Honey bees on the beach at Sanibel

I've been reading off and on about die offs of the honey bee population, and coincidentally enough, I recently experienced something that brought this to mind at the time.

When Connie and I were down on Sanibel Island last month, the rainy season had set in with a vengeance. Now the place we had rented was just a stone's throw from the local mosquito control heliport. And I mean that literally. So we were seeing first hand what we thought was mosquito control at work going full tilt.

Activity was pretty brisk with the copters taking off an landing there, and we just assumed that they were spraying like crazy for the mosquitoes that were obviously now in abundance. But while walking on the beach one day, we got to talking to a local resident who said he had talked with the copter pilots and they said they were spraying, but not for mosquitoes. Unfortunately he did not ask what exactly they were spraying for. Anyway, they said that all the mosquito spraying was being done after dark by planes out of Ft. Myers. And yes we did hear planes flying over head, usually after 10pm.

One night in particular the planes were flying overhead pretty frequently, so I guessed they were getting serious about the spraying. Interestingly enough, the next day we were walking on Bowman Beach, and we noticed that there were a LOT of honey bees laying on the beach. Some dead, and others alive but apparently unable to fly. This was actually quite a nuisance, because if you were to step on one of these still living honey bees, they would definitely light up the underside of your foot. Ask me how I know this... There were also quite a few floating in the water among the waves, again, some alive and some not. We also saw quite a few honey bees flying around as if disoriented above the beach area. One even flew at me from behind and lodged himself between my hat my right ear. Connie wound up pulling that stinger out of the top of my ear, after I pulled the bee out of there.

But anyway, maybe just a coincidence, but there sure were a lot of dead and dying honey bees on that beach directly after the spraying regimen they were doing in the area. But my guess would be that getting rid of the mosquitoes at all costs in order to keep the tourists happy, probably is a whole lot higher on their priority list than trying to keep the honey bees alive.

IMHO, of course.

My son is in the coast guard stationed in northern Michigan. He lives in the country across the road from a large honey bee farm. I think it is the Sue Bee honey brand (I will have to ask) but he sends his bees to Florida every winter because of the weather. I will have to ask if the nonstop spraying of mosquitos is affecting his bees.
I didn't even know that honey bees winter in Florida, I should be like them!
John

One of the guys in another of my forums found this interesting tidbit:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/us/south-carolina-pesticide-kills-bees.html

Here in Charlotte County FL we can sign up for spraying alerts, and traffic alerts. We know when spraying will done and the method used in each mosquito control area. Since this isn't much of an agricultural county, beehives aren't as numerous as they are in the other counties. I found it amazing how the beehives are moved from the north to the south and from the south to the west, depending on crop pollination needs. I've not seen spraying during the winter months down here, so hives are usually safe. In my younger days I kept bees and found that an interesting hobby.