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ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 22-02-2013 14:40 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Bumblebees sense electric fields in flowers
Electroreception may help pollinators to guess where others have already fed on nectar.
http://www.nature.com/news/bumblebees-sense-electric-fields-in-flowers-1.12480
Matt Kaplan
21 February 2013
A flower's electric field (right, with associated electric potential on the left) helps bumblebees predict where to find the most nectar.
DOMINIC CLARKE / REF. 1
As they zero in on their sugary reward, foraging bumblebees follow an invisible clue: electric fields. Although some animals, including sharks, are known to have an electric sense, this is the first time the ability has been documented in insects.
Pollinating insects take in a large number of sensory cues, from colours and fragrances to petal textures and air humidity. Being able to judge which flowers will provide the most nectar, and which have already been plundered by other pollinators, helps them to use their energy more efficiently.
It has long been known that bumblebees build up a positive electrical charge as they rapidly flap their wings; when they land on flowers, this charge helps pollen to stick to their hairs. Daniel Robert, a biologist at the University of Bristol, UK, knew that such electrical interactions would temporarily change the electrical status of the flowers — but he did not know whether bumblebees were picking up on this.
Keen to find out, he and a team of colleagues measured the net charges of individuals of Bombus terrestris, a common species of bumblebee, by using sucrose to lure them into a Faraday pail — an electrically shielded bucket that reacts to the charge of anything inside it. As expected, most bumblebees were carrying a positive charge.
Next, the team placed the insects into an arena with petunias (Petunia integrifolia) and measured the flowers' electrical potentials. Sure enough, when the bees landed, the flowers became a little more positively charged.
Finally, the team released bumblebees into an arena with artificial flowers, half of which were positively charged and carried a sucrose reward, and the other half of which were grounded and carried a bitter solution. Over time, the bees increasingly visited the rewarding charged flowers.
But when the researchers turned off the electrical charge on the flowers and re-released the trained bees, the insects visited rewarding flowers only about half of the time, as they would have by random chance. That suggested that the bees were detecting the electric fields and using them to guide their activities, rather than relying on other clues such as fragrance. The team reports its results in this week's Science1.
“We think bumblebees are using this ability to perceive electrical fields to determine if flowers were recently visited by other bumblebees and are therefore worth visiting,” says Robert.
“We had no idea that this sense even existed," says Thomas Seeley, a behavioural biologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "Assuming we can replicate the findings, this is going to open up a whole new window on insect sensory systems for us to study.”
Some experts suggest that the study has implications for insects other than bees. “If you think about it, these discoveries could also apply to hoverflies and moths," says Robert Raguso, a chemical ecologist also at Cornell. "We don’t know if they can perceive charge differentials, but they burn a lot of energy while hovering around looking for pollen or nectar. So it would make sense for them to attend to such cues."
Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2013.12480
References
Clarke, D., Whitney, H., Sutton, G. & Robert, D. Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1230883 (2013).
ISI
Show context
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The buzz about pesticides
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From elsewhere
Daniel Robert
Thomas Seeley
Robert Raguso |
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| Zoffre Joined: 23 Nov 2002 Total posts: 604 |
| Posted: 13-03-2013 11:22 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Owen Paterson set to scupper EU plans to ban pesticides linked to bee harm
Environment secretary not expected to support proposal despite poll showing almost three-quarters of the UK public wants ban
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/13/owen-paterson-ban-pesticides-bees
The environment secretary, Owen Paterson, appears set to defy public and political pressure by scuppering a proposed Europe-wide suspension of three pesticides linked to serious harm in bees.
Almost three-quarters of the UK public backs the ban, according to a poll released on Wednesday, but the UK is not currently expected to support the measure when the European commission (EC) votes on it on Friday, leaving it little chance of being passed.
"Owen Paterson is about to put the short-term interests of farmers and the pesticide industry ahead of Britain's food supply," said Ian Bassin, of the campaign group Avaaz, which has amassed 2.5m signatures supporting a ban on neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used insecticides. The YouGov poll, conducted for Avaaz, found that 71% of Britons said the UK should vote in favour of the EU moratorium.
