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Title: The Bees Are Disappearing Again

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/20/1649...

"Honeybee colonies are under siege across much of North America..." reported
the New York Times last week. [Alternate URL here.] Last winter beekeepers
across America "began reporting massive beehive collapses. More than half of
the roughly 2.8 million colonies collapsed, costing the industry about $600
million in economic losses..." America's Department of Agriculture says
"sublethal exposure" to pesticides remains one of the biggest factors
threatening honeybees, according to the article - but it's one of several
threats. "Parasites, loss of habitat, climate change and pesticides threaten
to wipe out as much as 70% or more of the nation's honeybee colonies this
year, potentially the most devastating loss that the nation has ever seen."
Some years are worse than others, but there has been a steady decline over
time. Scientists have named the phenomenon colony collapse disorder: Bees
simply disappear after they fly out to forage for pollen and nectar. Illness
disables their radar, preventing them from finding their way home. The queen
and her brood, if they survive, remain defenseless. The precise causes remain
unknown. Bee colonies have become even more vulnerable because of the
increase in extreme weather conditions, including droughts, heat waves,
monster hurricanes, explosive wildfires and floods that have damaged or
destroyed the bees and the vegetation they pollinate. If that isn't bad
enough, parasites - and other creatures researchers refer to as "biotic"
threats that prey on bees - proliferate when there is damage to ecosystems.
All that means that the U.S. beekeeping industry has contracted by about 2.9%
over the past five years, according to data collected by IBISWorld, a
research firm. Annual loss rates have been increasing among all beekeepers
over the past decade with the most significant colony collapses in commercial
operations happening during the past five years. The article notes that
"compounding the troubles for the bee industry are recent federal cuts"
proposed by DOGE to America's Department of Agriculture, "where researchers
were studying ways to protect the nation's honeybees." And while federal
policies like tariffs could make farming more expensive, "Beekeepers also
often depend on immigrants to manage their hives and to help produce
commercial honey..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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