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THE clouds of black ants (lasius niger), swarming like columns of smoke in the tropical weather, were in a mating ritual as winged males and females took to the skies. This also caused considerable excitement in the aerial territories of birdlife, and, at one seaside place, the swirling and diving aerobatics of gulls caught the attention of the passing parade below, who wondered at the turmoil. The birds were having an unexpected caviar-like feast but skirmishing swallows and swifts also gorged. Multitudinous ants, which have a highly organised social and agricultural society, may be dismissed as pests, invasive and — the red ones especially — nasty stingers. But they are prolific and their numbers only cause concern when, as happens, they insidiously colonise human domestic areas and are seen to be unexpectedly busy in larders and cutlery drawers. The scarcity of another flying insect, the humble honeybee, on the other hand, has now become a matter of international concern. Einstein is reputed to have observed that “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.” Pause for a shocking thought: no pollination, no plants, no animals, no man. What has been happening to honeybees has been of major scientific worry for the past two years. What appeared to have begun as an identifiable virus, arriving with imported stock, has evolved into a worldwide plague called Colony Collapse Disorder where bees are dying in vast numbers. In America, 800,000 hives were wiped out last year and a further million have gone already this year. All across Europe there is a similar scourge — and the reasons are unclear, despite passionate opinions. Beekeepers blame pesticides. One chemical nasty is a nicotine-based substance called imidacloprid, better known by brand names Admire, Advantage or Provado. It is popular in agriculture and in parkland and golf course care because it kills off a wide range of insect pests. It impairs the nervous system and disrupts neurons leading to paralysis. The affected bees’ symptoms show their sense of direction and smell to be so confused that they cannot return to their hives and so die out in the countryside. Come again. Some scientists, however, don’t go along with this and feel another and major virus is responsible. The laboratory jury is still out Bees are enormously valuable. Aside from the honey market, the pollination of crops is a €50bn global business. But the bees are treated, especially in the US, like machine-like migrant farm workers, being shipped from place to place to do their work and being cooped up in strange environments where disease spreads rapidly. The silence of the hives is now the new global alarming phenomenon. If chemical substances are found to be even part of the cause of bee deaths, the beekeepers will have a serious confrontation with farmers who consider imidacloprid the best pesticide available to them. But Einstein must be heeded. 910d3 g20 mp600 This article is from http://www.365okgolf.com/ More 365 ok golf at http://www.365okgolf.com/
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