No hum

I think the UN has declared a bumper global grain crop this year. I'll see if I can find the reference.

www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/csdb/en/

Grain is wind pollinated bags
Fruit, beans etc are insect pollinated. If the flower is has petals then the odds are insects essential.

Yes, jess. I know that. Just saying there's plenty of grain.

That's an improvement on last year then, when yields were right down in US and N europe.

Highest yield ever, apparently. Even with modern farming there are bound to be bad years and good years. But if the average yield is increasing, that's good.

Anyway, I thought it was good news.

Lots of buzzing and humming around our cottage garden here, and in the flower meadow at the back. Our pond is full of dragon flies larvae and newts- and watching the larvae climb on the reeds and begin the metamorphosis is an amazing sight.

Two summers ago after floods in Oz each night we had a huge amount of mosquitoes (similar to midges but apparently different). There was also swarms of dragonflies each evening and I was told they eat the mosquitoes.

I think it is worrying that there is a [[http://www.bfa.com.au/portals/0/BFAFiles/AUT09-where-have-bees-gone.pdf worldwide shortage of bees. I have noticed I don't see many bees anymore.

bee decline in the UK

The so-called 'link' that the article mentions has not been established scientifically. I think that is why the British Government opposed the pesticide ban. However, other European governments voted for it so it happened.

I believe it is only honey bees thought to be affected. That should always be made clear.

I still haven't seen honey bees in my garden this year, though plenty of everything else. One does wonder....

Good news about the grain yield.
There were definitely less honey bees around this spring here. I'm hoping that it was down to the unusually long wet winter rather than anything more serious. Incessant noise from the cicadas and plenty of other flying things. This morning I watched a bee trying to get the last scrap of pollen from a pineapple sage. There are lots of the big carpenter bees and butterflies, including a group of swallowtails returning time and time again to the lantana bush.

Seem to remember seeing something about nicotinoids affecting navigation in bumble bees bags ? Which would be incredibly serious if it did as they forage and navigate over very large areas.

This looks as if it could be quite informative, Jess

It is probable that there are several causes of Colony Collapse Disorder and the use of chemicals is just one factor. I'm just concerned that yet again political lobbyist are poking their sticky little fingers into important issues to protect their own profits. There's always a tame scientist to be bought if the price is right.

Just thought on, Neonicotinoids are insecticides, insecticides kill insects, bees are insects........duh!

One cause of honey bee "collapse" is when they build a hive inside a disused chimney (in my bedroom) and don't manage to stick it to the side very well, so it falls off a few weeks later – the kerflump woke me up one night. We had sooty honey dripping out of the fireplace in the room below onto the stove. If anyone ever takes the panel off the wall with the fireplace, they'll find thousands of dead bees and some honeycomb wax. #interestinghouse

I thought Europe had banned neonocotinoids although our representatives tried to oppose the measure - progressive as ever.

That's exactly right Anno which is why I was whittering on......

The ban comes into force on December 1st. Why wait?

So existing stocks can be used over the summer months?

It wasn't just UK reps that opposed the ban. An article I read on Wiki says the EU did not have a majority on the subject but still issued the ban. (Wondering how they managed that; clearly an undemocratic method was used).

There is also the parasitic mite Varroa destructor being a problem.

Neonicotinoids would only affect honey bees if the stuff got into the nectar. I'm not sure it has been proved that this is the case. Plus plants produce nicotinoids themselves as insecticide – not, presumably, to the same 'strength' as the synthetic ones. Bayer (maker of neonicotinoids) maintains the neonicotinoid ban has distracted the EU from Varroe destructor which it thinks is the fundamental problem affecting bee colonies. Neo nicotinoids have been in use since 1984. They would have affected honey bees sooner if they were as lethal as is now supposed.

Interesting subject. No doubt research will continue and we will become better informed. Meanwhile I hope that whatever is affecting bees so badly is found and dealt with. Hoping, sort of, that the neonicotinoid ban is effective but am worried about the spread of Varroa mite infestations.

I did not realise that we allow imports of bumble bees. How stupid. This country has no concept of biosecurity at all does it. In NZ and Aus where their wildlife has been devastated by imports (e.g. cats in Aus, possums in NZ) they are much more aware.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130717212007.htm

Mr. B and I were talking about bees the other day, after he'd come across an article about the breeding of less aggressive queen bees to produce better honey. As he understood the article, these less aggressive queens produce less aggressive worker bees who are less able to defend the hive, leaving it more vulnerable to attack. As a consequence, fewer hives are thriving.
(Unable to provide link to article, unfortunately).