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05/09/2008: "Bees are disappearing fast in US - 32% loss in commercial hives"

A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year.

Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.

As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group.

[ Bees are going extinct all over the world. Australian bees are even harder hit with the dought there. Einstein supposedly (it is disputed) said that if the bees all die then humans will also be extinct within 4 years. Not like Einstein to care about the environment, but this statement sounds ominously accurate. ]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/ap_on_re_us/disappearing_bees