The bees are back

[HotHolly]

Has anyone noticed there have been no bees for the last 2-3 summers and now there are bumble bees again? I see them flying around my flowers.

[Rson]

All my flowers are dead thanks to my black thumb of gardening.

[JohnT]

It seems I remember entomologists talking a few months ago about some sort of virus or something that was causing a decline in the bee population. The details are fuzzy so I might be a bit off on the cause.

[HotHolly]

It was very odd. They just all disappeared. The ones I am seeing seem smaller than I recall.

[Whumbahcumba]

I haven't noticed any bees in a while. I think that last time I saw them in the area here was when I was at the Dallas Arboretum. Now in Colorado, they were all over the place and were huge.

[HotHolly]

Its hard to believe bugs are bigger in CO. When I 1st moved to TX, I was kinda freaked. All the bugs here are WAY bigger than NY. They are more like birds! Gross! I hate beetles and was waiting to see texas sized beetles. Thank God they dont seem to be here. Totally skeeved just thinking about it. bleh!

[Howard Barlow]

Maybe Rita? Really. We had problems with little roaches for years. Keeping the kitchen spotless, call pest contol, etc, didn't stop them. Plus, the big cockroaches from the trees. After Rita, I haven't seen a little roach. Not one. Only occasionally do I see the big ones in the garage, or in the leaves in the yard.

[ShutteredEye]

Actually, there is emerging research that shows bees use the same wavelengths and frequencies as many cell phones to communicate with each other. Seriously. And with all the cell phone 'noise' the bees can't hear themselves to do their jobs. Kind of scary if you ask me.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/200...runc_sys.shtml

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by ShutteredEye

Actually, there is emerging research that shows bees use the same wavelengths and frequencies as many cell phones to communicate with each other. Seriously. And with all the cell phone 'noise' the bees can't hear themselves to do their jobs. Kind of scary if you ask me.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/200...runc_sys.shtml

Maybe that's what I was thinking about.

[alamoshutterbug]

The condition is Colony Collapse Disorder, the cause was never pinned down but was mostly a problem for industrial keepers that would move their hives by tractor trailer. The bees that were found in the hive after the colony left were riddled with disease. Organic bee keepers and those that let the bees keep some of their own honey (rather than feed them high fructose corn syrup) were not affected as much. Some even postulated that since manufactured starter comb was larger than naturally found (to produce bigger, more productive bees) this larger bee size had something to do with it. Nobody really knows and likely it was a condition with many overlapping causes.

But yes, bees have returned this year and their numbers are getting better. Rejoice.