Disappearing Bees Spell Big Trouble Worldwide

Argentina is the world’s third largest honey exporter. But around the world bees are dying and disappearing for unknown causes, and this could have a knock-on effect on the local economy.

From China to Canada, countries have documented dwindling bee colonies – a condition officially termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Myriad factors have been blamed for the vanishing bees including air pollution, genetically modified crops, wildfires and cell phone radio waves.

Disappearing bees doesn’t just mean lower honey production – it affects the billion dollar global agricultural market. Currently bees are either used exclusively to make honey or pollinate crops. In the US, where there aren’t enough insects to pollinate the crops, ‘bees on wheels’ are taken coast to coast to pollinate crops.

“Beekeepers have reserve colonies but they’re already dipping into them,” said entomologist Gordon Wardell. “We’re almost at carrying capacity.”

Without bees to pollinate crops, humans are left with few alternatives. In fact, Albert Einstein once predicted: “If the honeybee becomes extinct, mankind will follow within four years.”

US hardest hit

The Apiary Inspectors of America reported that colony numbers in the US have dropped from 4.5m managed colonies in 1980 to 2.4m in 2005 nationwide. Though experts have documented disappearing bees for the last 30 years, the phenomenon was officially termed CCD in 2006 after gaining significant media attention.

CCD occurs when there is a lack of adult honeybees or a complete absence of bees with only the queen left. Often there is still honey in the hive, and immature bees are present, according to the Unites States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

According to some reports, agro-chemicals, climate change and diseased bees may be three of the leading causes of the vanishing bees. Part of the problem is that no scientific study has been able to discover exactly why the bees are disappearing. Often there aren’t any dead bees in vacant hives leaving researching wondering exactly where all the bees have gone.

“No one has found a smoking gun yet,” said Wardell. “It’s really death by a thousand cuts,” he added pointing to several factors that may be killing off the bees.

Wardell said his USDA-funded research lab in Tucson, Arizona has been trying to save bees that are being attacked by parasites. In Argentina the bees are resistant to the mites, but in the US, where genetically modified crops may weaken the insects, bees succumb to invading mites.

Because of this, the honeybee expert said adult bees are dying before they have a chance to reproduce. “A honey bee colony is a series of generations. If you decrease the lifespan of a bee you decrease the overlap. We’re trying to extend the life of the bees.”

Along with his colleagues, Wardell has extended the life of bees by using a protein supplement called Megabee. On average the bees treated with the supplement live 60-70% longer. “There’s a strong correlation between protein level and longevity,” said Wardell. When the bees are healthier they fight off the mites and survive to reproduce.

Creative solutions

The US media has put so much attention on the bees that unlikely bee advocates are popping up.

Perhaps as bees are responsible for 40% of Hägaan Dazs’ 60 flavours, the ice cream giant donated US$250,000 to both Pennsylvania State University and the University of California, Davis to fund research on CCD.

The company also launched a new flavour this month called Vanilla Honey Bee, hoping to raise awareness of the bees’ plight with the new flavour and promising to donate proceeds to help address the bee situation.

Argentine beekeepers not immune

Though Argentina hasn’t suffered from disappearing bees they’ve taken a hit from extreme climate change.

“Thankfully we don’t suffer from Colony Collapse Disorder like other countries,” said Imberti. “But we have had droughts and flooding. During flooding in the Delta, beehives stacked five high succumbed to the water. Only the highest standing hives remained. “This is especially bad for beekeepers that do this work for a hobby,” Imberti said. “It becomes so much work and they don’t want to do it any more. The problem is, we depend on them to produce honey too.”

Argentina is the third largest exporter of honey in the world, accounting for between 17-22% of the global market. The country also ships 95% of their crop to countries like the US, who consumes twice as much honey as they produce, or to Europe where Germany imports more Argentine honey than any other country worldwide.

From this year to last the amount of honey exported from Argentina has dropped from 85m tonnes in 2006-7 to 60m in 2007-8. The lack of honey comes after droughts hit certain regions of the province while floods inundated others.

Imberti said that flowers cannot produce pollen without enough water, leaving bees without a way to produce honey. “It’s all about the water, either there’s not enough or there’s too much,” Imberti said.

Persistent drought is a considerable problem according to Mussen. “Malnourished bees have a very difficult time resisting disease, predators and parasites,” Mussen said.

Despite this, Imberti said beekeepers could be producing more honey. “We could be producing more, but we don’t receive any support from the government.” He added that in order to produce more honey, beekeepers would need more funding to increase production. “It’s like everywhere else in the province, we could be growing more vegetables or raising more cows. All over the province we could do more but we don’t have enough funding to support this growth.”

Argentina has also seen a decline in beekeepers and the production of honey, but Argentine apicultores may be able to export their honey and eventually their bees to more desperate countries suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder

Since the US has struggled with disappearing bee populations, Argentina may be able to step in and capitalise on the unstable bee market. “We have an historic opportunity to export more honey than ever before,” said Secretary of the Society of Argentine Beekeepers, Robert Imberti.

In Argentina, beekeepers have made a profit selling queen bees on the European market. In the future, if CCD persists, Imberti believed Argentina would have a chance to ship bees to the US. “Australia has started sending bees to the US, we may have a chance to do this as well.”

But capitalising on disappearing bees in one country may be enough to save the world population. Some beekeepers believe the disappearing bees are a harbinger of worse situations to come. Others like Mussen were less apocalyptic. “The bees have lasted 40 million years, and I doubt that we are going to lose them, now,” Mussen said.