Dec 26, 2010

Breakthrough in fight to save honeybees worldwide

A report from the UK is welcome news not only to beekeepers but to the human race.

Conservation groups are welcoming a breakthrough in the battle against a deadly mite responsible for decimating the honeybee population.

The Varroa mite is the biggest killer of honeybees worldwide and has developed a resistance to medication developed to destroy it.

But now scientists from Aberdeen University and the government's National Bee Unit have developed a genetic technique that could stop the mite in its tracks.

Honeybee populations have fallen by 23 per cent since 1992. They are the main crop pollinators and without bees our food supply would be limited to mostly meat and grain.

When bee populations first started to diminish ill-informed environmental activists blamed it on global warming. Where are the "warming alarmists" now that it wasn't warming after all? Besides the planet has been cooling for more than ten years.

More here.