Honeybee deaths - Corn Insecticide Poss Link

That side comment actually got my attention. Since when have every studied any chemical compound for multi-decade effects prior to releasing it for full scale use? Most all the complaints I hear are how regulatory requirements can take years to navigate. My thought is all that can be done in that time frame is show that it does not kill you directly via some fast mechanism.

 

Any guess how much corn would cost if we used human pollinators? You know, people with feather brushes doing what bees used to do.

I don't think it will matter how hardy the corn is if the pollinators get killed off.

 

Whatever happened to the Africanized killer bees?

 

Africanized honeybees confirmed in Ga.; one man stung to death - Related stories - Macon.com

 

My impression is also that CCD is very difficult to pin down. Disease, hive parasites and agricultural chemicals may all be involved, along with tantalizing hints that the nectar of some invasive plants has negative effects on bees. A friend of mine* is facing some hurdles getting his work on that published

Having been tasked with spraying a 'killer bee' colony in the past, I can confirm that they are angry little guys. I won't do that again without a proper bee-keeper suit. Possibly body armor. They do poorly in places with 'winter', because they don't stockpile much honey. Somebody else can talk about cliamte-change implcations there

RobH if you mean that corn is insect pollinated, no. It is all by wind. There is a good compliation (somewhere) of what fraction of ag $$ results from bee pollination, As I recall about 1/4. That is, 1/4 of 'big'. In some cases, substitution would not be easy.

*He is also allergic to bee venom and it seems to me that he has made an unwise choice of research topics.

 

Hopefully the next gen of FrankenCorn will be self pollinating.


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lol hill, the majority of corn is wind pollinated and does not require any insects. Good old fashioned natural and selective breeding not gmo took care of that one. Extreme Heat and/or drought - agw anyone - can cause poor polinatioin. Maybe gmo or tradtional selective breeding can help there

There is a picture of what corn would look like without human genetic manipulation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/science/25creature.html

Now lets get rid of these invasive European honey bees No wait, lets continue to figure out what is killing them and see if we can do about it. We are living in the anthrocene.

 

Here's an update to the bee story. It seems pesticides are indeed part of the problem.