By Jason Glynn

I must issue a slight apology; the last installment of this probably could have easily been placed in the Op&Ed section. I should have focused more on debunking the ‘science’ of creationism, but I couldn’t really find any real science supporting the theory. That issue is obviously near and dear to my heart, but this column is intended to share new breakthroughs and findings in the world of science, and omit my personal opinion. To be clear I am not apologizing for my opinion, but this is just not the forum to interject it. So let’s get back to breakthroughs. In this article, I’m getting down to bees-knees; what I have to share is bad news for bees, and us.

I did a pretty lengthy report on the phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) last semester that has been affecting honeybee populations so I am pretty well-versed on this topic. So, let me bombard you with some more buzzwords and facts. Bees are important, HUGELY important. There is a quote out there that is often attributed Albert Einstein, but with controversy; it goes: “If bees were to disappear from the face of the earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.”

Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but nonetheless their loss would be detrimental to the economy, society, and not to mention many plants, fruits, and veggies. Here are some crops that would be no more without the bee: apples, blueberries, almonds, cucumbers, cherries, avocados, pumpkins, onions, grapefruits, and oranges, just to name a few.

Let’s look at the effects of losing just two of those crops real quick. Almonds and blueberries, first up is California’s biggest agriculture export: almonds. Worth about $2.2 billion yearly, yes, that’s billion. They are 100% dependent on bees, so much so, that beekeepers around the country truck hives in just to pollinate the crop. Now let’s bring that closer to home with blueberries. Maine is actually well-known for them. We produce nearly 40% of North America’s crop, worth about $150 million to our economy. They are about 95% dependent on bees and would not survive without them.

So what is killing the bees?

If you didn’t know, CCD has been decimating honeybee populations since the late 1990s. This is a phenomenon where worker bees leaves a hive and mysteriously never return. There is no trace of them either, they just vanish. After the worker bees are gone the rest of the colony collapses, hence the name. A typical bee colony has between 30k and 70k bees in it, and CCD is responsible for a 65% decline in US colonies, so the loss is substantial.

The cause of the worker bees’ disappearance is unknown. Genetically modified crops, pesticides, fungicides, viruses, modern mono-agriculture, pathogenic parasites, and even electromagnetism have been blamed. The leading theory is that something environmental is affecting their learning, so when they leave the hive to forage they get lost and can’t find their way back home.

CCD has been likened to AIDS for the bee, where it is not one factor in itself, but many. After the worker bees are gone the young brood cannot gather honey or sustain itself, they then become more susceptible to other opportunistic pathogens and viruses. Collapsed colonies have become so contaminated that typical hive scavengers, like the wax moth, will avoid the collapsed hive until it has been irradiated.

So it’s well known that honeybees have taken a hit, but now new and more disconcerting research has just come out. Some of the culprits behind CCD have now been found in a fellow pollinator – the brethren wild bumblebee.

Two pathogens, the fungal Nosema ceranae and Deformed Wing Virus (DWV), have been observed in wild bumblebee populations. Although honeybees are responsible for 80% of pollinators, bumblebees are a large chunk of the rest. If this is anything like when it hit the managed hives of honeybees, it doesn’t look good for the bumblebee. In fact, it may drive them to extinction.

This should be a concern to all of us. If you want to know more about bees importance to us, just do some quick Google searches and you’ll quickly find enough information to scare yourself. If you want to help our bees: plant some flowers or veggies.