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Why are honeybees disappearing? · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the Reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know
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Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Bryant. This
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Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know? Oh and hey Jerry, Sorry, Jerry.
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Speaker 1: Jerry is the unsung hero heroin Yes, a little horse
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Speaker 1: for a little monkey? Why it's an old Mr Science
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Speaker 1: Theater three thousand long? Oh you through there? I thought
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Speaker 1: she had a little horse and a little monkey or
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Speaker 1: something under her. Wo be like, Jerry, what do you
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Speaker 1: tell me? A little horse and a little bit a
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Speaker 1: pony and a macaque with her? So? Uh yeah, that's
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Speaker 1: how we're starting this one. Why not? Okay, all right, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: I have a pretty decent intro this time. Well let's
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Speaker 1: hear it then. Have you ever heard of the lost
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Speaker 1: Colony of roan Oak? I have, but I would like
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Speaker 1: you too. You fill us in? Thank you. So back
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Speaker 1: in the I think seventeenth century the early seventeenth century,
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Speaker 1: Roanoke was one of the very first colonies, if not
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Speaker 1: the first American colony right um in what is now
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Speaker 1: North Carolina, Virginia, right, um. And it was thriving for
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Speaker 1: a little while. They had a nice little four and
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Speaker 1: they used to fight with the Native Americans and you know,
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Speaker 1: pretty normal early American colonial stuff. Right. So, like I said,
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Speaker 1: everything is going happily along. And then about two years
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Speaker 1: after the colony is established, an expedition bringing supplies comes
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Speaker 1: along and they find the thing totally abandoned, no sign
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Speaker 1: of life. I don't believe there is any dead bodies
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Speaker 1: or bones, um. And the only trace of anything was
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Speaker 1: the word crow a town carved into one of the
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Speaker 1: posts that made up the fort. You're kidding, And I
2:00
Speaker 1: think there were some There was there was a local
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Speaker 1: tribe called the crow Towan, but they were nowhere to
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Speaker 1: be found. Isn't it very creepy? This whole colony law
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Speaker 1: just vanished. I thought you can say wolverines was spray
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Speaker 1: painted on the front of it. But the they think
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Speaker 1: now that they may have been absorbed by another tribe,
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Speaker 1: the Lumbi, which actually um were completely alien to whites
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Speaker 1: until I think the early eighteenth century, very late, like
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Speaker 1: several decades after the colony at Roanoke vanish, right, um.
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Speaker 1: And when the Whites didn't counter and they said Hey, um,
2:40
Speaker 1: why does some of you look kind of white? And
2:42
Speaker 1: why are you building two story thatch houses like we
2:44
Speaker 1: have in England? Right? You know, how do you know
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Speaker 1: how to read the Bible? Right? Um? With this ball? Exactly?
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Speaker 1: They think so they think that the Lumbie tribe absorbed
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Speaker 1: the colonists at Rohanu. Wow, but that is among the
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Speaker 1: very few lost colonies of human history. I'll tell you
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Speaker 1: another species that has tons of lost colonies. Bees, dude,
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Speaker 1: best set up ever? Really, yeah, of course, really really good. Yes, Josh,
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Speaker 1: we are here today to talk about colony collapse disorder
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Speaker 1: because bees are disappearing at an alarming rate, much like
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Speaker 1: the people of the rowan Oute colony. Right, and Chuck,
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Speaker 1: I think that probably most of the people who listen
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Speaker 1: to our podcast said, why do I care that bees
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Speaker 1: are disappearing? I hate bees? They sting me and they
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Speaker 1: they chase me in my dreams. You know, you know
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Speaker 1: why I do? Why you want me to tell them?
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Speaker 1: Because bees are vital to almost any kind of vegetation
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Speaker 1: you can eat. And not only that. Let's say you're like,
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Speaker 1: I don't need vegetables I eat and meat? Did you know? Here?
