Worker Bees Take Off

Deborah Zabarenko / Reuters:
Go to work, come home. Go to work -- and vanish without a trace. Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why. The phenomenon was noticed late last year in the United States, where honeybees are used to pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Since about one-third of the U.S. diet depends on pollination and most of that is performed by honeybees, this constitutes a serious problem, says Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service. "They're the heavy lifters of agriculture," Mr. Pettis said of honeybees. "And the reason they are is they're so mobile, and we can rear them in large numbers and move them to a crop when it's blooming." The problem has prompted a congressional hearing, a report by the National Research Council and a National Pollinator Week set for June 24 to 30 in Washington, but so far there's no clear idea of what is causing it.

Posted by Editor at April 24, 2007 01:36 AM