In These New Times

And we continue to bang the drum, but nobody is listening. Humans seem to be strangely detached from a crisis that is a threat to our existence.

The Irish Examiner

Damien Enright says the decline of the bee may spell the end of our survival

LAST weekend, my brother-in-law, a semi-retired west Cork farmer, who spends more time with his horses than his cows, was telling me how his father and their neighbours used to attract the swarms of wild bees that often passed over the fields in summer. 

Tin cans banged together had the magical effect of bringing the swarm down. Once it had alighted, a sheet was thrown over it, and at nightfall, a turkey’s wing feather was used to gently sweep the worker bees to one side and reach the queen. She was then transferred into a butter-box and the swarm followed through the hole in the side “like water going down a plughole”. These farmers never got stung so long as they were gentle with the bees. 

The butter-boxes didn’t contain the ‘frames’ provided in purpose-built hives, however once the swarm had used the box for two seasons, another box was placed on top, with an aperture through which it could be reached and, in this, the wild bees made combs which could be extracted.

On sunny days, the drones would lie about, basking in the sun, while the workers industriously flew back and forth delivering nectar and pollen to the butter-box hive. He and his childhood friends made it their business to put an end to these parasites and their idle ways. Squashed drones, no more sun-bathing!

Meanwhile, my wife’s sister told me that she had had bees in the soffit above her front door for three years running and didn’t mind until this year when they became aggressive and attacked visitors. She tried to find a bee-keeper who’d welcome the legendary “hive in June, worth a silver spoon”, but couldn’t find a taker and, with regret, had a bee-exterminator come in. He told her he’d had only two call-outs this year. Wild bee swarms were now rare where once they were commonplace. I recalled Einstein’s remark that if the bees disappeared, “Man would have only four years of life left”.

According to a recent survey published in the journal, Science, bees and the wild flowers they pollinate have declined significantly in northern Europe. The authors suggest that intensive farming, pesticides and the loss of wild habitats may be causing the alarming decline.

Bees are essential for pollinating many commercially important crops and fruiting trees. The global economic value of pollination is estimated at €25 billion to €62bn per year. This free pollination service which we take for granted could now be at risk. Endangered is not only the survival of many countryside flowers but food plant pollination too. This raises the concern that Einstein’s apocalyptic prediction could come true.

In Britain, it has been noted that where bee populations and bee species diversity has fallen, wildflowers requiring insect pollination have declined by 70%, while the survival of wind-pollinated and self-pollinating species have been unaffected.

Some scientists put forward the theory that radiation given off by hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to the mystery of the abrupt disappearance of bees; if true, I wonder if such radiation might be relevant in the worldwide decline of frogs. It suggests that our love affair with instant and constant communication via mobile phones could usher in massive food shortages as the world’s harvests fail.

The theory is that mobile phone radiation interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing them from finding their way back to their hives. Evidence is emerging to support the theory. It has been long established that bees respond to electromagnetic radiation and that their behaviour changes near power lines. Now, a limited study at a German university has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby.

The failure of a bee colony, know as colony collapse disorder (CCD) occurs when the inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and adolescent workers behind. The vanished bees are never found; it is likely that they die singly, lost and far from home. Meanwhile, the wildlife and other insects that opportunistically raid the honey and pollen left behind when a swarm dies will go nowhere near the abandoned hives.

I see farmers driving up and down fields in their tractors spending half their time on their mobile phones. But it’s a lonely job, and I suppose they enjoy the buzz of conversation.