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Speaker 1: Let me let me give you a little scenario that
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Speaker 1: was posed in this article take the almond population. Let's
3:59
Speaker 1: for example, my new favorite nut, as you know, is
4:01
Speaker 1: the almond chucks. Crazy about all they're so good for you. Um.
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Speaker 1: Beekeepers basically go to California every year with about forty
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Speaker 1: billion honey bees too, uh, pollinate the almond crop every February.
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Speaker 1: Every February, and over those few weeks of the world's
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Speaker 1: almond crop is pollinated and about a billion dollars in
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Speaker 1: exports are generated. So you might think, okay, well, I
4:28
Speaker 1: don't eat almonds either, tough guy. Those almonds the almond
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Speaker 1: holes are sold as cattle feed. Part of the cattle feed.
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Speaker 1: They're also crushed as shells for bedding for livestock, and
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Speaker 1: the dust, almond dust is collected as an additive to
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Speaker 1: the top soil, so that hamburger has almond juice running
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Speaker 1: through it, which has bee juice running through it. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: and that's just almonds. Yeah. I think a total of
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Speaker 1: fifteen billion dollars worth of agricultural products are pollinated by
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Speaker 1: commercial honey bees every year, every year, and we s
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Speaker 1: that bees are disappearing. Um, mostly it's honey bees that
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Speaker 1: are disappearing. Under the colony claps disorder, right, chuck, Yeah, specifically,
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Speaker 1: that's what we're worried about. So it is important obviously
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Speaker 1: honey bees are kept happy and healthy and um that
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Speaker 1: they not mysteriously vanished without a trace. Yeah, it's not
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Speaker 1: just about honey, folks. Let's although honey is delicious, it
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Speaker 1: is delicious and nutrition. Let's talk about what colony claps
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Speaker 1: disorder is, chuckers, Okay, uh, I think they. I think
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Speaker 1: Jessica Toothman said in this article that attrition rates in
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Speaker 1: a bee colony is normal because bees do have wings
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Speaker 1: and they will fly away, and about is an average
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Speaker 1: of what you're looking for. I think it's like an
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Speaker 1: average maximum average maxim because I mean, when you let
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Speaker 1: the bees out go pollinate, some are just gonna be like,
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Speaker 1: I like this colony or I think I'm going to
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Speaker 1: um go hit the road with Neil Cassidy or something. Right.
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Speaker 1: You know, they don't always come back, that's true. Uh,
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Speaker 1: And so starting as early as two thousand two, but
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Speaker 1: really in two thousand six is when it really really peaked,
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Speaker 1: or not peaked, but when it really showed its ugly face.
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Speaker 1: The bees started leaving and not coming back. At it,
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Speaker 1: and we suspect dying at a rate of anywhere from
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Speaker 1: thirty that's huge. And do you remember you said a
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Speaker 1: minute ago that every February about forty billion bees. That's
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Speaker 1: in just one million hives. So if of a hive
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Speaker 1: is dying off or it is a lot of bees,
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Speaker 1: the just one hive, which we should probably specify, is
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Speaker 1: virtually interchangeable with the word colony. Hi, haven't call any
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Speaker 1: same thing. Yeah, you know what's creepy? What is sometimes
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Speaker 1: when they when they come back and they see the
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Speaker 1: all the vs the bees are gone. Sometimes you'll just
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Speaker 1: see the queen and larvae and a few younger bees
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Speaker 1: and that's it. And they're like, where's everybody gone? And
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Speaker 1: maybe crow uh, what's over it again? Croat? Maybe crowatons
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Speaker 1: like scrawled into the bee hive in honey. Yeah. Um,
6:57
Speaker 1: so yeah, that's colony cleps disorder most of the most
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Speaker 1: of the time, it's the workers are just gone vanished,
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Speaker 1: or at least of them, right, um. And what I
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Speaker 1: guess another kind of interesting and almost unsettling aspect is
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Speaker 1: that when a when a bee hive gets abandoned and
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Speaker 1: all its left is like the queen and some larvae
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Speaker 1: and and especially when there's tons of honey in it, moths, um,
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Speaker 1: other kinds of bees, wasps, any other insect with the
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Speaker 1: taste for sweet, sweet honey, beetle vades it immediately. Not
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Speaker 1: so with colonies that have been hit by colony collapse disorder. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: they wait a few days, right, Yeah they do. That's creepy.
