What's causing bees to die off in the US and UK?

I read in the news that US bee populations are down 70% in some areas, and an English friend who keeps bees reckons that there are virtually no bees left in the wild in the UK.





What's causing this... and how will we cope without the bees... apart from importing even more food from abroad...What's causing bees to die off in the US and UK?
Colony losses over the winter months are not totally unexpected and can be caused by disease, bad weather or starvation. Rarely bees have been stolen.





It would appear that there have been a lot of beekeeper reports stating Colony Collapse Disorder.





There is a good article here from April 2007 http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conser鈥?/a>What's causing bees to die off in the US and UK?
the flowers of evil
What's causing bee's to die off in the US and UK is our cellphone radiation. Thanks to our lovely cellphones, (that most people can't live without) we're losing many many bee's. What we'll have to do is just stop using cellphones so much. I don't think we'll cope too well without the bee's. Bee's pollinate flowers and all... If Bee's go - (most) flowers will go too.
One of the enemies of the bee is the hornet..these attack and kill bees. If extra warm weather occurs..hornets will be bigger and more bees will be killed. the hornets do not sting them but bite.
People with rolled up newpapers Wacking them ... when they start buzzing round them.... I think we will cope just fine without them..
Who knows, lets just blame everything on global warming.
Bee virus is causing it, let's hope the bees build up an immunity
There are virtually no wild honey bees left due to the effects of the varroa mite, which is parasitic.








The varroa mite is now cosmopolitan, being found in Indonesia (Oudemans 1904), Singapore (Gunther 1951), and USSR (Breguetova 1953); it was found on Apis m. mellifera in Hong Kong (Delfinado 1963) and Philippines (Delfinado 1963). It quickly spread to the Peoples Republic of China (Ian Tzien-He 1965), India (Phadke et al. 1966), North Korea (Tian Zai Zai Soun 1967), Cambodia (Ehara 1968), Japan (Ehara 1968), Vietnam (Stephen 1968), Thialand (Laigo and Morse 1969), Czechoslovakia (Samsinak and Haragsim 1972), Bulgaria (Velitchkov and Natchev 1973), South Korea (Delfinado and Baker 1974), Paraguay (Orosi-Pal 1975), Taiwan (Akratanakul and Burgett 1975), Argentina (Montiel and Piola 1976), Poland (Koivulehto 1976) Romania (Orosi-Pal 1975), Urguay (Grobov 1976), Germany (Ruttner 1977), Bangladesh (Marin 1978), Brazil (Alves et al. 1975) Myanmar (Marin 1978), Hungary (Buza 1978), Tunisia (Hicheri 1978), Greece (Santas 1979), Iran (Crane 979), Libya (Crane 1979), Turkey (Crane 1979), Yugoslavia (Santas 1979), Lebanon (Popa 1980), and likely other countries. Again, the mite was first detected in the USA in 1987 and has spread to most of North America.





The life cycle of the varroa mite is synchronized with that of its honey bee host; it may be that hormones or pheromones of honey bees are necessary for the mite to complete its development. The female lays eggs in bee brood cells. Developing mites feed on developing honey bee larvae. Males and females copulate in the cell. The male dies, but pregnant females emerge from the cell along with their bee host and seek another cell to repeat the cycle. It is thought the length of the postcapping period in honey bees is an important indicator of eventual infestation. The longer the postcapping time, the more time there is for more female mites to develop.





We won't cope without the bees. I believe Einstein predicted that should the world bee population die out the human race would follow in four years. I believe that recent modelling has extended the period to seven years, however it is non the less very disturbing.
hornets are killing all european and american bees, they are unco-ordinated in attacks, but the other kinds are fine, like african bees and ARE co-ordinated in attacks
I don't know for Sher because I did not here of this till now. but it could be a disease or lost habitat these are some of the things that kill off all animals. we could go with out Honey even with out importing food just eat it plain or use something else, but we would lose some money on exporting.
TB, brought in here thanks to all the f.......ng immigrants
A parasitic mite ,changes in temperatures,disease and killer bees,


also the spraying for mosquitos kills other insects in advertedly,





and the bee keepers moving the hives around and disinfecting the hives has also very bad effects ,we cannot interfere with Nature and NOT expect anything to happen








90% of the feral (wild) bee population in the United States has died out.





