Thats just cruel…. We need bee’s to pollinate plants without them the ecosystem will be destroyed. If someone in my neighborhood was doing that I would dust off my trebuchet I built and start launching eggs at his house !
Have they sprayed for mosquitoes, etc in the area recently? This can wipe out bees and other insects nearby as well.
If they are dying in various places vs one concentrated spot they could be foraging from a food source that has been treated with pesticide, and the poisoning takes longer/repeated exposures to kill them.
If they were nesting in someones home and were sprayed with wasp spray, that would be very close to your home because it kills fast.
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Did this happen in the morning ? Factories tend to release higher levels of toxic chemicals at night time because that goes unnoticed, everyone indoors. Bird kills have been attributed to this.
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If at all possible grab one that’s not quite dead yet, put it in a film canister and put that in the freezer. Should tell them more then an already dead one you picked up would be able to.
Good call on emailing the university, also maybe try calling the universities local extension office directly.
Honey bees dying off en mass is not a new thing. They get displaced, sprayed, or just die. They were most likely displaced by the fires and made a temporary nest (called a bivouac) near someone’s home and somebody sprayed them with pesticide or insect killer. Sad since there is a shortage of honeybees in the US and we absolutely need them. If you see honeybees doing this behavior, call a bee keeper who can safely relocate them by moving the queen bee.
It’s been decades since I read an article about the importance of bees. If they go something line 70–80 of the plants that everything eats goes too.
Like all the stuff livestock and we eat.
Basically it would be a TEOTWAWKI kind of deal.
Hope you find out what happened.
All the Best,
Jeff
Honeybees don’t bother me at all. I once drove through a swarm of them with the windows down and though for sure I’d be mutilated. Not a sting. Plucked them all out of my car and went on my way.
Yellow jackets, on the other hand, think it’s fun to attack me just for walking around. I hate those things and they can all die.
When we say “bee” it’s a very generalized label. Not only are there many kinds of bees, but people tend to lump in wasps as bees. They’re different. Wasps tend to be pests. They have no fear. But… you don’t want them eradicated because they are food for other creatures, plus they do pollinate.
We are in a global crisis. CCD Colony Collapse Disorder is happening all over. Yes, there were warnings in the past about the threats to bees, mostly pesticides. But a lot more is affecting them. They are crucial, essential to over 70% of farming. Their demise would help cause a slow & painful human culling event.
People forget how critical the honey bee is to the world ecosystems. Lots of plants depend on pollinators like honey bees. If they go, scores of plant species go. When the plants are gone, lots of animal species that eat them go with them, including us. Unless we develop billions of pollinating robotic bees to take their place, but I dont foresee that in my lifetime.
Honeybees can get in your face and be annoying, but bumblebees are nice. You could practically pet them and hug them and they’ll sit still and like it.
Had one that must’ve been fighting a headwind on his way home or something, saw him just sitting helpless, not moving. Mixed up a little sugar-water and put a drop in front of him. Poked out his tongue(?) and drank, and drank, and drank. Must’ve rested up and flown off, ’cause a while later he was gone.
No argument here. They’re not even sting-once-then-die, but can sting you over and over and over again, just for fun.
