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andak01 · 07-19-2007, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by Mediocrates

Did you know that Honey Badgers are one of nature's few effective weapons against Killer Africanized Honey Bees?

Yes, but what's the weapon to use against Africanized Honey Badgers?

**Mediocrates** · 07-19-2007, 04:14 PM

I mention this because Hive Collapse is a big deal where I live and any methods used to cull African Bees is extremely problematic if it's a pervasive chemical or hormonal approach.

We should be raising large numbers of Honey Badgers and using them in controlled experiments to suppress African Hives selectively. And then, hey, they're cute furry violent omnivorous pets, sort of....

**Mediocrates** · 07-19-2007, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by andak01

Yes, but what's the weapon to use against Africanized Honey Badgers?

Tasers. Or Robots.

**bararallu** · 07-19-2007, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by Mediocrates

I mention this because Hive Collapse is a big deal where I live and any methods used to cull African Bees is extremely problematic if it's a pervasive chemical or hormonal approach.

We should be raising large numbers of Honey Badgers and using them in controlled experiments to suppress African Hives selectively. And then, hey, they're cute furry violent omnivorous pets, sort of....

I thought it was the Asian bee parasite thats doing all the damage?

**Mediocrates** · 07-19-2007, 07:09 PM

That's one theory. No one's entirely sure. It could also be phermonal. The parasites could be another. There is evidence to suggest that the parasites have been around for a while and we're only now starting to see them. There is also not a good understanding of the locality of hive collapse, why it happens in some places not in others. Moreover wild colonies don't appear to suffer the same problems. African Bees in the wild suffer nearly equal rates of collapse but because of their other behaviors they seem less impaired long run given that Africa wild colonies spontaneously regroup when their hives are destroyed for any reason. In other words their colonies suffer die off at higher rates than other wild colonies but overall it doesn't make a lot of difference to the survivability of the aggregate colonies overall.

I've always said that aggression in an of itself is a Darwinian advantage. Looks like that's true for people, badgers and bees.

**bararallu** · 07-19-2007, 07:45 PM

Right. It could be as simple as that the domesticated bees are just too weak to defend against their southern neighbors. They could also be affected by generations of pesticides, heavy metals, and all the rest of the extras in our stygian water supply. Could be their genetic fitness was drastically [and negatively] effected by breeding/domestication, and the last few years have seen the phenotypic demonstration of that. Then again it could be global warming... got to consult the goricle on that one

.

Well what ever their demise is expedited from, they seem to be doing better than the local amphibians, but not as well as the variety of snake looking [and hyper aggressive] Chinese fish that have recently invaded the American waterways en mass [if I was a conspiracy theorist...].