Accused of Harming Bees, Bayer Researches a Different Culprit | Hacker News Reader

Accused of Harming Bees, Bayer Researches a Different Culprit

nytimes.com

22 pointszzzeek6 comments

This story is dead and buried, but, for what it's worth, EconTalk last week had a really fascinating interview with a honeybee economist (<-- thing that exists!).

Turns out:

* Practically 100% of US honeybees are domesticated; wild honeybees were wiped out in the late 80s by mites.

* Honeybees aren't native to the US; I'm not sure if I heard this right, but it may be that none of the social bees are.

* Colony collapse is largely a phenomenon observed during overwintering. Some 15% of domesticated colonies fail over the winter. CCD seems to have upped this figure to 30%.

* If CCD is causing problems for professional beekeepers, those problems don't seem to be reflected in the economy. The price of queen bees (raised by specialized apiarists to help other beekeepers split colonies) hasn't changed. The price of pollination services --- mostly for the California almond crop, which is fed by beekeepers from around the country --- hasn't changed significantly either, with the possible exception of a small spike in pollination fees at the peak of almond pollination season.

It's hard to reconcile what the economist reported with the alarmism surrounding colony collapse.

I enjoyed "The Bee Keeper's Lament" - this book covers the domestic US honey bee industry. Super interesting, especially the description of how hives are trucked all around based on crop pollination needs.

You are correct that honeybees are a non-native species in North America. Sounds like the EconTalk you mention covered the topics in the book as well. I'll give it a listen. Thanks for posting about it.

Paywall... please summarize.

Bayer manufactures a pesticide that many qualified people believe is very harmful to bees. Bayer has sunk a lot of money into trying to prove it is instead a parasite that is causing the oft-reported hive-deaths.

Bayer also manufactures anti-mite products, which has led some critics to point out that Bayer would profit mightily from mites being the cause of colony collapse.

What I read last time was that the pesticide makes the bees more susceptible to the parasite. Bayer (and others) are trying to flip that around to their commercial advantage but detriment to nature.

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