Here’s an interesting side road I stumbled across recently, and though it’s not about Colony Collapse Disorder, is has to do with one of those rock-and-a-hard-place situations you encounter sometimes, with no easy answers. The following information comes from a publication put out by the USDA’s Animal, Plant, Health Inspection Service -- a.k.a. APHIS.

The Asian Longhorned Beetle comes from China and Korea and was introduced into this country in wood packing material. It was first discovered in 1996 in Brooklyn, New York, then Long Island, then in 1998 in Chicago. In 2002 it was found in New Jersey and now, in August this year in Worcester County, Massachusetts. This last infestation appears to be eight to 10 years old.

Adults are wood-boring beetles 1 to 1-1/2 inches in length, shiny black with small white markings on the body and antennae. After mating, the female beetles lay eggs on the surfaces of trees (Maples, Horsechestnuts, Willows, Elms, Birch, Mimosa, Hackberry, Ash, Sycamore and Planetree, Mountain Ash and Poplars). When the eggs hatch the larva tunnel into the tree, destroying the water- and nutrient-carrying capability of the tree. Severe infestations kill the tree. It takes a year for the larva to mature, pupate and emerge from the tree to mate and begin the cycle again.

Previous infestations have been successfully controlled and apparently eradication of the beetle in the initial areas has been successful. However, there is a significant difference between those earlier infestations and the new one in Massachusetts.

Worcester county and neighboring Middlesex county have a combined population of about 2.3 million people, with an average of about 600 people per square mile. There are 26 maple syrup producing farms in these two counties, and over 1,000 beekeepers there, too. ...

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There is a slowly growing consensus, by some beekeepers anyway, that they know what causes Colony Collapse Disorder is. And the more they find out about this beast -- a pathogen -- the more convinced they are. Well, most of them anyway.

The thinking is that at the heart of the problem is this new Nosema cerane disease that has reared its ugly head and invaded our beehives.

Nosema is a tiny, tiny creature, a microscopic protozoan-like animal that goes from place to place host to host as a very tough little spore. We’ve had one species of this animal in the U.S. for years and years called Nosema apis. It was a problem, but not much of one. To become infected, an adult honey bee consumes some of those spores, received either from another infected bee or picked up while cleaning the hive. This can be somewhat common in the late winter and early spring when there are fewer bees in a hive and they are confined indoors because of the weather. Nosema is more of a problem for bees in the north with its winters, than for bees in the south which let’s them off easy during that time of year.

When the spores are ingested they eventually migrate to the lining of the honey bee’s stomach where they embed themselves and begin to grow. There they attack and consume the cells that make up the lining and as these cells are destroyed the honey bees are less and less able to digest and absorb food. This is why infected bees die at a younger age – about a week younger ... week five out of a normal six. They just can’t get enough food. ...

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Dealing with the beekeeping life is part of what The Beekeeper is all about. Bringing to light some of the antics, the silliness, the politics and the sadness of the plight of our honey bees, especially in light of the Colony Collapse Disorder uncertainty is also part of what goes on here. And though CCD is most definitely a (as of yet unknown) pathogen based problem, it is perhaps enhanced by non-pathogenic, environmental stresses. But maybe it’s not, maybe CCD is in no way at all affected by anything at all in the environment. Still, in the outside world our honey bees are a part of, there are stresses, diseases, pathogens and parasites, along with bad weather, poor housing, and dumb luck that cause honey bees to have bad days at best or cause entire colonies to perish when these problems become extreme.

Three very different environmental problems came to light recently that seem to have nothing to do with CCD, but certainly are causing problems for our honey bees and their keepers.

Fires

Back several weeks ago, there were more forest fires burning out west that even the media could keep up with. Their focus, rightly I suppose, covered loss of homes and businesses, and in extreme cases human life. Marginal attention was given to wildlife affected by all the flames ... parentless bear cubs with burned paws made the news several times for those who are concerned. But the birds and the squirrels, the earthworms and rabbits ... they up and move I guess, or become well-done dinners for the predators that remain behind.

