[ExI] bees again

spike spike at rainier66.com
Thu Mar 7 23:01:27 UTC 2013


>... On Behalf Of PJ Manney
Subject: Re: [ExI] bees again

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 6:35 AM, spike <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> >...  I didn't see why it was a big deal, all we had to do is leave 
> the doors open.  Of course that allowed some of what might have been my
most important data to fly away.
> But my bride calmed down after that data was gone.

>...New petition to ban use of neonicotinoids:

>...http://www.causes.com/actions/1686797-ban-the-use-of-neonicotinoid-pesti
cides-before-they-devastate-bee-populations-in-the-usa?utm

>...PJ
_______________________________________________



Thanks PJ.  What we need to be really careful about is first-suspect effect.
Heinous crime, unsolved, they catch some sleazy bastard, trial is
inconclusive so they hang him just to be sure, town breathes a sigh of
relief, then a second guy is caught who actually fits the description of the
perp better than the first guy.  But the second guy gets an actual trial,
because the first guy suffered first-suspect effect, and the town is now
feeling just a little queazy about hanging the first suspect.  Imidacloprid
is the first suspect.  

First suspect effect doesn't mean the first suspect is innocent, just that
we need to work our asses off to make sure that is the bad guy before the
hanging.  The theory certainly seems plausible to me.  Corn doesn't need
bees, so they spray whatever works.  It seems believable that some of the
pesticide could find its way into the corn products, such as the syrup, in
very small concentrations, too small to readily detect.  Price of honey goes
up, beekeepers extract and sell, feed the bees corn syrup, neonics
accumulate, bees lose their way, perish of exposure.

What I am seeing I think is conflicting evidence.  It is crazy difficult to
separate the variables cleanly.  In my area we have a neighborhood garden,
which is a few acres divided into small plots for hobby farmers.  It is
no-motors, being in a residential area, and the locals don't want to deal
with the noise and dust of rototillers.  Consequently a typical patch out
there is only perhaps 10 meters by 10 meters.  If one wishes to get more
than one bowl of salad out of such a small garden, one must dump crazy
amounts of fertilizer and pesticide on the few plants one has. 

If you have 100 acres of corn, you must calculate carefully the minimum
pesticide needed and the cost-optimal fertilizer.  If on the other hand you
have 100 corn stalks, you don't need to worry about it, just use crazy much
pesticide and crazy much fertilizer, and stand back.  So it could actually
be almost anything killing the local bees.  I did a count the last several
days, and the bee population is definitely way down.  Sunnyvale and Palo
Alto, it seems to be down, but it isn't as clear.  It might be that local
community garden that is harming the local bees.

Regarding the argument that the hives are taken out to the central valley to
pollinate the almonds, the Sunnyvale community garden and the Milpitas
community garden both have their own hives which never leave and as far as I
know, they don't extract honey (although I don't know for sure) in addition
to immigrant beehives.  In all cases, the hives appear to be underactive,
with one puzzling exception in Sunnyvale.  Of the ~20 hives, there was one
completely abandoned, no activity at all, one crazy busy, and the others
under-active.

More later, when I have more data.  Everyone here has a chance to play
amateur scientist in the next couple months as the blossoms of spring come
forth in all their refulgent beauty.  Everyone here has a chance to
passively be an amateur political activist by just not buying honey for only
a year or two, or until that price comes back down, or until we can
exonerate the first suspect.

spike




More information about the extropy-chat mailing list