In a new study published today in the journal Scientific Reports, a duo of researchers at the University of Maryland found that the median lifespan of caged worker honeybees has been declining in the United States since the 1970s, from an average of 34.3 days to 17.7 days. Colony turnover is an accepted factor in […]
Tag: honeybee
Bumblebees Increasingly Stressed by Climate Change Over Past 100 Years, Study Finds
Bumblebees are larger than honeybees and, while they collect and store nectar from flowers to consume themselves, they do not convert nectar into honey like honeybees. Bumblebees are essential pollinators for many wildflowers and agricultural crops like sunflowers, cranberries, blueberries and tomatoes. Two contemporaneous papers examining bumblebee populations in the UK were recently published by […]
EPA plans to allow the use of insecticides devastating to bees and butterflies to continue in America for the next 15 years
Despite steps by the European Union to limit the use of poisons responsible for widespread insect losses, the US Environmental Protection Agency is prepared to allow the use of four of the most harmful compounds to bees, butterflies, and other insects in America for the next 15 years. Despite “ecological hazards of concern, notably to […]
Bees kill 63 endangered penguins in South Africa
A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds said. The protected birds were found dead in Simon’s Town, a small town near Cape Town home to a colony of penguins, and taken for post-mortems. “After tests, we […]
Wild Animals Such as Chimpanzees and Honeybees Also Practice Social Distancing to Prevent the Spread of Disease
In a world with over 7 billion people and cities with populations of millions of people, we are so accustomed to being surrounded by our communities and other people that the idea of social distancing seems very novel. And it sort of is… for humans. In this most recent age of technology and development, we’ve […]
Half a billion bees dead as Brazil approves hundreds more pesticides
Last century, Albert Einstein predicted that if bees disappeared off the face of the Earth, humans would only have four years left to live. The death of these insects on a large scale, seen as apocalyptic at the time, now constitutes a real warning for humanity. Between December 2018 and February 2019, more than 500 […]
POLL: Should the bee-harming pesticide ban be expanded?
Europe should expand a ban on bee-harming pesticides in light of a new report warning of widespread risks to agriculture and the environment, Greenpeace has said. The report by biologists at the University of Sussex and commissioned by Greenpeace, concluded that the threat posed to bees by neonicotinoid pesticides was greater than perceived in 2013 […]
The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees | Book Review
Every year, somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all worker honeybees disappear from their hives, never to be seen again, leaving their developing young to die and their queens untended. This disturbing phenomenon, known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), was first identified in the United States, but it is happening all around the world. […]