Honeybees - R.I.B.? 

It’s been a while since I last updated on the plight of the world’s bee population. But the buzz on the bee front has been anything but quiet over the last few months, with demands, research and controversy delving further into the mystery of the world’s declining bee population.

Next month, the British Beekeeping Association (BBKA) will lobby parliament to demand that more money is spent on research into diseases that may be responsible for the dramatic reduction in Britain’s bee population. And more than 100 MPs have signed an early day motion calling for the Government to put more money into researching the problem, which will have dramatic consequences on British agriculture.

The BBKA want £8 million to be spent on investigating the threat to bees over the next five years. DEFRA have so far pledged £290,000 for bee research and are drawing up a new strategy for how it will investigate the problem. However, this is unlikely to be unveiled before next spring.

This year saw one of the worst honey harvests in the UK and Northern Europe for many years and although poor weather conditions may have badly affected the harvest, many are attributing the problems to disease and pesticides.

Dr Max Watkins of honeybee health specialists Vita (Europe) Ltd, said “Although the bad weather has had a significant impact on reducing this year’s UK honey harvest by something in the order of 30-50%, something more complex is afoot.”

“Investigations are underway across the globe and many suspects and accomplices are under suspicion,” he said. “Viruses once of little consequence are now becoming more prominent killers.”

Watkins says that the Varroa mite is most probably at the core of the problems faced by bees. The Varroa - a parasite - attaches to bees and sucks their blood. They can also carry viruses - one of which makes the bees unable to fly and therefore unable to pollinate.

A similar parasite problem, seemingly caused by Britain’s increasingly mild climate, is also affecting our butterfly population.

Launched earlier this month, research in Canada hopes to identify which types of bee are naturally resistant to the mites. Researchers then plan to carry out tests on the bees in the hope of detecting genetic markers that protect them from infection and could be used to create an immunisation.

Another alleged threat to the global bee population, a nicotine-based pesticide called clothianidin, is also being investigated on the other side of the Atlantic.

In August, the Natural Resources Defence Council in the US launched a lawsuit to force the Federal Government to disclose the findings of studies on the effect of the pesticide on honeybees. France and Germany have already banned the pesticide, which is used to treat seeds for corn and oilseed rape, after reports that clothianidin impaired bees’ navigational and foraging abilities.

Some beekeepers are now steering clear of bee feed which may have been treated with pesticides, such as soybeans and corn syrup, instead switching to feed such as sugar, honey and dried egg for protein.

But until further research yields answers to the numerous questions posed by bee experts, as well as farmers and food producers worried about the future, the mystery of the disappearing bees will remain unsolved for some time to come.

For information on what we can all do to help the honeybee, check out the BBKA’s top ten suggestions.

IMAGE by Flickr user O Pirata