Morgan Bell
The Great Bee Crisis (LINK)
May 11th 2008 16:06
Bees give us so much more than honey. They are critical to our very survival - providing a $100 billion/year service to world agriculture by fertilizing our crops as they go about their business, collecting pollen. Without bees crop yields would drop away and there could be a danger of mass starvation.
There is a tiny parasite is threatening to wipe out our bees. The nasty tick-like parasite is called 'Varroa Destructor' and it can be a catastrophic threat to bees. It's already destroyed bee populations around the world. It has now reached New Zealand and it is feared it will enter Australia soon.
Varroa Destructor sucks the blood of the bees and as it is doing so it transmits viruses. Varroa has spread insidiously into every major country except Australia. Now it is on our doorstep in New Zealand and the great fear is it is only a matter of time before we are invaded.
Like Australia, New Zealand was proudly free of Varroa but then eight years ago the mite somehow breached strict quarantine to invade almost every hive in the North Island. It has very nearly destroyed the beekeeping industry. In Australia we have a lot to lose if Varroa strikes. At risk is our healthy bee population, our agricultural industry, and our treasured chemical-free honey.
Varroa has wiped out up to 80% of the New Zealand's hives. The very existence of many of the nuts, vegetables and fruits we take for granted is now under threat as there are no longer the local bees to pollinate them. New Zealand is now relying on imported Australian bees.
Because Australian bees are still Varroa-free they are in hot demand overseas where bee populations have been decimated. Millions of bees fly long distance to the United States in several shipments a week to help boost the dwindling numbers there.
Bees have been vanishing across America. More than one quarter of the 2.4 million colonies (tens of billions of bees) have been lost with some beekeepers reporting 26% colony losses between September, 2006 and March, 2007.
The almond orchards of California are the biggest bee pollination operation in the world with hundreds of thousands of flowering almond trees and more than 50 billion bees busy at work pollinating the flowers while they are in bloom. The imported Australian bees bounce from blossom to blossom rubbing pollen off on female stems - an integral part of the natural pollination process which we refer to as "the birds and the bees"
The state's $1.189 billion almond crop is entirely dependent on honeybee pollination and growers are responsible for more than half the world's almond production. Some other crops dependent on honeybee pollination include apples, avocados, cherries, cucumbers, melons and sunflowers.
It is a year-round, 24-hour-a-day operation. Bees are trucked across the States from orchard to orchard, crop to crop to pollinate. But it is an expensive exercise. Varroa mites have seen the cost of pollination skyrocket - a cost Americans pay at the supermarket.
In North Carolina there has been a trend in recent year for farmers to leave tobacco and move into new crops like cucumbers, melons, and berries. However the state is confronting a crisis: it simply doesn't have enough honeybees to pollinate all those flowering plants.
based on summarised excerpts from the television transcript of "Bee Afraid" airing Sunday, May 11, 2008 on Sixty Minutes, Australia - Reporter: Tara Brown - Producer: Stephen Taylor and Julia Timms
other references:
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There is a tiny parasite is threatening to wipe out our bees. The nasty tick-like parasite is called 'Varroa Destructor' and it can be a catastrophic threat to bees. It's already destroyed bee populations around the world. It has now reached New Zealand and it is feared it will enter Australia soon.
Varroa Destructor sucks the blood of the bees and as it is doing so it transmits viruses. Varroa has spread insidiously into every major country except Australia. Now it is on our doorstep in New Zealand and the great fear is it is only a matter of time before we are invaded.
Like Australia, New Zealand was proudly free of Varroa but then eight years ago the mite somehow breached strict quarantine to invade almost every hive in the North Island. It has very nearly destroyed the beekeeping industry. In Australia we have a lot to lose if Varroa strikes. At risk is our healthy bee population, our agricultural industry, and our treasured chemical-free honey.
Varroa has wiped out up to 80% of the New Zealand's hives. The very existence of many of the nuts, vegetables and fruits we take for granted is now under threat as there are no longer the local bees to pollinate them. New Zealand is now relying on imported Australian bees.
Because Australian bees are still Varroa-free they are in hot demand overseas where bee populations have been decimated. Millions of bees fly long distance to the United States in several shipments a week to help boost the dwindling numbers there.
Bees have been vanishing across America. More than one quarter of the 2.4 million colonies (tens of billions of bees) have been lost with some beekeepers reporting 26% colony losses between September, 2006 and March, 2007.
The almond orchards of California are the biggest bee pollination operation in the world with hundreds of thousands of flowering almond trees and more than 50 billion bees busy at work pollinating the flowers while they are in bloom. The imported Australian bees bounce from blossom to blossom rubbing pollen off on female stems - an integral part of the natural pollination process which we refer to as "the birds and the bees"
The state's $1.189 billion almond crop is entirely dependent on honeybee pollination and growers are responsible for more than half the world's almond production. Some other crops dependent on honeybee pollination include apples, avocados, cherries, cucumbers, melons and sunflowers.
It is a year-round, 24-hour-a-day operation. Bees are trucked across the States from orchard to orchard, crop to crop to pollinate. But it is an expensive exercise. Varroa mites have seen the cost of pollination skyrocket - a cost Americans pay at the supermarket.
In North Carolina there has been a trend in recent year for farmers to leave tobacco and move into new crops like cucumbers, melons, and berries. However the state is confronting a crisis: it simply doesn't have enough honeybees to pollinate all those flowering plants.
based on summarised excerpts from the television transcript of "Bee Afraid" airing Sunday, May 11, 2008 on Sixty Minutes, Australia - Reporter: Tara Brown - Producer: Stephen Taylor and Julia Timms
other references:
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
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