Mon, 10 Jun 2002 13:28:01 -0700 Sender: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group From: Misha Gale-Sinex Subject: Honeybees/pollinators Suzanne shared this item from the Wallace Center's newsletter: >-- Honeybees Face Multiple Threats, Including Reduced Federal Research > >"The honeybee in America stands on the edge of the abyss," imperiled >by multiple threats that include cuts in federal research spending, >according to a Washington Post (May 14) article. One-third of fruit >and vegetable crops need insect pollination, which is achieved most >reliably by the honeybee, Apis mellifera. Honeybee colonies across >the U.S. have been decimated in recent years by two distinct >spider-like parasites, the tracheal mite and the varroa mite, which >entered the country in the mid-1980s. East Coast states were >especially hard-hit by drought and mite-related causes in the winter >of 2000-2001, and despite a federal restocking program, winter >losses "remain far higher than in pre-mite times." Higher management >costs have reduced the number of commercial apiarists, said an >official from the American Beekeepers Federation. Fewer managed >hives, in turn, lead to fewer wild colonies nearby; wild honeybees >are down by 80%. How many of the honeybees in question are the hive-dwelling, non-native, wax-and-honey European species? It is indeed sad to see these lovely little creatures die by varroa and tracheal mite infestations (the ones I've seen lie on their backs and kick in agony; it's heartbreaking to watch). However, the European honeybee is alien to North America...and it would seem that the appearance and rapid escalation of these mite infestations is a kind of rebalancing force, at least from a biodiversity/coevolution perspective. Native pollen bees do most of the pollinating anyway in many places. Their habit is solitary, they aren't affected by mites, and they don't interbreed with the aggressive "Africanized" species. They're active earlier in the year than honeybees, they're gentler (they're nonterritorial, having no hives to defend), they're more efficient pollinators, they represent more biodiversity (up to 4,000 species!), they're more adapted to their local climate, and they're well adapted to/co-evolved with plants in their regions. Of course, to encourage them as partners, we have to practice more sustainable habits--like protection of nest sites and habitat, and cutting pesticide use. We can't just haul them around in trucks wherever we want them; we have to play by their rules. Species I'm thinking of include: --Alkali bees (/Nomia melanderi/) --Bumblebees (/Bombus/ spp.) --Carpenter bees (/Xylocopa/ spp.) --Digger bees (/Colleta/, /Andrena/, and others) --Mason bees (/Osmia/ spp.) --Sweat bees (the family is /Halictididae/, many species) Working with these populations in their natural habitats would seem to be a smarter path than trying to force non-native bees to work where they don't belong, where they require huge amounts of inputs and management, and where many of them are destined to die of tracheal and varroa mites, foulbrood, caulkbrood, and nosema. As for the native solitary bees, trying to concentrate them as tools for pollination--rather than working with them in their natural ecosystems--would no doubt eventually bring about disease and other problems. As for "reliability of pollination" on the part of /Apis mellifera/, it seems like agricultural researchers perpetually look for the "one size fits all" answer, and have pushed European honeybees as that answer. Once an "industry" gets established around a particular species, rational ecological thinking takes the back seat to economic concerns. Nevertheless it appears that over the long term, /A. mellifera/ is poorly adapted to life in North America. Hives, like cities or any other monocrop niche, require huge inputs and can be serious focusers and magnifiers of disease. Pollination is a complex dance of life. Our efforts to simplify it, in order to force our will on ecosystems, may work for awhile...but that can't last. No matter how complex the technical fixes--such as "Using resistance genes from the Russian honeybee to create mite-tolerance in honeybee races common in the US." It seems to me that a truly sustainable agriculture would work towards increasing biodiversity in bee populations, matching native pollinators to crop species, encouraging habitat, and adjusting our thinking and practices to fit the realities of life on earth. The best guide to all this I know of is Stephen Buchmann's /The Forgotten Pollinators/. See also the Forgotten Pollinators Web site: Pollinator Paradise/solitary bees (Karen Strickler's site) Non-/Apis/ bee vendors Torchio Enterprises (retired USDA entomologist Phil Torchio) USDA Bee Biology Lab (where Torchio is an emeritus) Alternative pollinators Pollination information by crop (though many dead links plague this site) peace and buzzes mish