Honeybee populations around the United States have dropped 42 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to a new federal survey recently released on the problem. The Agricultural Research Service, managed by the United States Department of Agriculture, released the new findings.
Bees are essential for pollinating vast numbers of plants, including vital commercial crops. Due to the loss of the insects, many farmers are being forced to pay for other pollination methods. In 2012, almond producers in California paid out $292 million for these services.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a mysterious condition that results in losses of great numbers of bees, or even entire colonies, each winter. Now, a greater number of the insects are dying during summertime as well, worrying many environmentalists and beekeepers.
"Summer losses for 2014 were reported as 27.4 percent, exceeding 2014-2015 winter losses for the first time. In previous years, 2013 summer losses were reported as 19.8 percent compared to 23.7 percent for 2013-2014 winter losses, and 2012 summer losses were reported as 25.3 percent compared to 30.5 percent for 2012-2013 winter losses," Kim Kaplan reports for the ARS.
Bee populations declined 8 percent more between April 2014 and April 2015 than the previous year. However, this is still lower than the massive losses seen when CCD was first identified.
"If beekeepers are going to meet the growing demand for pollination services, researchers need to find better answers to the host of stresses that lead to both winter and summer colony losses," said Jeff Pettis of the ARS.
Beekeepers generally accept that winter losses of bees can be as high as 18.7 percent, but which still allow the colony to be economically productive. Losses of more than 42 percent over the course of a year could pose a serious problem to the commercial market as well as to the environment, researchers warn.
The cause behind the widespread deaths is uncertain. While some people blame the presence of Varroa mites in hives, others place responsibility for the deaths on pesticides. Disease, habitat loss and climate change have also been implicated by some observers for the rise of the disorder.
Data for the report was compiled from surveys with 6,100 American beekeepers managing a total of nearly 400,000 colonies across the country. Researchers believe that there are around 2.74 million bee colonies around the United States.
Losses were not evenly distributed around the nation, as the greatest damage was seen in Oklahoma, where 63.4 percent of colonies were lost. In Hawaii, that reduction was less than 14 percent.
A preliminary analysis of the survey data is available on the Bee Informed website.
Photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab | Flickr
