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Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

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Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#131

Post by irrational »

henearkr wrote: post #62
oblak wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The decline of insects has brought an unbalance that may make some species over-represented as a consequence. But what you are seeing can also be a case of climate change moving the habitats of species around, and make them live where they did not live before (because also prevent them from living anymore where they had always been living). Edit: thanks for the compliment :D Just for the record, I'm an insects lover…

I’ve lived in a particular location for 22 years. This year is the very first one that I can recall seeing mosquitoes. Where did they come from and why are they here now? Your comment has me wondering if they are moving in because of climate change.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#132

Post by stevage »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #22
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…

I think the colloquial term for (edit; the most commonly well-known) many wild bees in English is "bumblebees". They're often burrowing species that don't have honey producing hives (They do stuff like make little caves in moss, dirt, and underbrush), and are often crucial pollinators of certain species of plants which are specifically attractive to certain wild bees (Orchids are a good example here) but which domest…

As an Australian, I hadn't really heard the term "wild bees". We call them native bees, following our usual pattern of distinguishing native animals from exotics/introduced species.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#133

Post by henearkr »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #109
henearkr wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>honey bees are dwindling It seems they are not dwindling. That was one of the clarifications of the piece. The bigger concern is the number of species rather than the number of honeybees.

I'd say that it is difficult for me to agree that the honey bee apocalypse is getting any better at all, as, in Europe at least, everybody is deploring a huge mortality in bees, and explicitely pointing the pesticides as culprits.

But in case it would "seem to get better" (e.g. in the US), I agree:

if honey bees are dwindling at some point (the wake up call), it shows that there is a bigger concern, but the bigger concern is still there even if we see again honey bees, it's an insect apocalypse (and we'll always see honey bees anyway, because they are actively bred by humans using nutrients grown with intrants from good ol' fossil fuel energy and all).

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#134

Post by contingencies »

stevage wrote: post #132
jamal-kumar wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the colloquial term for (edit; the most commonly well-known) many wild bees in English is "bumblebees". They're often burrowing species that don't have honey producing hives (They do stuff like make little caves in moss, dirt, and underbrush), and are often crucial pollinators of certain species of plants which are specifically attractive to certain wild bees (Orchids are a good example here) but which domest…

As an Australian, I hadn't really heard the term "wild bees". We call them native bees, following our usual pattern of distinguishing native animals from exotics/introduced species.

I met the reigning Aussie native bee expert in 2020 and it's dire. The best things you can do as an individual are plant many endemic native flowering species, nix lawns, don't use pesticides and certainly don't keep urban honey bees.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#135

Post by Jedd »

conorcleary wrote: post #127
Jedd wrote: post #122

I thought that Varroa destructor (a mite that attacks bees) had been determined to be a big causal factor? Improving tools for beekeepers, mostly chemical treatments, have ameliorated the situation. Here in Australia we're V. destructor free. Well mostly. We've had 3 incursions, two of which were controlled, and the third is happening now with some fierce responses (colony and equipment destruction within a wide radi…

Ferel colonies of honeybees provide genetic diversity.

Perhaps, but at what cost? In Australia we got small hive beetle about fifteen years ago, and if we didn't have feral colonies these things would be much easier to manage. As it stands, feral colonies are breeding grounds for these and other pests and diseases, and also put our native bees at risk (by disease or competition).

I also have at least two beekeepers within 10km of me that are actively selecting and breeding up queens with very different priorities over characteristics, so I would expect that genetic diversity isn't at huge risk within the beekeeping / honeybee community.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#137

Post by hansvm »

jamal-kumar wrote: post #22
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…

I think the colloquial term for (edit; the most commonly well-known) many wild bees in English is "bumblebees". They're often burrowing species that don't have honey producing hives (They do stuff like make little caves in moss, dirt, and underbrush), and are often crucial pollinators of certain species of plants which are specifically attractive to certain wild bees (Orchids are a good example here) but which domest…

We always called them spicy flies. Colloquial phrases can be pretty diverse.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#138

Post by giantg2 »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #119
multjoy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe they prefer to be referred to as fluffy chönks.

I always called them flying cotton balls. They're also not aggressive, so working around them isn't likely to get you a sting, as opposed to those damn yellow jackets. I get all species are important but I hate those things.

They make some pretty effective traps for them. I caught about 14 yellow jacket queens in the spring. That should hopefully mean fewer nests later this year.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#139

Post by stefan_ »

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…

Why would I do that? Closely related species compete for the same resources. 9 out of 10, one species "dwindling" just means another is gaining.

Re: Whatever happened to the bee apocalypse?

#140

Post by eru »

foobiekr wrote: post #70
eru wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing this for back-issues of Zero Hedge would be particularly entertaining.

ZH is a great example of the asymmetric warfare of fighting bullshit. They report a mix of truth, distorted interpretations and wholly made up nonsense simultaneously. It costs them almost nothing to generate this trash, and efforts to inspect it would be stymied by the level of effort in tracking citations (if they exist, which is almost never) or even just reporting on whether some predicted topic occurred. Another…

I sometimes feel the urge to read Zero Hedge with a five year delay. Ie read their output from June 2017 today.

I imagine that would be mildly entertaining, because a lot of their bullshit would be so much more obvious.

Do you remember when they made a big deal out of how the gold derivatives market is bigger than the market for physical gold? As if that is a problem. Or the scandal about Goldman allegedly manipulating aluminium prices by ferrying the metal around town?

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