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US honeybee deaths hit record high as scientists scramble to find main cause
(www.theguardian.com)
This community is all about bees and beekeeping. Your one-stop shop for best beekeeping practices supported by science, exciting new bee research, beekeeping Q&A, etc.
The focus is primarily on keeping Apis mellifera, but discussion of all bee species, even if they aren't managed by beekeepers, is welcome.
What happened to the hypothesis that it was glyphosate/roundup killing them?
I asked a beekeper friend and he said it's mostly Neonicotinoids and some new diseases.
I asked a entomology professor and he said neonicotinoids were not good for bees but not bad enough to explain anything
The general theory is that the neonicotinoids weaken the bees enough that they can't fight of the new disease.
Similar to how AIDS doesn't kill you but weakens you so that a cold becomes deadly.
While glyphosate has no known biological effect on bees, it can kill off a lot of their food sources. However usage of it hasn't gone up. Insecticide use has gone up in a lot of areas though, and a lot of colonies are getting attacked by parasites. This on top of absolutely awful ground clutter management over wildfire concerns ruins both kept and wild hives.
There is no biological pathway. Despite what monsato haters want to make you believe