[ExI] bees again

Will Steinberg steinberg.will at gmail.com
Fri Mar 23 16:59:45 UTC 2012


Damning in favor of pesticide.  If they got hurt by anything but what was
directly around them when you found them, this would imply that TWO bees
who both had the disorder somehow WALKED together to a random place.  What,
were they on a date?

In fact, can bees even direct others to locations without waggle-dancing?
 It seems to me that a bee which cannot fly has no hope of navigating.  The
most plausible answer would have to be that the bees were directed to the
flowers, ate some bad shit, and got a case of the no-fly-ies.

HOWEVER.  We also have to ask how those bees knew how to get to the flowers
in the first place.  This implies they were guided there by a bee who
already interacted with the flowers.  If the disease is immediate, how did
the original scout bee report his findings to the hive?  Looks like you
have to either say that the poison is slow-acting and that's how the scout
was able to survive long enough to waggle, or that the poison is
fast-acting and that's why the bees were found so close to the scene of the
crime.

A consideration to make is that perhaps the hive is very close to the
house.  That would solve a few problems.  The main problem is that if
pesticide is immediately damaging, then the pesticide-laden flowers could
never be reported to the hive.  But there were two bees!

Thus one of the facts which leads to your conclusions must be more tricky
than it seems.  Perhaps the bees live under that yard, and the pesticides
slowly drip into their hive.  I suggest you take a spade and dig up that
yard. (joking!  maybe.)  You may find a mass bee grave.
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