Bee health crisis warnings are growing as the condition known as ‘Colony Collapse Disorder” has started to spread from the domesticated honey bee population to the wild bumble bee population, threatening an essential link in the food pipeline. Since most fruits and vegetables are pollinated by bees, a catastrophic collapse in the bee population could presage serious food shortages around the world. Now, according to a report in the journal Nature, the blight that may be responsible for the bee health crisis is spreading into the bumble bee population, previously thought immune to be immune to the condition.

Bumble bees are responsible for pollinating 90 percent of the wild flowers that maintain the ecological balance in the woodlands. The collapse of the bumble bee population could have an even more devastating effect than a collapse in the domestic honey bee because domesticated varieties can be repopulated from uninfected stock. That opportunity does not exist in the wild bumble bee population.
Bee Health Crisis

What a dead hive looks like

First identified in 2006, colony collapse disorder signified a major increase in a long-known phenomenon known as ‘hive death” or ‘disappearing bee syndrome,” in which stable, productive hives died suddenly […]