[ExI] confused trees and bees, FW: Season's Greetings from the Federation

[Alex Blainey]

Ah the annual Bee update. Ive noticed a decline this year in the UK but havn't seen a rise in dead Bees. What I have also noticed recently and this worried me was when working in the woods clearing a couple of paths there was a very noticable lack of insect life in and under the leaf litter. !!!!!
In one area I raked away about an inch of leaves uncovering the peat/earth from a patch roughly 20 sq ft and then looked for insects. No woodlice, millipedes or even springtails. All I saw was one lonely small spider.

Now that is truly worrying. Nothing of note has changed in the local environment apart from a really wet year and the Oak trees have dropped more acorns than I have ever seen! 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: spike <spike66 at att.net>
To: 'ExI chat list' <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 6:18
Subject: [ExI] confused trees and bees, FW: Season's Greetings from the Federation



 

George TakeiVerified account ‏@GeorgeTakei 

Well spocken. pic.twitter.com/kZmJt6iaeA




 

 
2013 was a terrible year for bees.  Perhaps 2014 will be better.  On the first day of this year I saw hundreds of dead and dying bees, apparently having failed to find their hive and perishing from exposure.  I saw more dead and dying bees on the sidewalk this year than all six previous years combined, not including that 1 January event.  Estimated total about 100.
 
Now my observation is the blossoms are coming earlier this year than I recall ever seeing them open, and the bees are here as well.  In my back yard I see the vines have blossoms already.  The solstice is Saturday afternoon, so this is a case where spring has arrived before the autumn officially ends.  I noticed there are more confused trees this year than just my citrus trees in back.  I see evidence of early blooming and new growth everywhere.  With current indications, there will be a riot of color in January.
 
We tend to notice when bees decline, but would we notice if other bugs went missing?  My ants are gone without a trace.  If some bug virus decimated the ants, how would we know it had happened?  Perhaps I could talk the local hardware store out of some information on sales of ant poison and boric acid.
 
spike
 
 


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