7:37
Speaker 1: It's real creepy. That'd be like leaving some steak out
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Speaker 1: in the hot sun in July and they're being like
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Speaker 1: no flies or animals buzzing around right until like the
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Speaker 1: following Thursday. That's really creepy. Yeah, and it definitely gives
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Speaker 1: you an idea that something serious is up, right, So
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Speaker 1: we have mystery, mystery, mystery, tons of bees dying or vanishing. Um.
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Speaker 1: And like you said, check, this really stepped up. Been
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Speaker 1: two thousand and six, seven and eight, right, and it's
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Speaker 1: still going on. From what I understand, this is not
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Speaker 1: the first time that this happened though, Yeah, you said
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Speaker 1: it was the worst case ever. Was when it's not
8:10
Speaker 1: the worst. I think this is the worst case ever.
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Speaker 1: But before it's been pretty bad. Uh uh. In Pennsylvania,
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Speaker 1: um beekeepers reported fifty three percent of their hives just
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Speaker 1: knocked out. Spanish gone um or dead. Uh. We have
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Speaker 1: um mysterious bee hive abandonments uh dating back to the
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighties, the early twentieth century. Um. And in nineteen
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Speaker 1: oh three in Utah, Uh, two thousand colonies were mysteriously lost. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: just gone. So this isn't if you'll notice it's Utah,
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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania here or there. You know, with colony collapse disorder,
8:51
Speaker 1: it's spread around. There's there's there's evidence of it in Australia,
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Speaker 1: in Europe, in the US. Yeah. Actually Australia said they've
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Speaker 1: been doing Okay, okay, well there's evidence of it in
9:02
Speaker 1: not Australia, but the US I apologize. Australia did say
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Speaker 1: they had reported. But things seem to be back on
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Speaker 1: track in Australia, So you were right? Should I say
9:12
Speaker 1: it again? Now you just smack me? All right? So
9:15
Speaker 1: chuck the apiarists? You like that? Very nice? This is
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Speaker 1: another word for beekeeper are getting a little bit concerned.
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Speaker 1: It's widespread, the numbers are high. It's mysterious. What possibly
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Speaker 1: is going on here? Well they're not quite sure, Josh.
9:31
Speaker 1: That's why it's a little distressing. I know this mystery
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Speaker 1: of the vanishing. They do have some ideas, and after
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Speaker 1: reading this article and a few other UH supplementary articles,
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Speaker 1: my belief is that it's a combination of factors. It's
9:43
Speaker 1: probably not one thing. Yeah, And actually the U s
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Speaker 1: D A Steering committee on Colony collapse disorder, it's a mouthful.
