Scientists say humans caused spread of virus that’s killing honeybees

[bananas]

Source: Washington Post

The global spread of a virus that deforms the wings of honeybees and kills them in droves was caused by humans, new research has found.

According to the study published this week in Science, the problem dates back to the mid-20th century when Asian honeybees traded widely in the former Soviet Union were introduced to Europe and paired with honeybees there.

<snip>

When European honeybees were introduced to the Americas and other parts of Asia in subsequent years, a localized endemic in Europe evolved into a global pandemic that led to bee colony collapse disorder and is threatening agriculture that relies on pollinating honeybees to grow food crops.

Making matters worse, honeybees are spreading the virus through their saliva and feces to plants used by other pollinators, such as bumblebees and other solitary bees. “DWV has been detected in various insect groups that play dramatically different ecological roles, including insect predators and scavengers, pollinators, and pest species that live inside the colony,” according to a Science article that announced the study.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/science/2016/02/08/Scientists-say-humans-caused-spread-of-virus-that-s-killing-honeybees/stories/201602080051

[navarth]

1. No bees, no humans.

I think Einstein said something to that effect. This is another thing that scares the shit out of me.

It's interesting to read that it's about, well, globalization rather than insecticides.

I just hope the eggheads can come up with a cure. This sounds really, really bad.

[tecelote]

2. I still have to question the insecticide angle being left out. Too convenient.

Last edited Mon Feb 8, 2016, 12:31 PM - Edit history (1)

We have poisons for all types of pests (bugs) that we pour all over the earth but it doesn't affect bees. Hmmm...

[navarth]

11. I heard that.

[cstanleytech]

12. It probably impacts but the article is about colony collapse worldwide and the likely trigger of it

which the science does not show as being caused by insecticides.

[mike_c]

20. most human staple crops are wind pollinated....

About 30% of agricultural crops are bee pollinated, and most were pollinated effectively by native bees before the honeybee was introduced to North America. Einstein was a great theoretical physicist, but a not so good entomologist.

[rosesaylavee]

4. Treating for Varroa mites

is pretty standard practice among beekeepers. I will have to re-read this a few times but I am not seeing how this makes sense. The pesticide angle makes MUCH more sense than this.

I haven't kept bees for a few years now -- only kept them for 5 years total so hoping other beekeepers will weigh in on this thread.

[Igel]

16. WYSIATI.

What you see is all there is.

The problem with "only pesticide" is that the culprit pesticides in the US aren't used in some places with full-blown CCD and are used in other places without CCD. That tends to lead to the conclusion that if pesticides are involved, they're a culprit at best--then the goal is to find additional culprits and apportion blame, if they're independent factors, or to find out how they're interrelated and how to disentangle causality.

In the US, the temptation is to just look at the US data, and that data is often neither granular nor time dependent. Moreover, as humans, the tendency is to just see, evaluate, and remember data that support our viewpoint, good ol' confirmation bias. Getting granular data that shows progression over time is a nuisance and tough to wade through, and easy is good.

Then we decide what must be the cause, but we've limited our data set arbitrarily and overlooked data that didn't say our beliefs were correct. What you see is all there is, so you base your conclusion on that. This is assuming the premise, in short, and isn't sound critical thinking.

[Botany]

5. I bet GMOs, Monsato, and Round Up had something to do with the bee deaths.

[ladjf]

6. The human race doesn't have enough sense to pour piss out of a boot. nt

[sorefeet]

7. I have a new farmer on the place

I live and he uses a lot more chemicals. It is GMO corn, only one ear per stalk(odd). Didn't see a bee all summer until he chopped the corn and a few came around. I think there is a connection. Wait until I tell him Roundup has been classified a carcinogen.

[cstanleytech]

13. Would be interesting to know why they want to grow one ear per stalk, maybe focusing the sugars

and or oils in one ear for later processing into things like corn oil and or HFCS?

[Igel]

18. Probably size.

It's common practice if you have a plant that has a tendency to produce multiple fruits to remove some flowers or young fruit to encourage larger fruit.

Might be for sale as corn, might be kernel size or fullness, might be quality of what's produced. (Why produce more cob when you can produce more oil or corn kernel.)

[Scalded Nun]

8. This smacks of classic misdirection

it would be interesting to see just where the money for all of this 'research' actually came from.

Bee and colony deaths seemingly coincide with the planet-wide injection of pesticides, but hey, we (humans) really started this death spiral 60-70 years ago.

Who knows, maybe the chemical companies can step in to save the day!

Right.

[glinda]

10. exactly

not

[cstanleytech]

14. How so? This sounds plausible given the number of cases where

humans have introduced species in areas that they are not native to and the impact they have like the impact rabbits and cats in Australia or the impact that south american fire ants have had around the world in areas that they arent native to.

[Lancero]

9. Similar happened in our species...

Europeans came over to the Americas, and they brought diseases that decimated the native populations.

It's not surprising that similar can happen with other species.

[cstanleytech]

15. Exactly. nt

[Zorra]

17. Honeybees are beautiful beings, and I hope we can find some way to help them. nt

[blackspade]

19. I'm sure our massive overuse of pesticides hasn't helped either....