'Something real bad is going on': Hundreds of millions of bees have died over the past eight months.

[Tonk]

"The data is showing us this is the worst bee loss in recorded history," Blake Shook, who is one of the top beekeepers.

Bees are critical to the world's food supply. In the United States, they pollinate 75 percent of the fruits, nuts, and vegetables we consume. However, their populations have plunged by 40-50% in recent years. The last eight months have been a stunning and unexplained disaster where hundreds of millions of bees have perished from unknown causes.

CBS writes:

"If this is a multi-year thing, it'll change the way we consume food in the United States," Shook said. "If we lose 80% of our bees every year, the industry cannot survive, which means we cannot pollinate at the scale that we need to produce food in the United States."

One example is almonds. With honeybees pollinating them, almond trees produce two to three thousand pounds of almonds per acre, Shook said. Without that pollination, almond trees produce only 200 pounds of nuts per acre.

"There is no almond crop without honeybees," Shook said.

Ecowatch:

The high rate of decline is more than record reductions in 2024 and is on its way to being the “biggest loss of honeybee colonies in U.S. history,” said Scott McArt, a Cornell University associate professor of entomology, as The Guardian reported.

When beekeepers who did not participate in the survey were factored in, an additional $206.4 million was estimated to have been lost.

“Something real bad is going on this year,” McArt said. “We have been seeing high losses year after year but if anything it is getting worse, which is troubling. Some places are having devastating losses and there was a shortfall in pollination in some almond orchards this year. Whether these impacts will cascade to other crops remains to be seen, it’s certainly possible.”

The USDA, which researched bee populations and this year's honeybee deaths, saw its staffing slashed by Donald Trump. The cuts were so deep that Cornell University stepped in to help with the looming food crisis.

Cornell bee experts are analyzing samples of bees and related material to help identify the cause of unprecedented managed honeybee losses this winter.

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The Bee Research Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland, has collected samples of honeybees, wax, pollen and honey from dead and living hives. The government facility is now testing samples for parasites (such as varroa mites) and viruses. But due to government staffing cuts and the high expense involved with testing samples for pesticides, USDA staff and commercial beekeepers approached McArt to see if the Cornell Chemical Ecology Core Facility (of which McArt is director) could handle pesticide analyses.

“The USDA lab has had cuts, so they simply can’t do a quick turnaround for these pesticide results. And at the same time, it’s very expensive for them,” McArt said.

Elizabeth Hilburn, who may be the only "bee vet," weighs in on what might happen to bees. She writes in The Guardian.

I have clients who have worked with bees for a long time. They say: “I’m seeing brown larvae, it doesn’t smell right, can you come look?” I suit up and I look at their healthy hives first – I’m examining the whole area, looking at bees coming and going, getting a sense of how they look. Then we go to the ones we suspect to be diseased. To avoid stings, I go in there quietly and respectfully, and that makes the bees comfortable. A common disease is European foulbrood. You can often smell it – it’s almost sweet and musky.

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The jetstream is much less stable than it used to be. For example, last February was really warm, and wild bees were coming out of hibernation and there was nothing there for them to eat. This is one of the leading risks to bee health – this mismatch in timing. They need access to flowers, but the flowers are not out. This is a huge stressor on animal populations in general.

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Honeybees are protected from some environmental pressures because we house them, we feed them, we care for them. It is the wild bees I’m extremely worried about: they don’t have anyone to care for them – they depend on how well the environment is supporting them. I’m concerned about the erratic weather; we have some trends which make it very difficult for honeybees and wild bees.

I feel like every bee is so precious now, especially early in the year. That is often when the wild bee queens are out and may be distressed. And by saving her, that can save a whole colony. So there’s a lot resting on that one bee: if I can help her, I will.