9:51
Speaker 1: They just released their first UM, I guess white paper
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Speaker 1: on colony collapse disorder this past July, and they concluded
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Speaker 1: the same thing. I real that there's a bunch of
10:01
Speaker 1: different factors at work. UM. There were some ideas thrown out,
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Speaker 1: like some unknown organism or pathogen was acting them. They
10:08
Speaker 1: said probably not. There's a study done in Germany UM
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Speaker 1: as to whether or not cell phone and cell phone
10:15
Speaker 1: towers were putting off radiation that was screwing with the
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Speaker 1: bees homing abilities and this. Uh. These Germans did that
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Speaker 1: study and they said no, not happening. And apparently the
10:26
Speaker 1: opposite was picked up by the news cycle to the
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Speaker 1: point where the guy who conducted the study wrote the
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Speaker 1: A p. A letter saying we found no link between
10:36
Speaker 1: colony collapse disorder and cell phones. Anybody who says or
10:39
Speaker 1: writes anything else is a liar. But they were linking
10:41
Speaker 1: that and journalists were linking that. Journalists loved it. Link stuff. Yeah,
10:48
Speaker 1: correlative not causative. Let's talk about a couple of these things, Josh, alright,
10:52
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Israeli acute paralysis virus. This seems
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Speaker 1: to be the most important factor. If there's several factors
10:59
Speaker 1: involved in colony claps disorder, this seems like right at
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Speaker 1: the top. I would agree, Uh, just from reading about
11:05
Speaker 1: it. It It is a virus discovered by Israeli scientists in
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Speaker 1: two thousand two, and it causes trembling, paralysis and death
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Speaker 1: and bees, which is it just makes me really sad
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Speaker 1: to think about a trembling paralyzed and then dying. Be
11:19
Speaker 1: What's cool, um, is that they these researchers in the
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Speaker 1: study in two thousand seven, UM, I guess introduced I
11:27
Speaker 1: A p V into some hives and then kept some
11:30
Speaker 1: other ones separate, um, so that they wouldn't become infective.
11:33
Speaker 1: Because honey bees are very social and they frequently interact
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Speaker 1: with bees from other colonies. Um. But they infected them
11:40
Speaker 1: in this greenhouse, creepy, and then as the bees were dying,
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Speaker 1: the researchers noted that the healthy bees were dragging the
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Speaker 1: dead ones to the outskirts of the greenhouse as far
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Speaker 1: away from the high as they could, quarantining these dead bees.
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Speaker 1: It is that seems to me to be a real
11:57
Speaker 1: red flag here. You know what else that when they
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Speaker 1: um studied some there was another study in two thousand
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Speaker 1: and seven that looked at already infected um colony collapse
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Speaker 1: disorder hives and then non CCD hives, and they found
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Speaker 1: that in nineties six point one percent of the infected
12:17
Speaker 1: hives I A p V was present, but it wasn't
12:21
Speaker 1: in any of the non c c D hives. So
12:23
Speaker 1: it's definitely a huge factor that seems like it, but
12:26
Speaker 1: not case closed because there are some other factors that
12:29
Speaker 1: may weigh in as well. Pesticides is a big one, specifically,
12:33
Speaker 1: Chuck the neo nicotinoid. Nice people knew that. It took
12:38
Speaker 1: twenty minutes for us to spit that out, they laugh. Uh,
12:41
Speaker 1: they are neurotoxins, Josh. And they are pesticides and they're
12:44
Speaker 1: used to protect crops against pests, which honey bees as well. Yeah,
12:50
Speaker 1: and um, I think the Germans, once again, the beekeepers
12:54
Speaker 1: in Germany are blaming this for massive die off rates, right,
12:59
Speaker 1: the same Germans who said that the cell phones had
13:01
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it, so much so that some
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Speaker 1: countries are starting to ban this type of pesticide um
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Speaker 1: even though I don't think there's been any causal link established,
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Speaker 1: it's the correlations enough that, right, you know, do you
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Speaker 1: want to hear the saddest factor? For me? It's sad,
13:19
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I imagined some be in
13:21
Speaker 1: like a crumpled fedor carrying a briefcase returning to the hive,
13:25
Speaker 1: you know, Joe versus the b the bee hive. I
13:27
Speaker 1: love that movie me too. Uh, stress, Josh, is what
13:30
Speaker 1: we're talking about. And these poor little bees because of
13:34
Speaker 1: beekeeper stretching out the pollination season, basically giving bees less
13:39
Speaker 1: time to recuperate before carrying them around to another crop.
13:42
Speaker 1: They're overworked and they're stressed out, and it could be,
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Speaker 1: you know, disrupting their immune systems and killing them off. Sad, sad, sad.
