Bees

Read this today,
Einstein said that three years after bees die out, humans would follow !!!
im interested in what your thoughts are

 

There are a whole host of other insect pollinators though, personally I cant ever see the honey bee totally dieing off.

 

I hope not Pro, But Why would we die if there were no Bee's..

 

Not sure, but I dont think this was Einstein's particular forte. (strange word there)

Not sure anyone has ever managed to prove anything he come up with, yet anyway, travelling at the speed of light is a couple of years away yet, I think.

But I see where your coming from, and it would be sad to lose the bees.

Lets hope it dont happen.

A good summer would help all insect life in this country, we have had a couple of really bad ones and are due for a half decent one, surely.

 

Most staple food products are wind pollinated, all the grass type grains, wheat, rice, corn etc and potatoes don't need pollination at all.

However, bees do a fabulous job pollinating a vast range of stuff, if we were to lose them the world would definately be a poorer place. They are certainly the most efficient pollinators.

 

It`s a concern certainly Dee.

Apparently something to do with mites isn`t it?

 

verona mites

 

What where those two gentlemen came from?

 

Varroa?

 

Thats them!!!

 

So how`re they devastating the bees? How does it work?

 

Here's what the mite does Claire
Varroa destructor can only replicate in a honey bee colony. It attaches at the body of the bee and weakens the bee by sucking hemolymph. In this process the mite spreads RNA viruses like Deformed Wing Virus to the bee. A significant mite infestation will lead to the death of a honey bee colony, usually in the late autumn through early spring. The Varroa mite is the parasite with the most pronounced economic impact on the beekeeping industry. It may be a contributing factor to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) which is threatening hives throughout .

If all the bees died
We'd still have bananas and pinapples as they don't require pollination but we would lose any plants that bees pollinate. knock on effect of this would mean that we wouldn't be able to make clothes out of cotton anymore as there would be none, medicines would be affected (most use plant extracts), animals need feed but there would be nothing to feed them on, so no meat, basically as Einstein once said to the same question, 'without bees there's no pollination, then no plants, without plants theres no meat, without meat there's no man'

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/hort/Bees/Varroa/index.htm

Wallnut, remember that bees arent the sole polinators, hoverflys and flys also polinate

 

Thanks for the explination Walnut, I found it really interesting, I also read that the Bee population is Dwindling, What can we do to help our Honeybee ?
Im gonna look at Pro's Link now..