> ... ants are social insects that are abundant in almond orchards despite 
> being more directly and continually exposed to agro-chemicals than are 
> honeybees then please explain why I might be off base.

It seems always that when we raise these issues, they are immediately 
presented with analogies which are imperfect and which ignore the central 
concerns and expected to accept the substitution without objecting.

Yes, ants seem to thrive in numbers above what we want to see in orchards, 
but often bees fail to thrive in the numbers we work hard to provide.

The observation is reassuring in that it shows that insects can develop 
resistance to agro-chemicals, but it does not address our concerns about 
very specific quantities of very specific strains of a very specific insect 
in very specific locations and very specific timeframes. under very specific 
economic pressures.

We also know little about the paths which were taken by the ants in arriving 
at the current state and how many extinctions and near-extinctions took 
place along the way.

When we look at the ants, can we compare the current state to the state 
before or without agro-chemicals?  To growers a few ants are probably too 
many and no one counts, but large and measureable numbers of healthy bees 
are expected.  If the ants are not there, nobody fusses, but if the bees do 
not arrive, then it is  a panic (unless the neghbour has lots).

Nobody asks if these ants are the same ant we had decades ago and if they 
are as industrious and as manageable or as robust.  We know we can produce 
survivor bees that can handle anything given enough time and large enough 
beginning populations, but how much do we lose in the process and what do we 
get in the end.  It is not an accident that the many people working with 
survivor stocks are swapping genetics and bring in outside lines.

Mere survival is not the issue.
 

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