Along with being producers
of honey, commercial bee colonies are important to agriculture as pollinators,
along with some birds, bats and other insects. A recent report by the National
Research Council noted
that in order to bear fruit, three-quarters of all flowering plants - including
most food crops and some that provide fiber, drugs and fuel - rely on
pollinators for fertilization. "I would characterize it as serious," said Daniel Weaver, president of
the American Beekeeping Federation. "Whether it threatens the apiculture
industry in the United States or not, that's up in the air." Scientists
at Penn State, the University of Montana and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
are among the quickly growing group of researchers and industry officials
trying to solve the mystery.
Among the clues being assembled by researchers: - Although the bodies of dead
bees often are littered around a hive, sometimes carried out of the hive by
worker bees, no bee remains are typically found around colonies struck by the
mystery ailment. Scientists assume these bees have flown away from the
hive before dying.- From
the outside, a stricken colony may appear normal, with bees leaving and
entering. But when beekeepers look inside the hive box, they find few mature bees
taking care of the younger, developing bees.- Normally, a weakened bee colony would be immediately
overrun by bees from other colonies or by pests going after the hive's honey.
That's not the case with the stricken colonies, which might not be touched for
at least two weeks, said Diana Cox-Foster, a Penn State entomology
professor investigating the problem.