misleading, poorly researched, or just plain biased by one agenda or another. It used to make me really angry. I’m sure I could dig up past rants I’ve made about it here on HN. V…

> or just plain biased by one agenda or another. When it reaches mainstream news, there's always an agenda.

So just insinuations and “do your own research?” I’m intrigued as to who the nefarious entity is with their shadowy plan to protect pollinators that the media is conspiring to hide.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#57

Post by peteradio »

solardev wrote: post #26
peteradio wrote: post #15

> However, the numbers may sound more alarming than they really are because honey bees are efficiently bred and managed by humans. Could that be part of the problem, they mention diversity loss in habitat, how about diversity of honeybee genetics. At the same time, HoneyBees are basically barnyard animals, we don't monitor the collapse of pig populations as they head to the slaughterhouse. I understand its not quite…

Honeybees are basically an invasive species that humans brought to the Americas in order to pollinate old-world crops (and also harvest honey). The thing is, we've replaced a lot of native new-world ecosystems and foods with old-world crops that depend on old-world bees. There are a few separate problems that the media often mixes up: One is that our old-world crops aren't getting enough old-world bees to meet their…

To which old-world crops do you refer?

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#58

Post by User23 »

synu wrote: post #53
michael1999 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same reasons that domesticating any animal leads to the extinction of the wild variant - habitat displacement - competition for food - disease

Aren’t there still some wild dogs, cats, horses, sheep, goats, and everything else humans have domesticated? Or are you being very specific about what went extinct, or maybe predicting future extinctions (in which case I’m curious more about what you mean?) Edit: sorry if the question came off as rude and that’s why it was downvoted, I was sincerely curious what you meant.

The aurochs[1] has sadly been hunted to extinction. The last one was killed in Poland during the 17th century.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#59

Post by stjohnswarts »

haspok wrote: post #44
Turing_Machine wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> go back to tried and tested agricultural methods https://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/corn/news/timeless/images/US... "Tried and tested" agricultural methods produced about 20 bushels of corn per acre. Current "artificial modern chemicals" methods produce about 160. Eight times as much. > your harming your own wasteland that for some reason you grow copious amounts of corn on The reason is that it feeds a substantial po…

Long live High Fructose Corn Syrup!

It's no worse than sugar. Both are unnecessary for humans and can be extracted as needed from fats and proteins by the human body.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#60

Post by oblak »

henearkr wrote: post #51
kibwen wrote: post #13

This article buries its lede, which is about how honey bees get all the attention but are at less risk than wild bees: > And that brings us to the actual problem. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is only one of about 20 thousand different bee species. The non-honey bees are usually referred to as wild bees, and each location has its native species. According to an estimate from researchers at Cornell University in 2006…

The whole point of being alarmed of the Bee Apocalypse is that you look at the honey bees as an indicator, just like the lichens on trees are an indicator of air pollution (few lichens mean a bad air quality). When honey bees are dwindling, pretty much all the insects are too. The Bee Apocalypse has not gone anywhere, it's just still here, and it is in fact an Insect Apocalypse, which is many orders of magnitude wors…

I don't know what's driving it but I've been observing sharp changes in insect populations that visit our balcony which has been completely taken over by some kind of huge black wasp/hornet monsters.

These bastards seem to hunt baby grasshoppers all day long and butcher all kinds of other wasps and bees, too. I used to find piles of chopped bodies but until competition got the message and show no more. I even found a stash of dead spiders they've managed to build inside a cupboard.

I am starting to get worried.

I do observe other changes in different species but this one is the wildest I've got. Haven't seen a big grasshopper in a decade. My cat used to hunt them all night. What changed? I don't know. Firebugs used to cover some trees in red 3 summers ago. Haven't seen one in months.

Edit: as to why I am replying to your post? I liked it so much, I decided to share my extremely limited experience.

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