Posts Tagged ‘nature’

Is the Solution to Colony Collapse Disorder Getting Near?

Apr 27, 2009 Environmental News

It’s been a while since I’ve written about colony collapse disorder. It’s still out there, still a very scary thing, but I hadn’t seen much interesting news on it. But today I came across two stories on it and the work being done to solve it.

For those unfamiliar with colony collapse disorder, it’s a condition where bee colonies suddenly die off. The bees generally do not die at the colony itself, making it difficult to find out what’s wrong. Given how important bees are, it’s a topic worth paying attention to.

The first is from Science Daily. They quote a study published in Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports that treating two bee colonies for Nosema ceranae allowed the depleted colonies to recover. They found no other pathogens in those colonies to account for their initial collapse.

The second is from Scientific American. It’s a much longer report, and indicates that it is more likely that a wide range of conditions have come together to cause colony collapse disorder. This part, from page 2 of the article I found particularly interesting:

One of us (vanEngelsdorp) performed autopsies on Hackenberg’s remaining insects and found symptoms never observed before, such as scar tissue in the internal organs. Initial tests also detected some of the usual suspects in bee disease. In the gut contents we found spores of nosema, single-celled fungal parasites that can cause bee dysentery. The spore counts in these and in subsequent samples, however, were not high enough to explain the losses. Molecular analysis of Hackenberg’s bees, performed by the other of us (Cox-Foster), also revealed surprising levels of viral infections of various known types. But no single pathogen found in the insects could explain the scale of the disappearance.

In other words, the bees were all sick, but each colony seemed to suffer from a different combination of diseases. We hypothesized that something had compromised the bees’ immune system, making them susceptible to any number of infections that healthy colonies would normally fend off.

Considering how much farming has changed in recent years, that hypothesis doesn’t sound at all unreasonable to me. So much of what is done in farming now really isn’t tested well enough in my opinion, especially in combination with all the other new factors.

Pesticides plus GMO plus different fertilizers… then there’s the notion on page 3 that poor nutrition due to a lack of variety in the wildflowers that bees can pollinate. Makes me regret my weed-filled lawn rather less.

As individuals there are certain things we can do. Organic gardening and planting a range of local wildflowers should be the obvious things on the list. Same for talking with our wallets – buying more organic and from producers we trust.

And any time you see a chance to encourage others to do likewise, or if you see a chance to be politically active on environmental topics, do so. This is one of many areas we need to improve our treatment of the environment for our own sakes as well as for the rest of the planet.

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Sharing a Nest

Apr 24, 2009 Eco Friendly Parenting

My husband and daughter made a fun discovery on the walk to school last week – a huge crow’s nest that had blown down in the heavy winds the day before.

They took it to her class, to her classmates’ and teacher’s delight. It took my husband several minutes to get away. Something about bringing a nest that is about a foot and a half in diameter into a room full of first graders makes a man really popular. Maybe even more so than bringing a baby into the room.

That nest is still making the rounds at her school. We thought we’d be picking it up today, but it’s gone out to yet another teacher. We don’t mind, as all we want to do with it is drop it in the field to decompose as it would have if it hadn’t been discovered. It gets a bit smaller as it goes, just due to the wear and tear from being passed around. It’s been in at least 3 classrooms so far.

My daughter’s class had a lot of fun exploring the bits of eggshell that were still in the nest.

My one regret will be if we don’t get a picture of my daughter with the nest. That’s the one disadvantage to it being found on the way TO school. With a bit of luck we’ll see it again someday and it might still be in good enough condition to take a picture of my daughter holding it. She’s so proud of that find.

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Head Out on a Family Hike

May 28, 2008 Eco Friendly Parenting, Going Green

One of the things my family loves to do is hike together. It’s very relaxing and good exercise. We are very fortunate to have some fields within walking distance to go hiking at.

A family hike is a great way to encourage your kids to explore nature. On one of our first hikes in these fields, the grass was just covered in ladybugs. I mean hundreds of them. The kids had a blast and we took some home to feast on the aphids that had taken over the rosebush.

The rosebush is much grateful, buy the looks of things.

Every time we go the kids find something interesting to explore. There are some very steep hills to climb – fortunately with less challenging paths for the way down. I’ve always found downhill more nerve wracking than up when it’s a steep hill. The kids of course think that hill is a treat, for all they need help getting to the top.

We’ve found fuzzy black caterpillars. My daughter is learning to identify local plants. All around, it’s just a good thing.

Even if you don’t have a good place to hike within walking distance of your house, find some place fairly local for doing that. It’s really fun and a great addition to your family’s routine.

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