[ExI] bees again

[spike]

I sent this earlier today but it never went thru.  Trying again.  s

 

From: spike [mailto:spike66 at att.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2013 12:11 PM
To: 'ExI chat list'
Subject: bees again

 

Walking today I noticed a grouping of dead bees on the sidewalk, so I went
home, returned with a clean Tupperware container, collected about fifty of
them.  I noticed they were almost all in a feet-down configuration as
opposed to on their sides or feet-up.  It wasn't particularly cold last
night, with a minimum of about 5C, or low 40s F, clear skies.  All stingers
were intact, no signs of trauma on the bees.  Before I even made it all the
way back home, I was surprised to see one bee was alive and apparently well,
flying about inside the container.  Now, about half an hour after I
collected the lifeless bees, several of them (about eight) appear healthy,
with another several demonstrating some sign of life, such as a moving leg.


 

I don't know what to make of it.  I have never seen a bunch of bees just
land in random patterns on the sidewalk like that and go into a deathlike
dormancy.  I was thinking of going up to Stanford, see if their
entomologists had some suggestions, or go over to Lockheed, put them in our
chemical spectral analyzer, see if we could detect neonicotinoids or
something.  Had these bees landed in the grass nearby, no one would have
ever observed them.  They would be just the colony which mysteriously
disappeared.

 

If anyone knows anyone who is interested in this, a local university or
something, I am willing to mail the bees to them.  Open to suggestion.

 

spike

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