The proposed suspension has prompted fierce lobbying on both sides. The Guardian understands that at present the opposition of the UK, Germany and Spain outweighs the support of France, the Netherlands and Poland, although campaigners hope to change the minds of ministers in the final days before the vote. The chemical manufacturers claim that a suspension would reduce food production, while conservationists say these claims are unsubstantiated and even greater harm results from the loss of bees and the vital pollination service they provide.
About three-quarters of global food crops rely on bees and other insects to fertilise their flowers, with the result that the decline of honeybee colonies due to disease, habitat loss and pesticide harm has prompted serious concern. A series of high-profile scientific studies in the last year has increasingly linked neonicotinoids to harmful effects in bees, including huge losses in the number of queens produced, and big increases in "disappeared" bees – those that fail to return from food foraging trips.
As well as public campaigns, Paterson also faces political pressure, including from one of his Conservative predecessors. Lord Deben, who as John Gummer was environment secretary, said: "If ever there were an issue where the precautionary principle ought to guide our actions, it is in the use of neonicotinoids. Bees are too important to our crops to continue to take this risk."
Joan Walley, chair of the Commons environmental audit select committee, which is investigating the issue of pesticides and pollinators, said: "Ministers have repeatedly told us that the precautionary principle and evidence-based policymaking inform its position on pesticides. If their policy in this area is as transparent and open as they claim, I believe that they would back up those words by voting for the European moratorium."
A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said: "We have carried out extensive research into the impact of neonicotinoids on bees and are waiting for the results of work including field studies. If it is concluded that restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids are necessary, they will be brought in."
Paterson said in February: "I have asked the EC to wait for the results of our field trials, rather than rushing to a decision." However, the results will not be available before Friday's vote because the field trials have been seriously compromised by contamination from neonicotinoids, which are very widely used. Prof Ian Boyd, Defra's chief scientist, told Walley's committee: "At the control site, there were residues of neonicotinoids in pollen and nectar."
Green MEPs across Europe have written to every nation's environment minister, including Paterson. "By spreading uncertainty via apparently 'science-based' arguments, the agro-chemical companies are acting as 'merchants of doubt' and are therefore blocking effective action by European policy makers," said the letter.
But Julian Little, a spokesman for Bayer, which manufactures one of the neonicotinioids, told the Guardian: "We believe that the proposals remain ill thought-out, disproportionate and ignore all the good work carried out in the member states, in terms of stewardship and risk migration, to ensure that farmers continue to have access to these products to help them produce safe, high quality, affordable food." He said the EC, at the very least, should carrying out a full impact assessment of any restrictions and said the "real issue" surrounding honeybee health was the main bee parasite, the varroa mite.
The EC proposal is to ban the use of three neonicotinoids from use on corn, oil seed rape, sunflowers and other flowering crops across the continent for two years. Tonio Borg, commissioner for health and consumer policy, said it was time for "swift and decisive action" and that the proposals were "ambitious but proportionate". The proposals came within weeks of scientists at the European Food Safety Authority, together with experts from across Europe, concluding that the use of these pesticides on flowering crops posed an unacceptable risk to bees.
The chemical companies that manufacture the neonicotinoids affected by the proposed EU suspension are Bayer, headquartered in Germany, and Syngenta, based in the UK. Syngenta declined to comment ahead of the vote. |
So, let me get this straight. Studies have already been done which seem to implicate neonicotinoids in the decline of bee populations, but DEFRA wants to wait for the results of its own studies which have been compromised because of... erm... contamination by neonicotinoids!
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| Spudrick68 Great Old One Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Total posts: 1096 Location: sunny Morecambe Age: 45 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-03-2013 13:11 Post subject: |
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| Greedy, self serving bastards. |
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| TangletwigsDeux Yeti Joined: 06 May 2009 Total posts: 55 Location: The Shire Age: 49 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-03-2013 13:28 Post subject: |
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| What Spud said. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-03-2013 13:38 Post subject: |
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| With Spud as well. |
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| Spudrick68 Great Old One Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Total posts: 1096 Location: sunny Morecambe Age: 45 Gender: Male |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-05-2013 13:16 Post subject: |
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I have a vision of cowboys stampeding bees.
| Quote: | Bee rustlers add to misery of struggling hive owners
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22660132
Elaine Spence said the bee rustlers must have expert knowledge of hives
Bees have been battling bad weather, loss of habitat and possible pesticide effects but now keepers are facing a new threat - bee-rustling.