13:50
Speaker 1: And then the last factor in the article that was
13:52
Speaker 1: mentioned as impossible culprit was the verroa might what's the
13:56
Speaker 1: deal with these suckers? They actually transmit I A p
13:59
Speaker 1: V two okay, um bees, Well, there you have it.
14:02
Speaker 1: Through little jerks, little jerky mites. So the like we said,
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Speaker 1: fifteen billion dollars worth of agricultural crops products in the
14:12
Speaker 1: US alone. We're pollinated by commercial honey bees. So you
14:15
Speaker 1: can imagine that the U. S. D A Is a
14:17
Speaker 1: little worried about colony claps disorder. Right. Yeah, they're actually
14:21
Speaker 1: looking to alternative methods of pollinating, like synthetic methods of
14:26
Speaker 1: pollinating plants because of this, uh naked guys running through
14:29
Speaker 1: the fields. That's one and the other bees are trying
14:32
Speaker 1: to put other bees to work, Like which one was it,
14:35
Speaker 1: the blue orchard bee? Yeah, they're seeing if that works. Uh,
14:38
Speaker 1: And then of course they're also trying to do what
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Speaker 1: they can to take care of the honey bees and
14:43
Speaker 1: restore their population. Um, but it's not just the U. S.
14:47
Speaker 1: T A That has a hand in honey bee repopulation. No, no, no,
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Speaker 1: it's you and I too, Chuck, You and I and Hoggendoz.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well, we're gonna give you some tips here
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Speaker 1: in a minute on what you can do as an individual.
15:01
Speaker 1: But I did want to point out that Delicious Haggandas
15:04
Speaker 1: ice Cream has has nearly fifty of their all natural
15:09
Speaker 1: ice creams it sounds like I'm reading an ad because
15:12
Speaker 1: it's from their website. Nearly fifty of them use honey
15:16
Speaker 1: bees in some way, shape or form to get their
15:19
Speaker 1: ultimate ingredient. So they've got a little deal going where
15:22
Speaker 1: they ultimate ingredients. Well there's fifty of them. Okay, well
15:25
Speaker 1: now sorry. Uh. They have created a special flavor called
15:29
Speaker 1: Vanilla Honeybee and they call it a delicious tribute to
15:32
Speaker 1: these essential creatures. And of course when you buy this
15:35
Speaker 1: this kind or any of them that have the ingredients
15:38
Speaker 1: that come from the honey bees help they donate some money. Cool,
15:41
Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. And you can donate just straight
15:43
Speaker 1: to a cause via the cause via the Hagganda site,
15:49
Speaker 1: or you can be nice to your local apiarists and
15:51
Speaker 1: maybe having a bad day and that could just help, right, sure,
15:54
Speaker 1: that would help. UM. So we have we have some
15:57
Speaker 1: tips for you, Josh, you want to go over some
15:58
Speaker 1: of these. My favorite is um contact your member of
16:02
Speaker 1: parliament and tell them to start funding bee research. For
16:07
Speaker 1: you to contact your member of parliament throw their wig
16:11
Speaker 1: at me the number one on the list of and
16:14
Speaker 1: this is clearly England, but imagine you can do the
16:16
Speaker 1: same things here. This has become a beekeeper. That's a
16:18
Speaker 1: good one. Sure, cool job. The more hives the better,
16:21
Speaker 1: unless they're infected, and then the opposite is true. Yeah.
16:24
Speaker 1: Another thing you can do is protect swarms. If you
16:26
Speaker 1: see a swarm of honey bees, don't go out there
16:30
Speaker 1: with the can of raid or your can of hairnet
16:33
Speaker 1: and a lighter. Yeah, that's that's even the worse idea.
