New Report Warns That Bees Are Still Collapsing At An Economically Unsustainable Rate

Fewer honeybees died over the winter that just ended than in previous ones, although bees are still dying at a rate that is not economically sustainable, according to a new federal report published Thursday.

The new survey, issued by the U.S Department of Agriculture and the Bee Informed Partnership, found that nationwide losses of managed honeybee populations from all causes was down to 23.2%, a close to 7% drop from the winter before when death rates were at 30.5%. Over the past eight years, beekepers have reported average winter losses of 29.6%

That's still no reason to celebrate. Beekeepers say that they lose money each year that losses exceed 18.9%, according to the USDA.

Honeybee die-offs have been blamed on a combination of factors, including pesticides, disease, parasites, poor nutrition, bad weather, and the stress of being trucked from orchard-to-orchard to pollinate different crops. Colony collapse disorder, a mysterious phenomenon in which bees vanish from their hives, may be triggered by one or a number of these pressures.

"Yearly fluctuations in the rate of losses like these only demonstrate how complicated the whole issue of honey bee heath has become," Jeff Pettis, co-author of the survey and leader of the government's bee research laboratory in Maryland.

The report comes on the heels of a Harvard study that found a strong link between the most widely used class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, and colony collapse disorder. Some scientists have dismissed the report, taking issue with the small sample size (only 18 colonies were tested) and noting that the pesticides used to treat the colonies were not administered to the bees in a way that would be found in nature.

Rather than targeting pesticides, the government report said one of the leading contributors to colony loss is the varroa mite, an Asian bee parasite that first arrived in United States in 1987.

"What is clear from all of our efforts is that varroa is a persistent and often unexpected problem,"Dennis vanEngelsdorp, director of the Bee Informed Partnership and an entomologist at the University of Maryland. "Every beekeeper needs to have an aggressive varroa management plan in place. Without one, they should not be surprised if they suffer large losses every other year or so."

As ;Reuters notes, pesticide companies like Monsanto and Bayer pin the blame on mites, too, adding that "Monsanto-owned BeeLogics, a bee health company, is one of the collaborators in the partnership with USDA."

The survey results are based on self-reported information from 7,200 beekeepers, who represent 21.7% of the country's 2.6 million colonies.