A natural honey bee home is in the cavity of an old tree. Usually quite a distance up, they remain mostly unnoticed. When a fire comes along, the bees, in hurry-up mode, consume as much honey as they can, carrying it in their crops (much like a pelican holds food in its beak), and the entire colony absconds ... it abandons its nest in search of a new, safe place to live. The honey they take with them is the food they consume while looking for a new home, and provides the energy they need to build that home. Once a cavity is found ... probably in another tree ... they quickly build that comb, the queen begins laying eggs, the foragers collect nectar and pollen for food and if they are lucky life goes on. ...

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One branch of the USDA has finally let go of some of the $1.4 million they are supposed to distribute to researchers for the study of Colony Collapse Disorder. They are still sitting on some of it though, I hear, not because they haven’t got it but some mid level manager hasn’t got around to doing the paper work. It’s been more than a month ... fiddling while Rome burns, and bees die.

But this $1.4 million is still a drop in the bucket for what’s needed, and while the industry has been generous in volunteering funds and spending money it was supposed to spend on other things, it’s a small industry and the well isn’t infinitely deep.

And, it seems, that if the farm bill money is to be released it will only be so if there is pressure from the people who pay the bills ... that would be you, by the way. Below is only a partial list of what is desperately needed to begin or continue studies from only one of the groups in this arena. Others still need funds too, and they are waiting for the release of these funds, or at least making them available for competitive grants.

1. Backlog

   There are currently just over 4,000 samples waiting to be analyzed for pathogens and pesticides that have been collected from 8 different studies, surveys and volunteered samples sent in by beekeepers. It’ll cost a total of $250,000 to do this.

2. Pesticides

   Researchers still need to conduct toxicity tests of individual pesticides to discover their relationship with CCD, if any, and determine the sub-lethal effects of pesticides and selected combinations of pesticides on bees and other pollinators. And an important study is to determine if pesticides, when combined with other problems, like viruses are responsible for, or aid in causing CCD. ...

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One of the best things to come out of the Colony Collapse Disorder mess has been the realization by many businesses that honey bees are in trouble. It’s only then that the light bulb comes on and they see down the road just a little and they realize that if honey bees go away, their own businesses will be seriously threatened. And then they get worried. And then they realize, after reading about CCD in the papers and on the net (like here), that the government isn’t doing much to help, or isn’t doing it very fast, and that if something is going to get done, well, by golly, they better do it themselves.

1. Haagen Dazs

One of the more prominent businesses to belly up to the beehive and lend a hand is Haagen Dazs Ice cream, which has gone all out to help honey bees.

Their support is directly related to the fact that a large percentage of the flavorings for their ice creams come directly from products produced by honey bee pollination. There’s good incentive in keeping bees around.

They have a dynamite web page (HelpTheHoneyBees.com), bee items to sell, and special flavored ice cream, and have donated cash and their special ice cream product to a wide variety of organizations that support honey bee and pollinators in general.

They officially started their program last January, so they’ve been at it quite awhile. I’m not sure of the total of their donations so far, but it is in the tens of thousands of dollars in cash, purchases and donations. They certainly are beekeeping’s newest friend.

2. Dundee Brewing

Dundee Brewing has a Save The Honey Bee campaign going on also. Though just begun, it’s off to a good start and beekeepers appreciate their efforts. Well, those that are at least 21 do (which you have to be go see their web page).

The web page (DundeeForTheBees.com) has information on pollinated products, CCD and what you can do to help. Of course their Honey Brown beer benefits directly from the honey those affected bees produce, so they have good reason to help out. They have teamed up with The American Beekeeping Federation (the ABF, see below) and state that a percentage of their sales, up to $25,000, will go to the ABF for CCD research. That’s a good chunk of money and will keep some scientists busy for quite awhile. ...

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As of Labor Day weekend ... bees are still dying from symptoms that have been identified as Colony Collapse Disorder. Not many, yet. But this is when it starts. So let’s look at what’s going on.

So far the villain in Colony Collapse Disorder is mostly the lack of information.

Viruses

Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus was implicated early on, but so far it hasn’t moved past the 'found in some samples' role. Continuing greenhouse research, where individual honey bees are infected with the virus definitely shows that the pathogen kills bees. But so do a host of other viruses that were found in the initial samples. The jury is still out on IAPV, at least until newer studies are published.

