THE SWEET HUM OF THE HONEYBEE COULD SOON BE HEARD NO MORE
That classic summer sound... the hum of honeybees working through the flowerbeds, could soon be just a memory. Researchers have warned that the British honeybee is racing towards extinction in the wild and that could be disastrous for our agriculture. The disappearance of wild honeybees would deprive farmers of one of their most important pollinators and could lead to fruit and vegetable shortages.
North America has seen a 25 per cent drop in colonies in the past nine years and their crop losses have been put at a staggering £3.5 billion a year. The bees are belated victims of the Cold War: Red Army soldiers took beehives on their postings across the Warsaw Pact and unwittingly helpted spread the varroa mite from Asia to Europe. It arrived in Germany about 25 years ago and wild honeybees are all but unknown there now. Varroa arrived in Devon in 1992. It has spread to most of England and Wales and is heading north through to Scotland. It affects both wild honeybees and those in beekeepers' hives. It does not actually kill the bees, but weakens them and makes them vulnerable to illness.
Richard Jones, director of the Cardiff based International Bee Research Association, said "The varroa mite will probably wipe out all wild honeybees in the not-too-distant future. In Kent, where traditional crops like apple and cherry are still important, some areas have already suffered an 80 per cent loss of hived bees. Declines on this scale will be reflected in wild colonies. Honeybees will only survive with the help of man. The first step would be to recognise honeybees - many people mistake them for wasps and swat them. If you must spray flowers with pesticides, do it as the sun goes down when the bees are going to bed. If you spray in daytime the bees will pick up the poison and take it back to the hive. Try to plant a lot of different native flowers which will provide food for the bees..... and if a swarm descends on your house CALL THE LOCAL BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION, who would be delighted to take a wild swarm into their hives. DONT CALL PEST CONTROL.. they will just kill the bees. Remember, there will be 50,000 precious pollinators in that swarm. We should do our best to keep them alive."
The World Wide Fund for Nature also warns that bumblebees - bigger, hairier and more brightly coloured - are in crisis. The short haired bumblebee has become extinct here while the garden bumble is endangered.
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ANOTHER FAVE SITE TO VISIT... www.lakenheath.freeuk.com (not bee related but an interesting site to visit)
24/03/01