In the Netherlands bee diversity is down 80 percent in the sites researched,





and that ';bee species are declining or have become extinct in Britain.';





the numbers of wildflowers that depend on pollination have dropped by 70 percent.





If bees continue to die off so would the crops they support and with that would ensue major economic disruption and possibly famine.





Bees are not the only polinators but if these things are happening to bees we can bet on it that other insects are also in trouble ,on top of this many people are spraying for mosquitos ,with drastic effects .





so much follows the insects in the food chains ,that we can expect a lot of very bad changes in the environment .








Albert Einstein said ,that when the bees disappear we have 4 more years to live








only time will tell what is in store for us ,and that time is running now .
I think GM foods may have something to do with Colony collapse syndrome, but that subject seems to have been conveniently forgotten.
The alarming decline in bee populations across the United States and Europe represents a potential ecological apocalypse, an environmental catastrophe that could collapse the food chain and wipe out humanity. Who and what is behind this flagrant abuse of the eco-system?





Many people don't realize the vital role bees play in maintaining a balanced eco-system. According to experts, if bees were to become extinct then humanity would perish after just four years.





';If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man,'; said Albert Einstein.





Others would say four years is alarmist and that man would find other food sources, but the fact remains that the disappearance of bees is potentially devastating to agriculture and most plant life.





Reports that bee populations are declining at rates of up to 80% in areas of the U.S. and Europe should set alarm bells ringing and demand immediate action on behalf of environmental organizations. Experts are calling the worrying trend ';colony collapse disorder'; or CCD.





';Bee numbers on parts of the east coast and in Texas have fallen by more than 70 percent, while California has seen colonies drop by 30 to 60 percent,'; reports AFP.





';Approximately 40 percent of my 2,000 colonies are currently dead and this is the greatest winter colony mortality I have ever experienced in my 30 years of beekeeping,'; apiarist Gene Brandi, from the California State Beekeepers Association, told Congress recently.





The article states that U.S. bee colonies have been dropping since 1980 and the number of beekeepers have halved.





Scientists are thus far stumped as to what is causing the decline, ruling out parasites but leaning towards some kind of new toxin or chemical used in agriculture as being responsible. ';Experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor,'; reports Germany's Spiegal Online.





Bee populations throughout Germany have simultaneously dropped 25% and up to 80% in some areas. Poland, Switzerland and Spain are reporting similar declines. Studies have shown that bees are not dying in the hive, something is causing them to lose their sense of orientation so that they cannot return to the hive. Depleted hives are not being raided for their honey by other insects, which normally happens when bees naturally die in the winter, clearly suggesting some kind of poisonous toxin is driving them away.





';In many cases, scientists have found evidence of almost all known bee viruses in the few surviving bees found in the hives after most have disappeared. Some had five or six infections at the same time and were infested with fungi -- a sign, experts say, that the insects' immune system may have collapsed.';





A study at the University of Jena from 2001 to 2004 showed that toxins from a genetically modified maize variant designed to repel insects, when combined with a parasite, resulted in a ';significantly stronger decline in the number of bees'; than normal.





According to Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a professor at the University of Halle in eastern Germany and the director of the study, the bacterial toxin in the genetically modified corn may have ';altered the surface of the bee's intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain entry -- or perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know.';





Kaatz was desperate to continue his studies but funding was cut off.
There are certian mites and small hive beetles that are doing lots of damage....and european foul brood...
I'M GUESSING THAT THERE ARE OTHER FOODS,DO NT WORRY TO MUCH THO,BUT IF YOU FIND YOURSELF LOSING TO MUCH SLEEP YOU COULD PANIC BUY AT YOUR LOCAL STORES AND STOCK UP FOR LIFE AS HONEY NEVER GOES OFF AND GENERALLY ONE JAR LASTS MOST PEOPLE FOR LIFE.
Telephone masts, interfering with bees navigation systems. Personally I think it's disgraceful that nothing is done to help our bees. Phone companies should change their systems.