Bumblebees in Freefall, Study Shows 96 Percent Decline

Related information on honeybees:

EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees, Leaked Document Shows (!)

Billons Of Bee Colonies Die Worldwide

Heavy Honeybee Die-Off Continues; New Study Shows Pollen And Hives Laden With Pesticides

Study: ‘High-Fructose Corn Syrup and Its Toxicity to the Honey Bee’

Organic Bees Surviving Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) (!)

Yes, organic bees survive CCD, which almost proves that a pesticide (or maybe GM plants) must be responsible for CCD.

Also living on refined white sugar and high-fructose corn syrup in winter certainly can kill any advanced life-form.


Disease and low genetic diversity might have caused US bumblebee decline over the past few decades, say scientists


Bumblebees are important pollinators of wild plants and crops around the world. Photograph: RSPB/PA

The abundance of four common species of bumblebee in the US has dropped by 96% in just the past few decades, according to the most comprehensive national census of the insects. Scientists said the alarming decline, which could have devastating implications for the pollination of both wild and farmed plants, was likely to be a result of disease and low genetic diversity in bee populations.

Bumblebees are important pollinators of wild plants and agricultural crops around the world including tomatoes and berries thanks to their large body size, long tongues, and high-frequency buzzing, which helps release pollen from flowers.

Bees in general pollinate some 90% of the world’s commercial plants, including most fruits, vegetables and nuts. Coffee, soya beans and cotton are all dependent on pollination by bees to increase yields. It is the start of a food chain that also sustains wild birds and animals.

Read moreBumblebees in Freefall, Study Shows 96 Percent Decline

‘Science Can Be Fun’: British 8-Year-Olds Publish Study In Top Science Journal

Related information:

British eight-year-olds publish study in top science journal (AFP)

Kids’ bee study published in science journal (CBC News)

Children’s bee study makes it to Royal Society journal (BBC News)



A bumblebee collecting pollen of a cherry blossom. A group of British children aged between eight and 10 had their school project on bees published by the prestigious Royal Society in a world scientific first, the society said Wednesday.

A group of British children aged between eight and 10 had their school project on bees published by the prestigious Royal Society in a world scientific first, the society said Wednesday.

The pupils from Blackawton primary school in the southwestern English county of Devon investigated how bumblebees see colours and patterns using a series of experiments in a local churchyard.

The findings by the 25 children, drawn up with a scientist who lives in the area, have been published in Biology Letters, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Royal Society.

“The field of insect colour and pattern vision is generally poorly understood and the findings reported by the school children represent a genuine advance in the field,” the Royal Society said in a statement.

The headmaster of the school, Dave Strudwick, said his pupils “devised, conducted and wrote up an experiment which resulted in genuinely novel findings, so they deserve to be published.”

The children used patterns drawn with coloured pencil to see whether the insects would go for sugar water and avoid salt water.

“We discovered that bumblebees can use a combination of colour and spatial relationships in deciding which colour of flower to forage from. We also discovered that science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before,” they concluded in the paper.

editor Brian Charlesworth said their paper was a “world first in high quality scientific publishing.”

The study can be read at http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/12/18/rsbl.2010.1056.abstract

December 22, 2010

Source: Physorg.com (Watch the 17min. video!)