FACTORS EFFECTING COLONY LOSSES Karen Rennich Bee Informed - - PDF document

9/26/2013 1 Karen Rennich

Bee Informed Partnership and APHIS National Survey Project Manager University of Maryland usbeesurvey@gmail.com

FACTORS EFFECTING COLONY LOSSES

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Bees are in Trouble

60%

Why we do what we do

31%

“America has around 2,000,000 beehives: maybe more; maybe

• less. There are 1500 commercial and serious part-

time beekeeper families and their employees who are the Gatekeepers of our food supply. Is anybody listening?”

• John Miller

In an interview about BIP Also the focus of the book “A Beekeepers Lament”

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The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has noted that 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90% of human food are pollinated by bees*, and the estimated value of those crops is as much as $200 billion annually. *Managed pollinators and wild bees

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Migratory/Commercial beekeeping Operation Type: Migratory vs. Stationary

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Causes of Losses

Varroa mites Pesticides Poor nutrition/loss of forage

Varroa Mites

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Varroa mite control product used

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Pesticides Pesticides

– Coumaphos : 44%, used to treat flies and ticks in livestock, effects nervous systems/mildly toxic to bees – Fluvalinate: 48% – Thymol: 20% – 2, 4 Dimethylphenyl Formamide (a metabolite of Amitraz): 29.6% – Chlorpyrifos: 18%, used to treat grubs (lawn care), ticks, fleas, fire ants, lice, toxic to bees and

• ther wildlife. Sprayed on

grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables, cotton, lawns and ornamental plants

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Pesticide Finds (n=389)

• rganic, 76

Pollen

“Old world crops” that evolved with honey bees “New world crops” that bees were hired to pollinate…they preferred wildflowers

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Pesticide loads in pollen Fungicides

• Found on many agricultural crops and thought to

be harmless to bees

• Fungicides consumed by bees in the pollen they

collect were 3X as likely to be infected from a gut parasite called nosema

– Nosema can weaken and even kill colonies and it effects the strength of the foragers – thus diminishing honey crops

• Most fungicides are not labeled to caution about

spraying during flowering or bee’s flight hours

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Poor Nutrition

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Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

• 33% less than the greatest

acreage in 2007

• USDA Farm Service Agency

(FSA): between 2011 and 2012, more than 398,000 acres (620 square miles) of grasslands, forests and other lands were plowed, cleared or

• therwise converted to

cropland

• Smallest area since 1988, yes

25 years ago!

Bees are Dying What You can Do

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Join a beekeeping club and become a beekeeper

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Eat local honey Make meadows not lawns

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And try to convince your neighbors to do the same

Don’t turn your back on this!

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We’re all in this together – thank you!