Cardiff beekeeper Elaine Spence found one her hives stripped of its honey bee colony in March.
She said she knows of 10 other hives being stolen in the past year by people who need expert knowledge to do it.
BBC Wales' Eye on Wales programme has found a number of hive theft cases although no officials figures are kept.
Ms Spence estimates a colony of bees could sell for more than £200.
She tells the the current affairs programme of her devastation to discover the theft of one of her colonies.
She said: "I looked at my hive and there was no roof on it. I was lost for words.
Honeybees are vital for pollinating crops - a job that would be very costly without them
"I lifted what remained of the hive to have a look and it was just empty inside.
"All bee-keepers strive to ensure that their bees last through the winter: you care for them, they're a bit like part of your family, really.
"And to come and find that they have just been taken from you - it was really distressing."
Ms Spence, who keeps her hives on industrial land at a secret location in Cardiff, had already lost one of her three colonies to the poor weather.
'Poetic justice'
She says she knows of around 10 other hives being stolen this year alone and said she believes the perpetrators knew what they were doing.
"We have small carrying boxes for bees which will take about six frames - I can only presume that they came equipped with one of those boxes.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
The bees that were taken were a fairly angry lot”
Elaine Spence
Bee rustlers' victim
"They lifted the six frames out of the hive complete with the colony on it, put them in the box, shut the box up, Bob's your uncle, away they go, and probably as quickly as that.
"To steal a colony of bees, you need to know what you're doing. A person walking the street would not know how to come in and effectively remove a colony of bees.
"The bees that were taken were a fairly angry lot - they even managed to put me in accident and emergency last year through stinging me, so maybe there might be some poetic justice."
The programme also explores the two-year ban just imposed by the European Commission on a group of pesticides known as neonicitoinoids.
James Byrne of the Wildlife Trust says he fears the pesticides could be eroding bees' navigation system.
Invasive mite
But Pembrokeshire arable farmer Perkin Evans, who is also the National Farmers' Union representative for Wales' arable farmers, tells the programme he fears the ban could see crop yields reduced by up to 20% per cent.
Eye on Wales also follows regional bee inspector Francis Gellatly as he inspects for the invasive varroa mite and meets Newport bee-keeper Dave Crewe, who lost two of his finest colonies to the poor weather.
Eye on Wales is broadcast on BBC Radio Wales at 13:30 BST on Sunday and on the BBC iPlayer shortly afterwards. |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 20319 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 08-06-2013 08:53 Post subject: |
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Cornish bee 'could help save species from killer disease'
A rare Cornish bee species could save dwindling populations from a disease that has wiped out millions of colonies worldwide, scientists have said.
New research suggests the Cornish Black honey bee is better at dealing with varroa mites, which carry a strain of a disease called deformed wing virus.
The virus has killed vast numbers of the world's bees.
Scientists at Paignton Zoo are researching how the breed has survived the mite.
The zoo hopes its findings will help protect colonies and encourage more bee keepers to take on the Cornish breed.
Colonies of the bees have been moved to the zoo to monitor their health over the summer.
The mites act as tiny incubators of one deadly form of the disease, and inject it directly into the bees' blood.
Michael Bungard from the zoo said: "It's important that zoos look in our own backyard.
"Our bee project is predominantly education, so we can get the message across about the Cornish black bees and the varroa mite."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-22811683 |
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| sherbetbizarre Great Old One Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Total posts: 1344 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 09-06-2013 12:29 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Not Your Ordinary Buick – Check Out This Cluster of Bees Inside a Car!
The phone rang about 2:30 today and the caller identified himself as the manager of the local fast food restaurant.
He had found my name on the internet as ‘somebody who takes care of bees’ and said:’There is a customer’s car out here with bees’, so I headed over.
Now, I’ve been keeping bees on and off since I was 12 ( 4-H project ) and I’ve seen bees on cars’ radio antennas, tires, bumpers, and outside mirrors. But I was not prepared for this: |
http://wliqlite1530.com/not-your-ordinary-buick/ |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 23-06-2013 20:12 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Thousands of bees die at start of National Pollinator Week
http://rt.com/usa/mass-death-bees-oregon-090/
Days before National Pollinator Week, an estimated 25,000 bees were found dead in an Oregon parking lot. Some scientists attribute the mass die-off to pesticides, and worry that local crops may be affected.
