Pear Tree

[altivo]

Pear Tree
Originally uploaded by Altivo

I've been meaning to post this one all week, so here it is.

This Beurre Bosc pear tree is about six years old now. Two years ago it had a handful of flowers and produced a single pear. This year it has finally produced full blossom. Unfortunately, between the colony collapse disorder which has reduced the US honeybee population drastically and the fact that a companion pear tree of another type didn't survive, chances of actual fruit are vanishingly small. The next closest pear tree is about a half mile away as far as we know. Taken on Friday, May 9, 2008.

The bee thing is kinda scary. Outside my window at work there's a crabapple tree that has been loaded with pink blossoms for at least a week. I've been watching for honeybees, and I think I've seen two. A few bumblebees, who do pollinate but aren't as efficient and thorough as the honeybee. A few other insects who may or may not really pollinate the flowers. Like 'em or not, folks, we need the bees. Food crops like squash, pumpkins, okra, beans, and most fruit trees absolutely require pollination, often with pollen from a different individual plant in order to bear fruit. Something (and I'm very much afraid it's a reaction to genetically modified crop pollen) is completely destroying the honeybee colonies. (You can read reams about it by looking up "colony collapse disorder" but so far no one really knows what the actual cause is.)

Bees eat pollen, especially when they are in their larval stage. Some of the GM crops have genes inserted to produce the same toxin that Bacillus thuringiensis makes. That toxin kills caterpillars of the moth and butterfly variety. I don't know what it might do to bee larvae, but we may be finding out right now.

Rachel Carson, in her book Silent Spring, predicted that humans would eventually poison the natural balance by overusing pesticides, thereby destroying the pollinator species, and triggering crop failures on a massive scale. She may have been right about the results without guessing correctly at the mechanism.

Comments

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Neil Gaiman just blogged to the effect that he and a friend keep bees so that his plum trees have bees around when they're flowering. There's a film on his blog at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/drunken-air-part-two.html.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yup. That's one reason we were keeping beehives here until Gary developed his violent allergy to stings. It makes an amazing difference. Our garden was never so productive, but on the other hoof even I had to be cautious when working out there because it was constantly swarming with bees.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

I remember that now about your bees. It's a pity about the allergy (I'm sure Gary think that too).

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

These nasty little things are also to blame, at least partially.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_mite

I did a report on those back in high school... REALLY bad little bug.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're right, Varroa is a nasty parasite. Unfortunately, I can't believe that it has caused this on its own. We've had Varroa in North America for years. Beekeepers have fairly effective means of keeping it under control. Also, some strains of bees have been developing a resistance to it.

The parasite has a number of weaknesses that allow it to be reduced by non-chemical means. For instance, it tends to infect the drones sooner and in larger numbers. By inserting brood combs sized for drone larvae into the hive, and then removing them when they are capped over to prevent them from maturing, the Varroa population in a hive can be greatly reduced. Since most hives produce far more drones than they need, this is a practical method.

Replacing the bottom board of the hive with screening or a two layer "trap" that has a sticky surface like flypaper about a half inch below a screen also will remove a lot of the mites without the need for chemicals. It seems they drop off bees and reattach to new hosts as worker bees enter the hive. When they drop off, they fall through a screen this way and can't get back to the live bees.

a good post going on here

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

fingers crossed for a pear crop. We are avidly awaiting the blossom on our young pear tree but it looks as if we will have to wait another year yet.

We have oopins of bees of all varieties here but will not become complaisant and we never use pesticides except for slug repellent.

Re: a good post going on here

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We've had more butterflies in recent years, I think, but the bees have been declining for a while. It was hard to judge when we were keeping half a dozen hives ourselves, but when I mention this to other people they are generally in agreement. No one is seeing bees this spring the way they expect to.

[footpad.livejournal.com]

Erratum: Silent Spring is by Rachel Carson.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right. That's what I get for writing when I'm half asleep. Corrected immediately.

[hrrunka]

There's been a bit of concern about CCD over this side of the Pond too. So far the Varroa mite seems to be attracting the most suspicion, but I'd have thought they'd have managed to confirm its part by now it it was a major contributory factor...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes. I don't believe that Varroa alone accounts for this. The mites were already endemic here for years, and while they certainly can wipe out a colony, usually other colonies will survive. Whatever is happening now is a much more virulent effect.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

If you saw "The Bee Movie" they showed what would happen if the bees stopped helping polinate.

That's a very pretty scene there with the pear tree :) All green and wildflowers ^.^ Just the place for a kitty to chase butterflies.

I had no idea this was happening in the US but kitty subscribes to this theory

"One of the patterns reported by the group at Penn State was that all producers in a preliminary survey noted a period of "extraordinary stress" affecting the colonies in question prior to their die-off, most commonly involving poor nutrition and/or drought.This is the only factor that all of the cases of CCD had in common in this report; accordingly, there is at least some significant possibility that the phenomenon is correlated to nutritional stress, and may not manifest in healthy, well-nourished colonies. This is similar to the findings of a later independent survey, in which small-scale beekeeping operations (up to 500 colonies) in several states reported their belief that malnutrition and/or weak colonies was the factor responsible for their bees dying, in over 50% of the cases, whether the losses were believed to be due to CCD or not."

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The problem with that theory is that CCD symptoms have emerged en masse all over North America. Those causes would be much more varied and local.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I hear that they're shipping Australian Bees over to America.

