Decline in bees leaves US stung

AMERICAN scientists are alarmed over the extensive decline in the numbers of the humble bumblebee.

The bees are responsible for pollinating an estimated 15% of all the crops grown in the US, worth $3 billion (€2.13bn), particularly those raised in greenhouses.

Demand is growing as the number of honeybees decline. In the wild, birds and bears depend on bumblebees for berries and fruits.

A recent US National Academy of Sciences report blames a combination of habitat lost to housing developments and intensive agriculture, pesticides, pollution and diseases spilling out of greenhouses using commercial bumblebee hives. Neal Williams, assistant professor of biology at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, said: “We haven’t been diligent the way we need to be.”

Scientists have lobbied Congress for research money and incentives to leave uncultivated land for habitat. They also want farmers to grow more flowering plants on which native bees feed.

“We are smart enough to deal with this,” said Laurie Adams, executive director of the Pollinator Partnership.

Companies in Europe, Israel and Canada adapted bumblebees to commercial use in the early 1990s, and they are now standard in greenhouses raising tomatoes and peppers.

Scientists researching the decline recently identified a previously unknown virus, but stress that parasitic mites, pesticides and poor nutrition are all suspects.

Unlike honeybees, bumblebees are native to the continent. They collect pollen and nectar to feed to their young, but make very little honey.

A huge problem facing scientists is how “appallingly little we know about our pollinating resources,” said University of Illinois entomology professor May Berenbaum, who headed the report.