People so often look for the results that they want, and make declarations, rather than doing full science, and letting the results produce the conclusions.
For those who see *staggering, dying bees* and assume pesticides ("What else could it be?"), let me remind everyone of Apocephalus borealis, the Phorid fly, the ZomBee fly, which causes ZomBees! This is the native parasitic fly that has historically parasitized native bumblebees, then jumped species to Apis mellifera. People dismiss the threat, and unobservant beekeepers assume that they don't experience it, but I am impacted.
It was discovered in the Bay Area, and is all up and down the West Coast, Santa Barbara to Seattle. Last year, Vermont was verified. When this particular Phorid fly has used its ovipositor to inject eggs into the bees abdomen, several days later the eggs hatch, and the larvae start eating their way through the adult honey bee. When enough of the leg muscles and nerves are eaten, the bee suddenly starts to lose control of their motor functions, usually one side before the other, and they crawl around in circles, acting drunk or poisoned. One would think pesticide poisoning by first assumption.
Much of the threat is ignored by those who are unobservant, because while I have collected 20-25 good winged crawlers in front of a hive, many testing positive with incubated Phorid hatch out, I have to hurry because the yellow jackets fly them away for lunch almost as fast as I can collect them. Add some of the local birds that have come to rely upon my protein provision, and any sign of trouble disappears before one would normally notice.
I just wanted to point out that before pointing to *pesticide poisoning* as the *only possible explanation*, we are in an era where complete research, and wide-open attentive scientific thought should consider all possibilities before making up one's mind.
Check out ZomBeeWatch.org if you have these crawling, staggering bees. Phorid parasitism doesn't make them quiver, but the other symptoms are on the list. Please keep an open mind.
I have people who rail against neonics, but do nothing to control their mites. Why do I think their bees are dying? Hmmm.
On Aug 7, 2014, at 11:16 AM, James Fischer wrote:
"But do you see the quivering, staggering, dying bees, the ones that show
>
> neurological symptoms? If you don't, then this would narrow the list of
> suspect pesticides dramatically, as I have always considered the symptoms of
> the dying bees to be a better indicator of pesticide exposure, and I have
seen no pesticide kills that did not include bees exhibiting these symptoms."
Robert MacKimmie
San Francisco, CA
On Aug 7, 2014, at 11:16 AM, James Fischer wrote:
>>> Several times a year I will see batches of
>>> dead bees (like pesticide poisoning)
>>> outside certain hives.
>
> But do you see the quivering, staggering, dying bees, the ones that show
> neurological symptoms? If you don't, then this would narrow the list of
> suspect pesticides dramatically, as I have always considered the symptoms of
> the dying bees to be a better indicator of pesticide exposure, and I have
> seen no pesticide kills that did not include bees exhibiting these symptoms.
> I encourage those who call me with such reports to take some video of this
> behavior, because, tragic as it seems, it is the best evidence of the acute
> poisoning.
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