16:36
Speaker 1: You You should contact um, a local authority, and supposedly
16:41
Speaker 1: they will contact a beekeeper that will come and round
16:43
Speaker 1: them up. You want to make sure that they're going
16:45
Speaker 1: to contact the beekeeper. Actually there's people who do swarm
16:47
Speaker 1: removals and just kill all the bees. Yeah, you want
16:50
Speaker 1: to make sure that they're going to be taken to
16:52
Speaker 1: a hive by a beekeeper and then the guy comes
16:55
Speaker 1: out with this can of raid and the lighter some
16:58
Speaker 1: local redneck. Uh. Plant your garden with bee friendly plants.
17:01
Speaker 1: This is the biggest one that you can actually make
17:03
Speaker 1: an impact here at home. So we're talking single flowering
17:07
Speaker 1: plants and vegetables, and they recommend the Aliam family meant
17:12
Speaker 1: beans except for French beans, and flowering herbs and bees
17:16
Speaker 1: especially like daisy shape flowers, so sunflowers, sunflowers, are big,
17:19
Speaker 1: are really big for helping to uh, helping the honey
17:22
Speaker 1: bees out. And if you have your hands in your
17:23
Speaker 1: pockets right now and you're feeling nothing but lint, and
17:26
Speaker 1: you're like, I really love to help the bees, but
17:29
Speaker 1: I can't afford any sunflower seeds. Man, I'm not like rich.
17:33
Speaker 1: You can actually contact a group called the Great Sunflower
17:37
Speaker 1: Project and they'll send you some seeds. Uh. In return,
17:40
Speaker 1: all they ask is that you spend h thirty minutes
17:43
Speaker 1: twice a month. If you can't swing that, then you
17:47
Speaker 1: need to take stock of your life, um thirty minutes
17:50
Speaker 1: twice a month in the garden. Uh, noting arrival times,
17:53
Speaker 1: departure times, and uh whether or not you even see
17:56
Speaker 1: any bees on your sunflowers and sending sending in the information. Yeah, exactly,
18:01
Speaker 1: because if you don't see any bees, that's really important
18:03
Speaker 1: to tell them as well. Right. And don't use pesticides
18:06
Speaker 1: mid date chuck. Oh is that a big one. Yeah, Well,
18:08
Speaker 1: that's when bees are most likely to be out foraging.
18:10
Speaker 1: So if you're gonna spray any kind of pesticide, don't
18:13
Speaker 1: do it in the middle of the day. It's bad news. Right.
18:15
Speaker 1: They also say, if you're going to use pesticides or
18:20
Speaker 1: pest control to use insects specific pesticides, So don't buy
18:25
Speaker 1: kill all and don't buy kills honey bees. Yeah, exactly
18:30
Speaker 1: a few other gardening tips for you. I know you're
18:32
Speaker 1: quite the gardener. Uh. They say, if you have space
18:35
Speaker 1: to use ten or more bee plants in a group,
18:38
Speaker 1: you can group them together. That's a good thing. Sure
18:40
Speaker 1: makes pollination easier. Sure, and if not, you know, do
18:43
Speaker 1: what you can plan as many as you can. Uh.
18:45
Speaker 1: They also require water when they're foraging in your garden,
18:48
Speaker 1: so you know, put out a little bird bath and
18:50
Speaker 1: if you don't have a bird bath, maybe just a
18:52
Speaker 1: dish of water in your garden. I didn't know that,
18:54
Speaker 1: did you. I did not. It's a good one. And
18:57
Speaker 1: they also um burrow in the ground, so they say
19:00
Speaker 1: not to completely mulch your entire garden, to leave some
19:03
Speaker 1: bare areas maybe where you don't see it, or maybe
19:06
Speaker 1: put a little mound of sand and the bees can
19:08
Speaker 1: home down in there. So another little tip you can use.
19:12
Speaker 1: And native plants are always good if you're a gardener,
19:15
Speaker 1: plant native plants to your state because bees eat them up.
19:19
Speaker 1: And aside from gardening, you can also buy local honey.