Other researchers are studying viruses, some known, some not, but so far nothing concrete has turned up ... or at least nothing that anybody is talking about. That’s the trouble with science ... too often the information gets sat on until the results are published ... not reviewed and given the green light but actually put on paper (or turned into electrons to grace your computer screen) and released. Some publishing outlets are quicker, some slower but all have the same criteria. So if there’s something out there we’ll just have to wait.

Pesticides

Some of the early work -- simply collecting samples of bees, wax, larvae, and pollen -- are finally coming to the top of the pile and the results, some of which have been explored here, have been eye-opening, and mostly downright scary. Beekeeper-applied chemicals to control varroa certainly are hugely evident in the samples collected ... not unlike the termite chemicals, lawn chemicals, garden chemicals, pet chemicals, and all the rest that we walk in, swim in, eat, touch and absorb everyday in our homes, work and play. Pesticides, to no one’s surprise, are abundant in our lives and equally abundant in the lives of our honey bees.

One of the unknowns, or maybe-unknowns, are the effects that those well-publicized new pesticides are having. They have made international headlines and definitely can’t be overlooked. And advocacy group, Beyond Pesticides, commented recently on these, and said that two of the primary active ingredients of concern are clothianidin and imidacloprid, both in the neonicotinoid family of chemicals. They are systemic pesticides, meaning the chemical is incorporated into plant tissue and can therefore be present in pollen and nectar, which is of particular importance to bees. They also have long persistence in the soil and can be absorbed by multiple generations of crops, increasing the likelihood of exposure for bees. Meanwhile, the manufacturers claim the chemicals safe and have data to prove it. But others in France and Germany claim just the opposite and are doing everything in their power to rid the world of these new poisons, and in the U.S. the EPA stands in the middle ... and may soon be standing in court defending their role in approving these chemicals for use.

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The Giant knotweed plant, commonly called Goliath (the scientific name is Reynoutria sachalinensis), can be unsightly in roadside landscapes, a noxious weed in the home landscape, but is always a favorite forage plant for honey bees. It grows primarily in the eastern U.S. and when in plentiful supply produces a mild, medium amber honey that is favored by many, especially beekeepers who get to harvest the surplus.

The plant is an aggressive invasive weed that was introduced into the U.S. several years ago as an ornamental. It is native to Japan and Korea, grows to about 12 feet tall and can grow as much as 6 inches overnight. Its huge leaves actually offer shade in the summer and are often used around homes as a screen or shade producer. Of course that shade can be problematic for other plants, and left alone, Giant Knotweed soon commands large areas of land, shading out any competitors and out competing almost any other plant for water and nutrients. It doesn’t like company.

However, Pam G.Marrone, Ph.D reports on the development of a new "green" pesticide obtained from an extract of this giant knotweed plant, at the recent American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia. "The product is safe to humans, animals, and the environment," says Marrone, founder and CEO of Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc., in Davis, California.

The new biopesticide has active compounds that alert plant defenses to combat a range of diseases, including powdery mildew, gray mold and bacterial blight that affect fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals. The product will be available this October for conventional growers, according to Marja Koivunen, Ph.D., the director of R&D for Marrone. A new formulation has also been developed for organic farmers and will be available in 2009.

Biopesticides are derived from plants, microbes, or other natural materials and are proven to be safer for humans and the environment. The active ingredient of the company’s first product came from lemongrass oil.

Synthetic pesticides dominate the $30 billion pesticide market, but biopesticdes should reach $1 billion by 2010, about 4.25% of the global pesticide business.

One biopesticide commentator acknowledged that knotweed extract "induces phytoalexins which infer a plant’s resistance to powdery mildew and other diseases such as Botrytis". In other words, the extract helps the crop or ornamental plant fight the mold rather than attacking the mold directly. When the extract is made with organic alcohol, the fungicide should be considered organic, a boon for organic growers everywhere.

Why is this important? ...

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In a presentation today at the National American Chemical Society in Philadelphia, Penn State researchers Maryann Frazier, Senior Extension Associate, James Frazier, insect physiologist, Sara Ashcraft, research assistant, and Chris Mullen, insect toxicologist told about the many pesticides found in samples of adult bees and brood, pollen and wax collected from honey bee colonies suspected to have died from apparent symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder.

