Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder

The world’s honeybee colonies are suffering massive losses. These are in the 20-40% range of abandoned hives as a percentage of total hives in some parts of the of the US, with similar or worse losses in other developed countries.

The importance of this Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD, goes far beyond the stationary hive honey trade, although losses there are in the hundreds of millions of dollars of domestic production now, a deficit that can be made up with imports from less affected countries for the time being. Of vastly greater economic importance, CCD directly impacts the successful pollination of about $18 billion in US crops that depend in whole or in part on the use of trucked-in honeybees.

The concept of trucked-in honeybees is unfamiliar to many outside of agriculture. Box-like hives which can interlock at their bottoms and tops are stacked onto giant flat-bed trucks -----and are sometimes even lifted onto pallets that are stacked in the cargo holds of jumbo jets----- and driven or flown to wherever flowering crops need their services. Usually their year begins in the deep   South and gradually they move north as temperatures warm and crops begin to flower. The bees get their food (pollen and nectar) from the very plants the bee owners are being paid to assist in pollinating.

These migrant worker bees are responsible for the fruiting success of the entire crop of almonds, and for the larger part of fruit set in apples, cherries, peaches, pears, plums, blueberries, and cranberries. Yields of peppers, squashes, cucumbers and decorative gourds go down noticeably without honeybees present. Other crops which are essentially self-pollinating, like soybeans, alfalfa, buckwheat and cotton, still get enough of a boost that it is still standard operating procedure to contract for visiting hives on larger farms.

In honeybee colony collapse disorder, the beekeeper typically finds that virtually all of the workers have abandoned the hive, leaving only the queen and the broodstock ( helpless, immature developing bees whose every need must be met for the colony to survive). The diagnosis for why this happens is complicated, because there are few if any bees left around which might be necropsied for answers. Nonetheless there are several suspects:

·         The honeybees might be losing their ability to thermoregulate the hives in winter. This leads to excess overwintering losses among adults and frankly, retarded young bees who emerge from the broodstock incompetent in running the hive. Adult bee intelligence actually has been shown to be affected by adversely cold temperatures experienced by the broodstock.

·         Insects with predatory larvae. While ants and termite do attack stationary hives regularly, the small hive beetle, and the beeswax moth are far more damaging, and affect both stationery and moving hives. These insects lay eggs in hives which result in larvae that attack the colonies, often going after their broodstock.

·         Mites. Bees suffer parasitical infestations with two major categories of tiny mites. Some inhabit the trachea reducing the bee’s respiration and ability to function at top form. Others pierce the bee’s exoskeleton and appear under the microscope much as ticks do on dogs. The most notable of the latter types is appropriately known as Varroa destructor.

·         Bacteria. A number of strains of bacilli and others of cocci attack the broodstock, essentially killing off the following generation.

·         Viruses. The picornovirus family contains a number of known bee pathogens, the most notorious of late being the Israeli Paralytic Virus, or IPV.

·         Malnutrition and overwork. There is some sense that not all pollens or nectar are equal in nutritional value for bees in moving hives, and that given that virtually all pollinating work is energy intensive and protein levels must be kept fairly high for health, there may be a cumulative nutritional imbalance or deficit operating.

·         Disproven environmental theories. Cell phone towers, global warming, ill effects from insecticides intended for other insects, the bad influence of Africanized honeybees, genetically engineered crops, and bad karma have all been ruled out as even third-rate contributing effects at the epidemic levels of CCD we are seeing today, even if in some cases, there is a kernel of truth or an isolated instance.

The most likely answer to what causes CCD at this time appears to be “some of the above” (apart from the disproven hypotheses) acting in combinations that are not always the same for every case of CCD, but which have the same general outcome of hive abandonment. It is already understood, for example, that colonies with Varroa mites tend to have higher viral counts, and that colonies weakened by cold exposure have trouble ejecting alien larvae.  But there is no one causative combination that appears to be particularly salient at this time that does not have numerous alternative examples with similar limited explanatory power.

In the meanwhile bumblebees and a number of lesser known pollinators that are currently largely specialized in particular crops such as the Osmia bees in orchards, two types of alfalfa bees, and some squash bees are under study as possible replacements for honeybees in some cases.

For a comprehensive review of the literature, integrating the essential themes of over 300 papers related to CCD, you might want to check out the following:

Stankus, T. 2008. A review and bibliography on the literature of honey bee colony collapse disorder: A poorly understood epidemic that clearly threatens the successful pollination of billions of dollars of crops in America. Journal of Agricultural and Food Information 9 (2): 115-143.

Tony Stankus [email protected] Life Sciences Librarian & Professor

University of Arkansas Libraries MULN 223 E

365 North McIlroy Avenue

Fayetteville, AR 72701-4002

Voice: 479-409-0021

Fax: 479-575-4592

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