Straight Dope on Bees

June 4, 2007

Dear Straight Dope:

What in blazes is going on with the world's bees? I keep reading all

these stories about how a significant percentage of the world's

beehives are failing and that all the bees are dying. No one seems to

know why, but there are explanations aplenty, ranging from global

warming to mites to, of all things, cell phones! What's worse, some

of these stories quote Albert Einstein's predictions that if the

world's bees were ever to die off, owing to the lack of pollinators,

humanity would follow about four years later. Is there anything we

can do about this? If the bees all die, are there any substitute

pollinators we can use? Or is Einstein right and we're all doomed? —

Rich Swank, Orlando, FL

SDSTAFF Doug replies:

Not to brag, but thanks to Wikipedia I've become the #1 authority on

disappearing bees. Type " colony collapse disorder " into Google and

hit return – the top hit is the Wikipedia page I maintain on the

subject. (In real life I'm an entomologist with the University of

California at Riverside.) Here's a summary.

First and most important: There are some 20,000 species of bees in

the world, and many thousands more types of pollinating insects. What

you're hearing about, " colony collapse disorder, " affects one species

of bee – the European honey bee. That species happens to be the one

global agriculture relies upon for about 30% of its pollination

requirements. So while we're not talking about losing all the world's

pollinators, we are talking about losing a significant fraction of

them. That's the worst-case scenario, with the species wiped out

completely.

Second, there's no reason at this point to think European honey bees

are going to be wiped out, now or ever. The die-offs so far appear to

affect some beekeepers more than others, sometimes in the same area.

That's one reason scientists are so puzzled, but it strongly suggests

the losses may have something to do with how individual beekeepers

are managing their bees. The " significant percentage " of failing

hives is still a drop in the bucket when viewed against the global

population of honey bees, and there are lots of beekeepers (even in

the U.S., which appears hardest hit) who have not had, and may never

have, significant losses of colonies. Plenty of honey bees remain to

replace the ones that have died. It's not yet time to scream that the

sky is falling.

Third, it's almost impossible to get hard numbers on how many

colonies have died recently, and how much of the current uproar is

media hype based on guesses, estimates and anecdotal accounts from

the handful of beekeepers who have had the most colony losses. If you

talk to other beekeepers, most admit they have colonies die off every

winter, but they don't always keep records on how many. A lot of the

reports we're hearing are based on personal recollection rather than

careful documentation. In other words, the scary figures you're

hearing could be exaggerated.

Fourth, even the original report describing and naming the phenomenon

explicitly says it's something that has been seen before

(repeatedly), named before, and studied before – in all cases without

coming to any conclusion about the cause. The researchers didn't like

the older names for the syndrome (which usually included the

word " disease, " which has connotations about infectiousness that

don't seem applicable here), so they renamed it colony collapse

disorder. That point has largely eluded the press, with the result

that most people think this is a new phenomenon, when in fact the

researchers who described it note reports of similar die-offs dating

back to the 1890s.

Fifth, if what we're seeing is indeed a recurrence of a century-old

phenomenon, that's a pretty good argument against theories of

causation involving things that haven't been around that long. Yes,

it's an assumption that current and past die-offs have a common

underlying cause. Some researchers don't accept that assumption –

they're the ones proposing things like pesticides as possible causes,

and they may yet prove to be correct, since some modern pesticides

can indeed kill honey bee colonies in a manner consistent with the

present symptoms. But the leading hypothesis in many researcher's

minds is that colonies are dying primarily because of stress. Stress

means something different to a honey bee colony than to a human, but

the basic idea isn't all that alien: If a colony is infected with a

fungus, or has mites, or has pesticides in its honey, or is

overheated, or is undernourished, or is losing workers due to

spraying, or any other such thing, then the colony is experiencing

stress. Stress in turn can cause behavioral changes that exacerbate

the problem and lead to worse ones like immune system failure. Colony

stress has existed, in various forms and with various causes, as long

as mankind has kept honey bees, so it could indeed have happened in

the 1890s. Many modern developments like pesticides or mite

infestations can also cause stress (in fact, many of the things

theorized to be involved can cause stress, so it's possible multiple

factors are contributing to the problem, not just one).

Unfortunately, stress is difficult to quantify and control

experimentally, so it may never be possible to prove scientifically

that colony stress explains all this year's deaths.

Sixth, it's never a good idea to trust what the media are telling

you. At least once in the present case the media got something

completely wrong and created a huge mess: The story about cell phones

was basically a misrepresentation of what one pair of reporters wrote

about a study that they misinterpreted. In a nutshell, the original

research didn't involve cell phones, and the researchers never said

their research was related to honey bee colony die-offs. Even details

like the alleged Einstein quote are dubious. No one has yet found

proof that Einstein said anything about bees dying off – the earliest

documented appearance of the " quote " is 1994 and, yes, Albert was

dead at the time.

The bottom line? No one is certain what's going on, but a lot of the

theories can't – by themselves – explain everything we're seeing.

More important, the situation hasn't yet risen to the level of a

catastrophe (except, sadly, for some of the affected beekeepers). If

the same thing keeps happening every winter for another decade or so,

then we might really start worrying. But for now, classifying this as

a " problem with potentially severe economic impact should it persist "

would be a more realistic assessment.

—SDSTAFF Doug

Straight Dope Science Advisory Board

June 4, 2007

For the most part Einstein ,was correct the Bee's going or dying,noone seems

to know, but it is serious,in the last year over half of the world bee's

populatin are dead,many think its cell phones,also poison on crops,flowers,

that is killing the bees,but something needs to change or we are not going

to be living in the near future.

bugs

-

" edgetexlady " <rbright

Monday, June 04, 2007 8:34 AM