Posted on 10/08/2007 8:28:16 AM PDT by decimon
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Looking high and low, Robbin Thorp can no longer find a species of bumblebee that just five years ago was plentiful in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon.
Thorp, an emeritus professor of entomology from the University of California at Davis, found one solitary worker last year along a remote mountain trail in the Siskiyou Mountains, but hasn't been able to locate any this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The bees are all coming east. They’ve left the left coast.
Twiddle dee, twiddle dee, the fly has married the bumblebee.
Maybe that’s why there are’nt more bumblebees.
Maybe there is some Mexican bug doing the work American bees won’t?
Okay, I hereby declare next Tuesday as “Hug A Bee Day.”
One thing I think may be happening from my farming experience is this.......
The smaller farm is going away from the landscape. Our 80 acre farm is tiny compared to most commercial operations today. Say a big operator has a leaf hopper infestation in his alfalfa....He sprays all 400 acres with a giant monster sprayer. They shotgun everything, windy or not. Nobody plants non GM crops anymore. When farms did things on a small scale by today's standard(large by 25 years ago), the farmer could be far more eco-conscious. Now it's just some migrant being told to spray that field "chop-chop". Meanwhile the conditions needed for safe applications are just a pencil-whipped paper trail.
I believe it. In fact, I've believed that was one reasonable objection to how DDT was used. Effectively, everyone got a dose whether they wanted it or not.
That one “worker bee” was probably an illegal bee....
LOL. That about said it all.
Looking high and low, I can no longer find a species of saber toothed tiger.
I'm not sure who told you malathion would only kill the Medfly but it can be highly toxic to both bees and flies (includes mosquitoes) especially when aerially applied. I worked in the CA Medfly program in the 1980s.
BTW, what is a Godzilla bug? I found one internet reference to the name as a praying mantis.
I have and trust me when I say you don't want them pollinating your flowers.
Maybe. Was he drunk?
“So long and thanks for all the pollen!”
DONT PANIC!
Oh, I meant the only flying bugs that survived are the tough, ugly waspy Godzilla-like bugs that scare me, and not the lacey, pretty harmless butterflies and such.
bmflr
Yes I understand. If you read one of my recent postings about Africanized bees, these little buggers demand my respect.
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