19:22
Speaker 1: You know. I used to know an apiarist and related
19:25
Speaker 1: him once for the Henry County Times when I edited it,
19:28
Speaker 1: and um, he sold local honey. I got stung by
19:31
Speaker 1: a bee, by the way, while I was interviewing him,
19:33
Speaker 1: really hurt man um and uh. Like three years later,
19:38
Speaker 1: I was at someone's house, a friend's house, and they
19:41
Speaker 1: just happen to have honey from this guy's farm. I
19:43
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. Yeah, if your city is like um, Atlanta,
19:47
Speaker 1: then they're all manner of farmers markets. That story sounded
19:51
Speaker 1: so much more interesting in my head before I spit
19:53
Speaker 1: it out. I thought it was interesting. Things can't tell
19:55
Speaker 1: by the way edges breeze right over. Uh. If at
20:00
Speaker 1: as like your town, you probably have all kind of
20:01
Speaker 1: farmers markets, local markets, and I guarantee you there will
20:03
Speaker 1: be somebody with honey. It does. And they say, if
20:05
Speaker 1: you're into um immunology, uh, and you believe that you
20:10
Speaker 1: can immunize yourself from uh local allergies using honey, which
20:15
Speaker 1: is yet to be proven, but it makes a lot
20:18
Speaker 1: of sense. You want to buy honey that's um created
20:21
Speaker 1: within fifteen miles of your your house and buying the
20:24
Speaker 1: local is always a good idea all across the board.
20:27
Speaker 1: And I got one more unless you have one more? No,
20:30
Speaker 1: I'm done, okay, because I want to finish with this
20:31
Speaker 1: and it's so good. Uh. Under the heading be friendly,
20:36
Speaker 1: some tips on you know, if you have bees in
20:39
Speaker 1: your area, don't swat them, don't flap your hands around.
20:43
Speaker 1: Just stay calm and move slowly away into the shade,
20:45
Speaker 1: they say, and bees will lose interest. They also don't
20:49
Speaker 1: have as much interest if you smell like alcohol or leather,
20:54
Speaker 1: and they regard regard dark clothing as a threat. So
20:58
Speaker 1: put on some dark leather pants, get drunk, and hang
21:03
Speaker 1: out in your garden. Apparently I will never get stung
21:06
Speaker 1: by a being. Wow, I'd like to see that. If
21:10
Speaker 1: you want to learn more about this mysterious colony collapse disorder,
21:14
Speaker 1: you can read just k Toothman's fascinating article how colony
21:18
Speaker 1: collapse disorder works. I imagine if you type in collapse
21:21
Speaker 1: disorder or colony collapse or colony collapse disorder into the
21:25
Speaker 1: handy search bar at how stuff work dot Com, it
21:27
Speaker 1: will yield said article. Uh. In the meantime, let's do
21:31
Speaker 1: some listener mail, Josh. These are two from two kids.
21:37
Speaker 1: And you know, we like the kid emails because they're
21:39
Speaker 1: always nice and super friendly and cute and not like
21:43
Speaker 1: a cynical old rotten adults. So the first one is
21:46
Speaker 1: from Betto, which I love. That name, Betto is what
21:49
Speaker 1: is that Italian Portuguese? I would think it's Italian. Okay,
21:53
Speaker 1: hey guys, my name is Betto pronounced b et Dash. Oh.
21:57
Speaker 1: I know you're laughing, it's a laugh. I have listened
22:01
Speaker 1: to every single one of your podcasts since the eighth grade,
22:04
Speaker 1: and I am now a sophomore in high school. Now.
22:07
Speaker 1: Doesn't that really put it in perspective? Yeah? I feel old.
