[ExI] Bees again

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of BillK
...
>
> Here's an interesting signal: of the local bees, I would estimate 
> about 5% or less of all bees observed are bumblebees...
>


>...I don't think you'll have any luck.  The parasites are attacking
honeybees. The die-off in bees seems to be mostly honeybees. I think I
remember reading that other bees are relatively unaffected. But they are
also not as good at making honey as honeybees.  BillK


Ja, but it isn't honey that worries me BillK.  If we have started with some
kind of pesticide or somehow caused some superbug to weaken bee hives, we
could run very much short of food, so we damn well better find out what is
wrong and fix it.  It isn't a game: if we don't have sufficient pollinators,
we will don't have sufficient food.  We have been using antibiotics for bees
since way before my own misspent youth, and that has been tragically many
years ago.  I can imagine that we could have bred some kind of supervirus by
now, which could be causing colony collapse.

spike