What could cause CCD to show up en masse all over North America? Convergent evolution?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Doesn't take convergent evolution, it just takes some kind of widespread human activity that has changed. Like the way widespread use of DDT in the 40s caused serious drops in the population of raptor birds all at once in the 50s, for instance.

Things that affect the ecological balance are often small yet they tilt a long lever that makes something huge pop out of place elsewhere.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I don't get it I'm pretty sure Australia uses GM crops as well *scratches his head*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly, but they may not be the same crops. How much maize is planted there, for instance? It makes up a huge percentage of the agricultural output here. Strains that were modified to produce BT toxin are now widespread, and bees do collect pollen from corn tassels.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

So the decline in bee population might be down to GM crops? Could it be that we've screwed outselves again? GM crops were introduced to allow crops to be more productive and feed more people and this prevent starvation. I've got a mad here; how about we as a species stop breeding quite so much? It'll have the same effect without killing things and who knows we might even see some enviornmental benefits.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You and I think very much alike, but we already knew that. ;D There are way too many humans on the planet now, and absolutely no need to keep increasing the population.

I can't say that CCD is definitely caused by GM crops, that's just one possibility that hasn't yet been disproved. The fact that CCD seems to have erupted so abruptly here in the US just a few years after the widespread and uncontrolled expansion of GM crops, though, seems very suspect to me. There had already been studies suggesting that GM maize had a negative effect on butterfly populations, and might put the Monarch at actual risk, but of course money wins out every time in the US. Lots of money was backing the expansion of GM crops, and big business always gets its way here.

We as consumers aren't even allowed to know whether the food we eat contains GM organisms or not, because the politicians and corporations didn't want us to be aware.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I think food which is GM free is labeled here. How it is possible to guarantee this, when pollen is airborne and cross contamination possible, I have no idea. I am quite convinced that our love of money will be the end of us. I was watching the movie screenplay of James Fenimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" last night. One scene stood out in particular. When Magua offered to sell the British officer for gold; he was asked by the Huron chief (in a round about way) what possible use he could have for gold. He was asked if this greed would inevitably lead to him desiring more land than strictly needed to sustain himself. He was ask if he, like the white man, would take more than he needed from the forest. Killing everything for furs until there is nothing left.

The profit motive is instinctive to all animals, and survival does depend on one making more than one consumes. However this always has ben looked at objectively, and some sort of balance achieved. The extremes to which humanity take the profit urge are deeply unsettling to me.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Labeling is optional here, which means that only those who plan to double or triple their price because of the "GM free" label are willing to go to the trouble of ensuring the content. Since nearly everything contains either corn or soy (including virutally all the meats) we have to assume at this point that the entire food supply is GM.

I agree with you entirely on the subject of greed. There is nothing I find more despicable than a hyper-wealthy individual sitting in the middle of a huge web designed to draw in even more wealth, none of which is used for any purpose other than to multiply that wealth further. The old dragon myths were true, I fear.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Reading this thread and drawing my own conclusions, I can only say...

This does not bode well for us. Loss of bees means loss of crops and the need to create varieties of grain,
fruit trees, berries and so on... This sounds like a vicious cycle that only leads towards one end.
I hope the collapse of the ecosystem won't be too violent. At least I probably won't be there to witness it,
but I feel sorry for the later generations and all the fauna. :(

Money or no money, GM is bad, M'Kay?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well I'm not sure GM is always or inevitably bad. But I do say it should be understood much more completely before being put into widespread use as has been done with the BT strains and the "Roundup-ready" crops.

After all, we have practiced genetic manipulation for millennia. First it was strictly by selection, which gave us the incredibly diverse dog breeds and a great many of our widely used food crops. Then it was by hybridization, which gave us the mule and clever things like seedless melons or wilt-resistant tomato plants. But each of those methods still didn't go as far or allow such extreme modification as today's gene-splicing techniques. I don't think we understand what we are doing well enough to do it safely. We're like children playing with military weapons in this.

[dogteam.livejournal.com]

It's the speed.
Hybridization allowed breeders to weed out undesirable strains as they appeared and allow the beneficial (on the surface, at least) variations to continue. GM allows for quantum leaps...hundreds of years of selective breeding compressed into practically nothing.
With irresponsible breeders, about the worst you end up with is unfortunate things like Pugs and Teacup Chihuahuas.

Let's hope that they haven't already unleased something lethal. I think that ultimately GM will be our undoing. Nature is resiliant, but we've finally found a way to outpace her.

[dogteam.livejournal.com]

I have to amend that glib comment.
Even supposedly "responsible" breeding can have unforseen results.
One of our black labs has tested positive as a carrier for EIC (Exercise Induced Collapse). It won't affect her, but we have to be careful to breed her only to a male who is EIC free. Difficult, because 1) the test is not yet available, we were part of a test study and 2) early results indicate that 60% or more of hunting stock is either affected or a carrier. This could devestate the breed.

I urge anyone who has labs to have their dog checked when the test comes out later this year.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Pugs and Teacup Chihuahuas are certainly unfortunate. ;p [And I can tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one.]

Speed is the issue all right. Not so much the speed with which remarkable results are attained as the speed with which they have been multiplied and propagated over the landscape. That's where the real damage lies. In the US, more and more, it has been just "Monsanto says it's safe, so that's good enough." No real examination of the potential problems or risks, just "good enough."

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Could it be that we've screwed outselves again?

You ask it as if anything else could be responsible when humans suffer from something >_> Aside from natural forces, how many things have humans suffered from that could NOT be traced back to us?