It's been two years since Dennis vanEngelsdorp began searching for the reason why bees nationwide are dying -- and after two years of 60-hour weeks, he's frustrated to say he still doesn't have an answer.
Penn State researchers are leading the investigation into why bee populations are declining around the United States, but have yet to come to a definitive conclusion, according to an article published October in Research|Penn State, an annual magazine.
"One frustrating thing is we don't have a clear-cut answer yet," said vanEngelsdorp, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture state apiarist, or beekeeper.
Over the past two years, beekeepers have lost two-thirds of the bee population nationwide, said Maryann Frazier, senior extension associate in the department of entomology. Frazier said reports of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) -- where adult bees abandon their colonies -- first surfaced in November 2006, although researchers believe hives have been experiencing losses since 2004.
Frazier is part of a team within the department of entomology investigating the bee epidemic. The team and other researchers have received more than $250,000 throughout the past two years from Häagen-Dazs to work on pollinator decline, Frazier said.
Why are bees leaving? At Penn State, researchers are trying to find the answer, focusing on disease, viruses and pesticides as possible causes, Frazier said. But they're still unsure of the primary cause, according to the article.
It's not for the lack of trying. Since the first reports, researchers have been putting in long hours to solve the mystery. VanEngelsdorp is part of a team responsible for collecting samples from the bees and has been putting in 40- to 60-hour workweeks.
"For the last two years, the longest stretch I've been in Pennsylvania is two weeks," vanEnglesdorp said. "I've been on vacation having to do work."
However, the amount of time researchers spend on finding a solution pales in comparison to the amount of time the beekeepers put in to maintaining healthy hives in the midst of this crisis, vanEnglesdorp said.
Honeybees generate more than $14 billion of economic revenue every year through their pollination of more than 100 fruits and vegetables in the United States, according to the Research|Penn State article. Some are now worried that this resource is in danger and beekeepers will continue to lose their source of income.
"Beekeepers could go bankrupt," vanEnglesdorp said.
It's not the first time beekeepers have seen their stocks decrease. Since 1987, before the discovery of CCD, the parasite varroa mite has threatened the survival of many colonies by weakening bees' immune systems. However, CCD presents a greater threat to bees nationwide than any danger before, wiping out hives at an unprecedented scale, according to the article.
