April 15th, 2009

Good news on Colony Collapse Disorder

  • Apr. 15th, 2009 at 10:08 AM
As a lifelong gardener, I've been following the news on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which has been killing off honeybee colonies en masse for several years, pretty closely and was very excited to hear the other day that researchers may have found a cure.

Apparently the latest suspect is a parasite called Nosema ceranae and they've had very good luck improving survival rates once treatment for this particular parasite is begun.

Source

Meanwhile, I've been choosing plants for my garden specifically to attract both honey and native bees, in the hope of giving them a little bit of a hand.

A few of the useful resources I've found include:

Urban Bee Gardens
The Xerces Society
ATTRA: Native Bees

If you're not familiar with CCD, Haagen Dazs has set up a site with a helpful introduction to the topic: Help the Honey Bees. It also happens to be one of the prettiest uses of Flash I've ever seen.

Sushi Lovers Beware!

  • Apr. 15th, 2009 at 8:10 PM
A new report from the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) claims that breeding populations of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna in the Mediterranean will collapse by 2012 if fishing continues at its current rate. Demand for the fish is driven primarily by sushi restaurants in Japan and elsewhere.

Source

The WWF has information about how to avoid irresponsibly harvested tuna, as does Seafood Watch.