“To our knowledge this is one of the largest documented bumblebee deaths in the Western U.S. It was heartbreaking to watch,” Rich Hatfield, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, said in a press release about the incident.
“They were literally falling out of the trees,” he added, describing the mysterious scene at a Target parking lot in Wilsonville, Ore. Between Saturday and Wednesday, the bodies of about 25,000 dead bumblebees had littered the Target parking lot, perplexing scientists and conservationists.
The bees fell from the European linden trees, began twitching on the ground, and eventually died in the masses.
“I visited the site (June 19), and saw bees on the ground in the process of dying. It’s a very unfortunate situation. Hopefully, (the Oregon Department of Agriculture) can provide some information,” Kerry Rappold, a Wilsonville natural resources program manager, told the Portland Tribune.
The mass die-off coincided with National Pollinator Week, an annual celebration of pollinating species, designated by the US Department of Agriculture. From June 17-23, the department is raising awareness about the importance of bees, birds, bats, butterflies, and other pollinator species that are vital to agriculture and ecosystems.
The bumblebee deaths served as an unfortunate disturbance to agriculturists who were participate in the weeklong celebration.
“I’ve never encountered anything quite like [this] in 30 years in the business,” Dan Hilburn, director of plant programs at the Oregon Agriculture Department, told the Oregonian.
It remains unclear what caused the die-off, but Xerces Society executive director Scott Hoffan Black believes that pesticide are to blame.
“It seems a landscape company did not follow label directions as it is not supposed to be sprayed during bloom,” he said. “We now assume this is the cause of the massive bee die-off. Lots of bees still dying — almost all bumblebees.”
The state’s agriculture department has collected some of the bodies to test for pesticides. Bumblebees are particular crucial for the pollination of blueberries and raspberries in Oregon, and it is possible that the incident could affect that crop industry. If the landscape company suspected of spraying pesticides violated any state or federal pesticide laws, the business could face fines ranging from $1,000 to $10,000.
The US honeybee population has been on the decline for years, suffering annual death rates of 30 percent. The widespread bee shortage is one of the biggest threats to the US agriculture industry. US officials have long been concerned about the economic ramifications of the dwindling population. The latest mass die-off adds to an already-dire situation, slashing several hundred colonies from the few that are left.
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| Monstrosa Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Total posts: 480 |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 8820 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 12-07-2013 19:57 Post subject: |
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Yep, we need to stop using that crap before it's too late.
There are more environmentally sound methods that can be employed. |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 20319 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 18-07-2013 07:44 Post subject: |
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Imported bumblebees pose 'parasite threat' to native bees
By Victoria Gill, Science reporter, BBC News
Bumblebees imported from Europe carry pathogens that pose a threat to native honeybees and bumblebees in the UK, according to scientists.
Between 40,000 and 50,000 bumblebee colonies are imported into England each year to assist with crop pollination.
For a study in the Journal of Applied Ecology, scientists bought 48 colonies - hives containing up to 100 bees each - from three producers in Europe.
They found 77% had parasites that could infect native bees.
Lead researcher Prof William Hughes, of the University of Sussex, said commercial production and importation of bumblebees had been "going on for decades".
"We couldn't grow tomatoes in this country without these bumblebees," he said.
And with the decline in pollinating insects in recent years, food producers are increasingly reliant upon imported bees.
"Over a million colonies are imported globally - it's a huge trade," said Prof Hughes. "And a surprisingly large number of these are produced in factories, mainly in Eastern Europe.
"We sought to answer the big question of whether colonies that are being produced now have parasites and, if so, whether those parasites are actually infectious or harmful."
With his colleagues from the universities of Leeds and Stirling, the researcher set out to buy colonies "in exactly the same way a farmer would".
The team then screened the bees for parasite DNA.
"We found quite a number of parasites within the bees," Prof Hughes said.
The imported bumblebee colonies carried a range of parasites including the three main bumblebee parasites (Crithidia bombi, Nosema bombi and Apicystis bombi), three honeybee parasites (Nosema apis, Ascosphaera apis and Paenibacillus larvae), and two parasites that infect both bumblebees and honeybees (Nosema ceranae and deformed wing virus).
The team also found parasites in the pollen food supplied with the bees.
The scientists say that current regulations governing bumblebee imports are ineffective.
