The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), representing more than 30,000 occupational safety, health and environmental (SH&E) professionals, is alerting its members about the rapid growth of the harmful, aggressive Africanized Honey Bees (AHBs) in the U.S., their negative impact on European Honey Bees (EHBs) and agriculture and on workplace safety.
Garden City officials approved an ordinance regulating beekeeping, but some residents are still upset with those who don’t follow the city’s strict rules.
Honeybees in Alaska appear to be thriving — with no sign of the population collapse that’s threatening both bees and crops in much of the U.S. — and local beekeeper Joe Carson thinks he knows why.
Summer brings bug bites and bee stings that may be annoying but no big deal for most people. Still, it can be nerve wracking for up to 5 percent of the population who are very allergic to bee venom. Their reaction can become more severe each time they are stung. Insect stings send up to a million people to emergency rooms each year.
The “colony collapse disorder” that has alarmed beekeepers and agricultural experts all over the United States is, in all likelihood, a normal variation on problems already known to plague North American honeybees, one expert says. It is not a new and mysterious syndrome.
A single ant or bee isn’t smart, but their colonies are. The study of swarm intelligence is providing insights that can help humans manage complex systems, from truck routing to military robots.
Last month, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced the Pollinator Protection and Research Act of 2007, to boost state and federal research efforts to resolve the cause of massive honey bee losses, labeled as colony collapse disorder. Word from bee industry experts on last Friday was that no funds were included in the first Farm Bill draft from the House Ag Committee.
Florida Officials have seen signs of Africanized honey bees in the past, but state agriculture officials want residents to be on the lookout after an elevated number of the dangerous bees has been recorded.
The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision in a case over the importation of Australian honey and bee products. The National Beekeepers Association has appealed a High Court decision allowing imports, as it fears they could introduce new bee diseases.
California legislation intended to keep commercial bees from seedless mandarin groves passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee after being “tweaked” to protect the growers’ “right-to-farm.”
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