Lately, a lot of attention has been given to "border security". Protecting us all from the scourge of "illegal aliens" has been a hot topic. Well, I'm one guy who thinks that certain illegal aliens should be gassed. That's right, gassed. The "illegal aliens" that I am talking about have six legs, antennae and and wings. I'm talking about insects, i.e. the Formosan Termite, the Asian Long Horned Beetle and foreign born bees. Congress and the last several Presidents have done little to protect our country from an invasion that is having a major effect on our housing, food supply and our forests. More, below:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6— A team led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Pennsylvania State University (PSU), and Columbia University (CU) has found an association between colony collapse disorder (CCD) in honey bees and a honey bee virus called Israeli acute paralysis virus, according to a paper published in the journal Science this week.
The only pathogen found in almost all samples from honey bee colonies with CCD, but not in non-CCD colonies, was the Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), a dicistrovirus that can be transmitted by the varroa mite. It was found in 96.1 percent of the CCD-bee samples.
This is the first report of IAPV in the United States. IAPV was initially identified in honey bee colonies in Israel in 2002, where the honey bees exhibited unusual behavior, such as twitching wings outside the hive and a loss of worker bee populations. IAPV has not yet been formally accepted as a separate species; it is a close relative of Kashmir bee virus, which has been previously found in the United States.
The next step is exposing healthy hives to IAPV and seeing if CCD develops.
CCD became a matter of concern in the winter of 2006-2007 when some beekeepers began reporting losses of 30 to 90 percent of their hives. While colony losses are not unexpected during winter weather, the magnitude of loss suffered by some beekeepers was highly unusual.
The main symptom is finding no or a low number of adult honey bees present with no dead honey bees in the hive. Often there is still honey in the hive and immature bees (brood) are present.
Pollination is a critical element in agriculture, as honey bees pollinate more than 130 crops in the United States and add $15 billion in crop value annually. There were enough honey bees to provide pollination for U.S. agriculture this year, but beekeepers could face a serious problem next year and beyond if CCD becomes more widespread and no treatment is developed.
More info, here:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/...
Link to full article, here:
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/
Hive collapse is a major problem for beekeepers here in my own state of New Jersey. Many local beekeepers believe that the virus may have come to New Jersey through the importation of Australian and Israeli honey bees, or through the use of imported royal jelly as a food source for wintering New Jersey queens bees.
Similarly, the Formosan termite, which came to the United States in packing crates and dunnage imported from China, are eating what's left of New Orleans. Old cypress beams and columns, long resistant to wimpy American termites, are being reduced to dust filled shells. These termites are extremely resistant to insecticides, and will probably be part of our insect population, henceforth.
In New Jersey, the Asian Long Horned beetle is laying waste to large swaths of street trees and forests. The Long Horned Beetle bores into the heartwood of trees to lay its eggs, killing the host trees. New Jersey has been aggressively cutting affected trees in an effort to stem the spread of these pesky beetles, but we have been losing the battle in some areas of the State.
The first and best defense to this foreign invation should have been at our borders but, sadly, the borders are porous for six legged invaders. Our government should be working to control the entry of invasive species through more thorough inspections of international shipments, customs checks, and better quarantine regulations.
We should be worried about our enemies' importation of radioactive materials, nuclear devices and pathogens, for sure. But the six legged invaders are already here, and wreaking havoc and, apparently, no once in our State or Federal goverment seems to care that much. No one even debates that this is a problem, so let's hope they start to care before its too late.