Reply #21: European honeybees are already on life support in the US [View All]

The varroa mite has really done a number on the wild bee populations in the US, and have substantially hurt the commercial apiaries.

For two or three years in a row now, orchards all around the US have been unable to get enough commercial hives on site for the critical pollination window. There aren't enough wild bees left (not original, of course, but introduced European bees) for natural pollination, and even the commercial apiarists can't keep up with the mite. They can get a temporary edge with pesticides, but it's a tough fight.

The news that wild honeybees were extinct in most of their American range came on the same day this past spring that NOAA announced the disappearance of an entire island - Whale Skate Island, a low atoll - in the western Hawaiians. The sea just rolled over it and it's now gone.

The only reason I found out about these two items was that I was cruising environment news web sites. Needless to say, the networks were all up in the primaries, or Scott Peterson, or whatever shit they peddle.