Canon PowerShot SD700 IS
ƒ/2.8
5.8 mm
1/60

Insect Hostel?
A honey slasher flick?
Something about the imagery screams B Movie…

We found an abandoned building full of dead honeybees. They covered the floors in a dense mat, and the walls were splashed with brown drips, from floor to ceiling. A few bees were wandering around like zombies, but none would fly…even with some prodding…

Many of the dead bees formed shallow cones of corpses around pine cones scattered on the floor.

It appears to be the end stage of some sort of catastrophic colony collapse, perhaps unrelated to the recent and mysterious disappearance of commercial hyper-bred bee populations up to 70% in some states. About 1/3 of our food supply depends on honeybees for pollination.

It was very spooky and disturbing.

23 responses to “Amityville Horror?”

  1. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    =(

    When I got my one lost, weak and shaky visiting bee at home last month, it was just one and it was spooky and disturbing (the girl was dying and there´s was nothing I could do but watch with a heavy feeling)… I can´t imagine what that mst have been… the picture is very sad by itself already…

    Reply
  2. lopsided apparatus Avatar
    lopsided apparatus

    Do bee colonies typically die so spectacularly?

    Reply
  3. JJ San Avatar
    JJ San

    Was there any chemical smell? I wonder what the drips were.

    Reply
  4. drona Avatar
    drona

    We too have noticed a dramatic drop in honey bees this year. For instance none of the lavender bushes have any honey bees at all – -front or back. I don’t think this sickness is restricted to commercial bees, or to the ones at your friends abandoned house.

    It is quite disturbing indeed…

    Reply
  5. Leino88 Avatar
    Leino88

    this scares the poopoo out of me….
    it’s a mystery that could have very disturbing and far reaching effects…
    and go figure… this was the first year that i was going to do official beekeping with a friend…(fellow bug-nut). last year he was able to get 250lbs of honey from the two hives he managed…. we were cooperatively going to be responsible for 4 hives at an organic farm not far from here…. and now worry our efforts will be for nothing….

    honey bees are absolutely amazing, in every regard…. it’s a very serious dilema.
    🙁
    even the best scientists can’t even come close to a provable cause for their demise….. the pro-beekeper we purchased our hive nucleus from, has lost 75% of his bee this year.
    he faces bankruptcy.
    ….
    hmpH

    Reply
  6. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    I ll start by this warning from E.O.Wilson in his opening of the 2007 TED Talks :

    “If we were wipe out insects, alone, just that group alone, on this planet. Which we are trying hard to do. The rest of life, and humanity with it, would mostly disappear, from the land and within a few month…”

    And i would recommand you to watch this 22 minutes talk….one of the most interesting i heard. E.O.Wilson TED Talk

    As Alieness..Gisela, drona and Leino88 point out, this is a very important matter. And a very disturbing photo Steve, However the real (multiple) causes are. Disturbing in the way that, it happens with little knowledge and understanding from us.

    (By the way, that s why, and where, the power and utility of photos comes. When it can help teaching and share, not just cold information, but the real warnings of humanity (and wonders) So i think i ll speek for most of us, when i thank you Steve, for all the wonderfull, interesting and strange things, we discovered through your pictures)

    Reply
  7. aeroculus Avatar
    aeroculus

    Steve, I’m giving a talk to some almond growers in California sometime in the next month or two, and with your permission would like to use this photo with my slides.

    Reply
  8. OriginalGunner Avatar
    OriginalGunner

    Is Colony Collapse Disorder FUD?

    Reply
  9. zenera Avatar
    zenera

    So worrying!!!

    Reply
  10. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    aeroculus: certainly. All of my photos are free to use with a photo credit link back to flickr.

    Reply
  11. msamaclean © Avatar
    msamaclean ©

    Thanks for posting this, Steve. The dwindling of the bee population is indeed scary & disturbing. Just like everything else on our Earth, we all have to both teach & learn that everything is connected. We can’t continue to ignore that fact or we will( and are) pay the price.
    (& thanks for the link, xGunner).

    Reply
  12. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    It´s being told that the radiowaves emissions by cellphones and their re-transmission antenas and computers and other devices are suspected to be driving the crazy… At the same time some studies are being run on the implications of cellphone/microwaves use, etc and some types of cancer.

    Whether these hypothesis and studies are valid or not, from a common-sense point of view, it seems clear to me there must be some effect from the intensive use done to the wireless technology as simple as it is clear for us that no action leaves no consecuences. The point that we don´t see these waves/magnetic fields doesn´t mean that they aren´t affecting us or our environment or other fellow species in no fortunate ways.

    Personally, I confess that I do know and can foresee when I am so charged that I will make my computer reboot… (sometimes I save files a second before it happens for caution) does this sound crazy? Well, it´s not. I can reboot my computer when I am too energetically charged (generally it´s an energy load due some strong emotional tension). However I don´t have evidences of the computer affecting me with her emissions. Despite this, tho, it would be silly of me to think that I am not being afected by her, if I am affecting her.

    Reply
  13. nels1 Avatar
    nels1

    the splatters on the door almost looks as if they were on kamikaze missions…unless there was something on the ceiling that was dripping down onto it?…

    Reply
  14. drona Avatar
    drona

    I’m happy to report that the bees are back!

    Reply
  15. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    "Is a Virus Behind the Bee Plague?
    Scientists have identified a virus that might have triggered the problem."
    http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19348/

    ??

    Reply
  16. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    Thanks for the link Gi ; )

    Reply
  17. JJ San Avatar
    JJ San

    Hornet Attack?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fTrSOFyfxs&eurl=http://www.c...

    Reply
  18. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    drone found an article that describes the zombie-walk that I saw here:

    "Northern California scientists say they have found a possible explanation for a honey bee die-off that has decimated hives around the world: A parasitic fly that hijacks the bees’ bodies and causes them to abandon hives.

    Scientists say the fly deposits its eggs into the bee’s abdomen, causing the infected bee to exhibit zombie-like behavior by walking around in circles with no apparent sense of direction.

    It says the phorid fly, or apocephalus borealis, was found in bees from three-quarters of the 31 hives surveyed in the San Francisco Bay area."

    This relates to the parasitic zombie talk over here, with the peculiar comment on their effect on humans:

    "Infected women tend to be more intelligent, conscientious, kind and outgoing, while infected men are apt to be less intelligent and to take more risks."

    Reply
  19. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    Very interestinglycool update. Merci Steve =)

    Reply
  20. JJ San Avatar
    JJ San

    I’ve seen that zombie walk with a bee on my side porch. It’s a rather heartbreaking thing to see.

    Reply
  21. drona Avatar
    drona

    More info on this topic
    http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-honeybee-deaths-linked-seed-...

    Reply
  22. PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE Avatar
    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    A cool TED talk just went online on the topic =)

    Noah Wilson-Rich: Every city needs healthy honey bees
    http://www.ted.com/talks/noah_wilson_rich_every_city_needs_healt...

    "Bees have been rapidly and mysteriously disappearing from rural areas, with grave implications for agriculture. But bees seem to flourish in urban environments — and cities need their help, too. Noah Wilson-Rich suggests that urban beekeeping might play a role in revitalizing both a city and a species. (Filmed at TEDxBoston.) Noah Wilson-Rich studies bees and bee diseases. He founded Best Bees Company to support people who want to own and care for their own beehive."

    Reply
  23. dcbprime Avatar
    dcbprime

    The Apiaryville Horror.

    Reply

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