The results show unprecedented levels of fluvalinate and coumaphos -- pesticides used by beekeepers in the hives to combat varroa mites -- in all comb and foundation wax samples. They found lower levels of 70 other pesticides and metabolites of those pesticides in pollen and bees.

While the chemicals used to control varroa were expected, the other pesticides’ levels were also surprising. Every bee tested showed at least one pesticide, and pollen averaged six pesticides with as many as 31 in a sample. "It was a bit of a shock to see the levels and the widespread presence of these pesticides," said Maryann Frazier.

"We already had in place ways to test for viruses, bacteria and fungi, but it was difficult to find an analytical laboratory that could analyze for unknown pesticides”, said Mullin. “We need to look at all pesticides, not just those used in beekeeping," he said. ...

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The Colony Collapse Disorder front has been more quiet than not for the past few weeks, plus, beekeepers are scrambling to get late summer work done before the crush of fall harvesting takes over their lives and some summer things don’t get done at all. Like making hay, it’s best to get bee work done when the sun shines and the weather cooperates. But commercial operations often must ignore that rule since they don’t get make-up days, do-overs or time-outs. When you have to move bees to be on a pollination crop, say pumpkins, on the first of July, you have to be there ... you can’t offer the excuse, "Well, it’s raining here and I don’t want to stress my bees or make life miserable for my help." The pumpkin grower doesn’t care one bit. He has flowers that need pollinating and they need it right now. So ... you move bees in the rain.

And there are lots of management activities going on in preparation for harvest and to maintain the health of colonies. That last bit has become much, much more important in this post-CCD era. Beekeepers everywhere and operations of every size are taking better care of their bees because if you don’t, you don’t have bees.

David Mendes, a commercial beekeeper from Florida is a good example. Dave’s been pollinating up and down the east coast for more than 30 years, moving bees to the wild blueberry barrens in Maine, to cranberries in Massachusetts, apples and blueberries in New Jersey, and is now moving most of his 7,000 colonies to California for almonds. If there ever was a migratory beekeeper, Dave is that person.

We’ve talked to Dave before about his bees and CCD and what’s changing in beekeeping. Dave is the VP of the American Beekeeping Federation, and a great spokesman for the industry in the halls of congress. He spoke at the Eastern Apiculture meeting in Kentucky last week, and I caught up with him afterwards. His experience and insights are telling and worth listening too, even if you are not a beekeeper because it reflects much about agriculture in general.

“Bees are suffering from something toxic”, says Dave, “if you take bees to cotton in Texas you’ll have high losses down the line. If you leave them in the woods and they don’t get into cotton, they’ll do fine. The same thing with citrus in the southeast, apples in the north east.

“If you say you’ve got virus problems, then the researches will listen. If you claim it’s a systemic pesticide problem, then politics gets in the way” ...

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Back to the beginning....

A couple of years ago it was Dave Hackenburg who got the world to pay attention to what was happening to his bees and that it was unlike anything he’d seen before. He woke up a few folks at Penn State, who woke up a few folk at the USDA Honey Bee Lab in Beltsville, Maryland, who woke up more folks out at Missoula, Montana (who coined the name Colony Collapse Disorder), who woke up ... well, you know the rest.

Dave stayed in the thick of things for quite awhile, supplying a lot of samples for the researchers, helping them get oriented to what was going on in the world of commercial and migratory beekeeping, and giving interview after interview after interview to magazines, newspapers, radio and television shows, and blog pages like this one.

But lately, as media attention has turned more to the actions of others ... researchers, bureaucrats, regulatory agencies and other beekeepers ... Dave’s been busy trying to keep his bees alive.

“Keeping bees alive is a seven day a week job now”, he said this week when I called.

“Used to be, I had time for a bit of fishing and riding my motorcycle, but not anymore. The bees need attention.”

Lately he has been involved with some conversations with the EPA and the USDA folks, looking at problems with honey bees and insecticides. They’ve found some incredible numbers taken from samples taken last year - one bee, a single, solitary bee, had 25 different insecticides hidden within her tiny body. And she wasn’t even dead. The cleanest bee they found had only five insecticides. Only. ...

