Hazards and Survival
European honey bee populations have recently faced threats to their survival. North American and European populations were severely depleted by varroa mite infestations in the early 1990s, and US beekeepers were further affected by colony collapse disorder in 2006 and 2007. Chemical treatments against Varroa mites saved most commercial operations and improved cultural practices. New bee breeds are starting to reduce the dependency on miticides (acaracides) by beekeepers. Feral bee populations were greatly reduced during this period but now are slowly recovering, mostly in areas of mild climate, owing to natural selection for Varroa resistance and repopulation by resistant breeds. Further, insecticides, particularly when used in violation of label directions, have also depleted bee populations, while various bee pests and diseases are becoming resistant to medications (e.g. American foulbrood, tracheal mites and Varroa mites).
Read more about this topic: Western Honey Bee
Famous quotes containing the word survival:
“However great a man’s fear of life, suicide remains the courageous act, the clear-headed act of a mathematician. The suicide has judged by the laws of chance—so many odds against one that to live will be more miserable than to die. His sense of mathematics is greater than his sense of survival. But think how a sense of survival must clamour to be heard at the last moment, what excuses it must present of a totally unscientific nature.”
—Graham Greene (1904–1991)