Sat 17 Sep 2011
Bad Day For Bees
Posted by Will under environment, nature, seasonal, updated
[6] Comments
This time of year I can usually count on finding the occasional one maybe two dead bees in the vicinity of the patio table, but this morning the number of corpses (11 seen below, 17 total) concentrated in such a small area represented a cataclysmic and enigmatic die-off as far as our backyard is concerned:
UPDATED (1:37 p.m.): Twenty-four more found scattered around the patio table. Could it be the bees are being bitten by and then rejected by spiders living in the fig tree branches extending over the patio area?
Will, you may have already googled like I just did, but is this related? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder
Yep, I’ve thought about that, but I think the answer is as I guessed: spiders. There’s a tree in bloom next to our backyard fig whose tiny yellow blooms the bees are crazy for, and I think the bees are getting caught up in a bunch of spiders’ webs strung within the fig. With more food than they need the spiders bite the bees and then cut them free from the webbing where they drop to the patio below.
the same thing is happening in my backyard in Silverlake! I only have a few spiders but the bees are being found no where near bushes or trees it is concerning!
Thanks for the comment, Gina. I sent an email to Backyard Beekeepers to see if they could shed any sanity on the strangeness. Though the number of bee deaths seems to have returned to “normal” (one or two or a few found each day), it is very disconcerting.
Hey Will–I’m a backwards beekeeper. Could be spiders–it’s also the time of year when bees reduce their own numbers. They haul the dead ones out and drop them at a distance from the hive–seen them do it. Could also be someone who sprayed pesticide.
Thanks Erik! Sounds like a combination of all three might have done ‘em in.