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On July 17, Ag Secretary Shafer announced that the University of Georgia had been awarded a $4.1 million grant to study CCD.

This is a four year CAP (Coordinated Agriculture Project) grant, funded through USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), which aims to improve the health of managed bee populations in agricultural systems. The research, according to Shafer, will address genomics, breeding, pathology, immunology and applied ecology to explain the causes behind dwindling bee populations. Researchers will work closely with the extension community and other stakeholders to develop and implement mitigation strategies for CCD and other significant problems.

The research team that put together the proposal is spread out over much of the country, coming from 16 Universities and two USDA Honey Bee Research Labs. That they just got this money isn’t a surprise since we outlined their goals some time ago, but I’ll bet you haven’t heard of most of these scientists, and I’d like to give a short introduction for some of them, so you know who is in charge of finding out the answers to Colony Collapse Disorder. ...

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A scientist with her feet on the ground, two commercial beekeepers, and for the first time ... Colony Collapse Disorder has caused a reduction in food production.

Maryann Frazier is a Senior Extension Associate at Penn State specializing in apiculture, and has been for over 20 years. She has a list of credentials as long as your arm making her uniquely qualified to be part of the CCD working group. She knows her stuff. And she has a lot to say about what’s been going on, and what’s been found.

Right off, she took the Subcommittee to task for their lack of action in securing funds to study CCD...

"However, I believe the magnitude and timeliness of the response (of this subcommittee to the CCD problem) has not matched the scale and urgency needed to save an industry valued at more than $14 Billion."

She next asked them, “How would our government respond if one out of every three cows was dying?” ... then continued ... ”While this committee held its first timely hearing in March of 2007, the funding that has been allocated to date falls far short of the time sensitive and potentially catastrophic nature of this problem.” Go Maryann!

She then proposed five additional “Action Items” that could immediately move critical research forward and help beekeepers survive. They include...

1. Reducing the cost of pesticide analytical services provided by USDA AMS

2. Creating a new USDA critical issues program to develop alternative control methods for varroa mites

3. Providing additional funding aimed at understanding pollinator decline and improving pollinator health that includes native species of pollinators

4. Providing direct financial assistance to beekeepers suffering from high losses

5. Directing APHIS to immediately implement a national survey for honey bee diseases

• A recent survey from 11 states has revealed that IAPV (Israeli acute paralysis virus, a probable indicator, but not cause of CCD) is more widely distributed than previously observed

• Two long term studies following 260 colonies have collected nearly 4,000 samples to date to study, and to keep for additional analysis.

• The study looking at the role of pesticides in pollinator decline and CCD is ongoing in PA apple orchards; plus pesticide build-up in wax combs and foundation studies are still ongoing; lab bioassays on the synergistic effects of multiple pesticide residues and the potential impacts of pesticide adjuvants are under study, too.

Maryann then talked more about the pesticide studies....

“For example, pesticides at sublethal levels have been shown to impair the learning abilities of honey bees and to suppress their immune systems. For these reasons, we believe that pesticide exposure may be one of the factors contributing to pollinator decline and to CCD.” ...

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I was sort of surprised at the lack of coverage the mainstream media gave to the festivities in Washington last week during National Pollinator Week. What with the continuous, nearly daily coverage newspapers, magazines and blogs give to Colony Collapse Disorder, the loss of pollinators, and the threat of increasing food prices ... you’d think the media would be interested ... but, maybe not.

One reason for what appears to be apathy is that it wasn’t very well publicized ... you had to want to know it was going on to know it went on and what happened. I wanted to know and still had trouble finding out the who, what, where, and when, and then only because a Washington insider asked someone at Pollinator Protection what was going on and they told him, and he told me.

Of course a good investigative reporter would have done the digging and found out ... but if you have to dig to find something it must be pretty well hidden, don’t you think? Those speaking knew, of course. At least they showed up on time.

What went on? The House Committee On Agriculture, Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture held a hearing on Pollinator Health and Colony Collapse Disorder. Basically, this same Subcommittee held a hearing a few months ago and gave USDA, in no uncertain terms, orders to get this thing fixed. Last week was a follow up and they wanted to see what has happened since they gave that directive. Their reaction seemed mixed. ...

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