Imagine a world without bees.
No pesky buzzing, no swatting, no hoping not to be stung.
Now imagine a world without apples, oranges, peaches ... pumpkins. These fruits are among the foods that bees are responsible for directly pollinating.
Indirectly, they pollinate foods such as carrots, clover, alfalfa seeds and soybeans.
In fact, the pollinating insects contribute to one-third of our food production. And, particularly in Morton, they are an important part of pumpkin production.
“Directly or indirectly, they impact everything in the produce department,” said Steve Mayes, owner of Mackinaw Valley Apiaries Inc.
Although it is not uncommon to have a fear of bees, there is more to be concerned about than being stung when it comes to the striped, buzzing insects: their disappearance.
In late 2006, beekeepers in the U.S. began to notice that honey bee colonies were mysteriously dying in large quantities. It was then that this puzzling phenomenon became known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Nearly four years later, the direct cause remains a mystery.
Mayes said he feels frustrated and helpless when it comes to the successive years of increased bee mortality.
“I lost 60 percent of my hives last winter and 80 the year before,” Mayes said. “It’s become quite a burden for my business.”
Mayes runs about 400 hives, which produce about 42,000 pounds of honey each year.
Mayes confirmed the culprit is unknown, but believes it is “multifaceted.”
“It’s a very serious problem,” he said. “Researchers are still looking for causes. There’s nothing we can do until we figure out what is causing this.”
The decline has been attributed to factors such as urbanization, climate changes, pesticides, malnutrition, varroa mites and Nosema Cereana, which according to Mayes, is a protozoa that lives in the stomach of bees and eats away the epithelial lining.
In July 2009, the first annual report of the U.S. Colony Collapse Disorder Steering Committee was published. In the report, the committee, led by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, also suggests that colony collapse may be caused by many factors, or the interaction of a combination of many factors.
A crop with roots in Morton that could feel the impact of CCD is pumpkin. Last year’s pumpkin shortage was attributed to inclimate weather, however the growing absence of bees could lead to another shortage of the crop that Morton is famous for.
“Our shortages of Libby’s pumpkin were directly related to the record rainfall last year,” said Nestle representative Roz O’Hern. “That said, we do recognize that there are issues with the health of the honey bee population.”