In England, for example, the non-departmental public body responsible for the protection of the environment, Natural England, issues licences for the release of non-native bumblebee subspecies.
But this study found parasites in both native and non-native subspecies that were commercially reared in Europe, and no licences are required to release native subspecies into the environment.
Natural England said under current regulations it was "not possible to impose disease control conditions or environmental safeguards on the release of imported bumblebees which originally descended from British bumblebees".
"It is therefore of particular concern that this research has revealed that imported bees - descended from British stock - have been found to be carrying disease," its statement added.
"Our licensing regime stipulates that where non-native bumblebees are used, they must be disease free, only used within polytunnels or greenhouses, using hives from which queens cannot escape, and that all hives and surviving bees must be destroyed at the end of their use."
But the researchers say that regulatory authorities need to strengthen measures to prevent importation of parasite-carrying bumblebee colonies, including checking bees on arrival in the UK and extending regulations to cover imported colonies of the native subspecies.
Prof Hughes said: "If we don't act, then the risk is that potentially tens of thousands of parasite-carrying bumblebee colonies may be imported into the UK each year, and hundreds of thousands worldwide.
"Many bee species are already showing significant population declines," he said.
"The introduction of more or new parasite infections will at a minimum exacerbate this, and could quite possibly directly drive declines."
A Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) representative responded to the study, saying: "Imported colonies of non-native bees are required to be screened for parasites and disease.
"We will continue to work with Natural England to ensure that growers who break the rules are punished."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23347867 |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 18-07-2013 14:27 Post subject: |
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| UKIP will get a bee under the bonnet about this. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 24-07-2013 13:53 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 'Beemageddon' delayed: Bumblebee reemergence puzzles scientists
http://rt.com/usa/beemageddon-bumblebee-washington-state-493/
AFP Photo / Joel SagetAFP Photo / Joel Saget
A disappearing North American bumblebee species has reemerged in Washington state, stunning scientists and conservationists who long feared that “Beemageddon” would cause the collapse of the agriculture industry.
The Bombus occidentalis, also known as the Western Bumble Bee, has disappeared from half of its natural range, but was recently spotted among the flowers of a park north of Seattle, Reuters reports.
Multiple sightings of the vanishing bee, including several queens, have instilled new hope that it could make a comeback in the Pacific Northwest.
“It gives us hope that we can do some conservation work, and perhaps the species has a chance at repopulating its range,” Rich Hatfield, a biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, told Reuters, noting that the sightings are “a pretty big deal.”
The Western Bumble Bee vanished from parts of the US more than a decade ago. Since their disappearance, the first sighting in Washington state occurred last year, when an insect enthusiast found such a bee in her garden. Earlier this month, Will Peterman, a 42-year-old freelance writer and photographer, captured photos of the Bombus occidentalis searching for nectar in a park in Brier.
Peterman returned to the park with a group of entomologists on Sunday, and took additional photos of some of the queen bees. He described the scientists’ mood as “almost giddy” and “optimistic”.
Scientists have attributed bumblebee declines to parasites, pesticides and habit fragmentation. Hatfield believes a deadly fungus might have contributed to the decline of the Bombus occidentalis. He now wonders whether the species has developed a resistance to this fungus, thereby repopulating the Pacific Northwest.
Bees are crucial for the agriculture industry, since they pollinate crops such as tomatoes, cranberries, almonds, apples, zucchinis, avocados and plums. More than 100 types of US crops, valued at more than $200 billion each year, rely on bees to pollinate them.
A recent University of California study conducted by Berry J. Brosi, an assistant professor, and Heather M. Briggs, a graduate student, also found that the loss of bees could threaten certain types of plants and flower species that rely on pollination to produce their seeds.
The honey bee population has taken a particularly hard toll. The US is currently home to about 2.5 million honey bee colonies, which is a drastic decrease from the 6 million that existed in 1947 and the 3 million that existed in 1990.
Bumblebees have also faced dwindling populations, and an estimated 50,000 bees died in an Oregon parking lot in June, just days before National Pollinator Week.
“Bees across the country are not in as good a shape as last year,” Eric Mussen, a University of California bee specialist, told the Christian Science Monitor. But with the reemergence of the Bombus occidentalis in Washington state, “Beemageddon” might be delayed.
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