Sliding Into Oblivion

One thing that really bothers me is that the bees are dying. I've read several articles about it, watched a BBC TV news bit about it, and I've read some of the scientific magazines blurbs about it.

Since writing this I have learned that a kind of parasitic bacteria is responsible for the plight of bees. Also, the likelihood that they will survive as a species is at least as high as ever.

It also bothers me that although large percentages of the bees are dying in large areas of the Earth, that nobody has a good theory why.

Although I am as likely to blame global warming (or climate change, if you prefer), but I don't think that is the sole reason, but may be something that worsens an already existing problem.

Diseases have been tested for, and only small numbers of the bee deaths can be linked to any specific disease. Likewise with mites, which are a problem, but not so much to account for all the deaths.

There is a clue -- that bees go out of the hive to forage for food and do their pollen thing, but don't come back. Slowly the hive is less and less populated until it is unable to provide for the next generation. Perhaps the hive limps along but it is not productive, and the fields are left unpollinated.

Could it be that simultaneously, all over the world, that there is a bee assassin growing in the weeds? Some kinds of poisonous spiders or an increase in bee eating lizards. But usually things like that are limited to a specific region, and would be obvious for their effects on other animals than just bees.

Are ants dying also? Are there other insects that have similar habits as bees that suffer the same fate? I wish I knew. It is an interesting problem, but I am not equipped to go out in the fields and solve it. Besides, there are highly competant beekeepers and scientists already trying to figure it out.