Bee Deaths Puzzle Researchers
Honeybees keep disappearing and veterinary pathologists can’t say what is happening as agricultural officials estimate the value of bee pollination to be about $300 million annually in Tennessee.
The plight of the vital insects has been discussed at a meeting of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in Nashville. State apiarist Mike Studer said honeybee colony losses last year in Tennessee were about 20 percent to 25 percent, after reaching up to 40 percent the two previous years, according to The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/ubVzG8).
Most were due to the varroa mite, an Asian import, and also to a fungus.
Five years ago the decline was noticed among commercial beekeepers hauling hives to pollinate crops.
A University of Maryland researcher says now there really isn’t a “good sense of the loss.”