22:10
Speaker 1: All of a sudden people are actively We're seeing these
22:13
Speaker 1: people grow up. This is it brings a tear to
22:16
Speaker 1: my eye. You know, when we get a graduation imitation
22:18
Speaker 1: from Sarah the eleven year old fan, then it's time
22:21
Speaker 1: to hang it up, all right, he says. Beto says,
22:24
Speaker 1: I have to wake up every morning at six am
22:25
Speaker 1: to catch the bus at seven so I can go
22:28
Speaker 1: to a school thirty minutes away from my house. It's
22:30
Speaker 1: about an hour bus ride, that's how that works. And
22:33
Speaker 1: all I can do is listen to my iPod every day,
22:35
Speaker 1: I download two or more and prepare for my day,
22:38
Speaker 1: and you have two. You two have become quite possibly
22:40
Speaker 1: my two favorite heroes besides Matt Bellamy, who I had
22:44
Speaker 1: to look that up. Who isn't He's the lead singer
22:46
Speaker 1: of Muse. So where heroes along with this muse dude?
22:50
Speaker 1: Because every morning I'm sitting on that crowded bus with
22:52
Speaker 1: loud people and I can listen to you two talk
22:54
Speaker 1: about a random subject, including ones that sound boring at first,
22:57
Speaker 1: but thanks to you, I learned something and get a
22:59
Speaker 1: few us along the way. You're the coolest guys I know,
23:03
Speaker 1: kind of since I don't actually know you, he says,
23:06
Speaker 1: and I hope that you guys never quit doing this.
23:07
Speaker 1: Your number one fan for real? Betto, well, oh no,
23:12
Speaker 1: he he follows. He follows up for you specifically. He says, Josh,
23:16
Speaker 1: You're amazing and I have a man crush on you.
23:18
Speaker 1: But I have a girlfriend, so you know, ha ha,
23:21
Speaker 1: she doesn't know, that's what he says. Wow, I know,
23:26
Speaker 1: did Betto just come onto me? I think? So? Alright?
23:30
Speaker 1: Betto actually says he would be an all shock if
23:33
Speaker 1: you read this on the air, but I doubt you will,
23:36
Speaker 1: so I'm kind of I think Betto just used for
23:39
Speaker 1: verse psychologist. So this Betto kid is sharp, just got
23:43
Speaker 1: punked by a tenth grader. Al Right, here's another quickie
23:45
Speaker 1: from Nick and Alfaretta. Nick is eight seventeen and Alfaretta, Georgia,
23:50
Speaker 1: and he has written us before, but he had a
23:52
Speaker 1: personal tie to Edward of Woodstock from the Mercenaries podcast.
23:58
Speaker 1: He was his great great great et cetera grandfather. How
24:02
Speaker 1: about that? Well pretty cool, huh. He says, I know
24:05
Speaker 1: this because well that's what he put. He didn't know
24:07
Speaker 1: how many greats it was. And he knows this because
24:10
Speaker 1: they have a family tree and he was right near
24:12
Speaker 1: the beginning of it. And after he was Edward of Woodstock,
24:15
Speaker 1: he became Edward Prince of Wales. Oh yeah, and then
24:19
Speaker 1: and that's what he says at least, and he goes
24:21
Speaker 1: in details a little bit of Edward of Woodstocks life
24:25
Speaker 1: and just says that thanks for mentioning, and he's related
24:27
Speaker 1: to him. Very cool right here in Georgia, yeah, and
24:29
Speaker 1: al Florida. It's right up the road, a piece, right
24:31
Speaker 1: up the road. Well, thank you Betto and Nick. We
24:34
Speaker 1: appreciate both of you guys for writing in, and we
24:36
Speaker 1: love all of you who right in, and by love
24:39
Speaker 1: I mean really appreciate and are fond of. If you
24:42
Speaker 1: want us to love you, you can send us an
24:45
Speaker 1: email to Stuff Podcasts at how stuff works dot com.
24:54
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
24:56
Speaker 1: that how stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works,
25:00
Speaker 1: check out our blogs on the House of works dot
25:02
Speaker 1: com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two
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