MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Europe short of bees to pollinate crops, warns report from Reading university
Europe needs an extra seven billion bees to pollinate its crops, with Britain in the poor position of having less than a quarter of the honeybees it requires. The demand for insect pollination across Europe is outpacing the growth of honeybee colonies as farmers grow more oil-bearing crops like oilseed rape and sunflowers, and also fruit. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesLeaving the problem of insecticide sprays apart,one theory attributes the bee decline to the ubiquitous use of mobile phones whose signals upset the bees instinctive navigational ability.
Jan 10th, 2014 - 03:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Bees don't like static electricity. The old timer who taught me said, first never site your hives anywhere near a high voltage power line. They produce little and are aggressive.
Second never work your hives when there is thunder about as this makes them bad tempered.
So there may be something in the theory
I would be interested in any well thought out comments
I find it difficult to beleive that bees might operate on a different system than other, similar, insects so if the bees were messed up by these things I would expect to see similar results in other insect populations. Also, as bees operate in flowering regions and plants generally flower in the progressively warmer times of the year when lightning storms are also more prevelant, I'd say that would be bad design right there.
Jan 12th, 2014 - 05:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I can believe that there are many reasons that are causing the bee problem, but to me this seems similar to all other environmental issues i.e. you don't need to do research to find out that car fumes might cause problems somewhere, that factory emissions into rivers might be bad, or that pesticides might not be a good addition to the food chain. Even if the results aren't found,w e should stop doing these things anyway.
Boovis While I would agree with most of your general comments its evident you have never kept bees. Unlike other insects the hive is a communal activity
Jan 12th, 2014 - 07:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Returning foraging bees do a dance on the comb or the alighting board to tell other bees where the nectar is through pherenomes among other things.
Upset their navigation systems and its like sending them the wrong way down a motorway in search of a BP station. Excuse the pun!
Poor bees..it gets worse every summer, I find them exhausted on the patio...run out of energy, I think they are lost and can't find their way home.
Jan 13th, 2014 - 12:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0I carefully pick them up and place them on a saucer with a sugar/water solution I keep, and place them in the shade amongst the plants. It revives them and they eventually are able to fly again....
They never attempt to sting me and appear grateful...the last bit might be my imagination...
I support redpoll in his claim that bees aren't too fond of static electricity. Once I rubbed one against my head and even if it didn't stick to the wall, the bee got quite upset.
Jan 15th, 2014 - 09:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Shakespear summed it up quite well...
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