Vanishing bees: 60 Minutes piece puts human face on it
 

A pretty good piece. One long time beekeeper thinks the new nicotine based pesticides might be the culprit. The pesticide is touted as attacking the immune and navigation systems of target insects, which is what appears to be part of the problem with colony collapse disorder.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3424316n

that might be the cause. we have quite a few bees around where we live, but we also don't use pesticides, either. hopefully, someone will find out what is the cause, because bees are an essential part of the ecosystem.

The one guy they featured on said he just borrowed a couple hundred $grand to buy new bees and if these go belly up as well he's likely out of business, after some 30, 40 years of doing it.

We wouldn't exactly starve w/o bees but all sorts of goodies -- fruits, nuts, and some veggies especially would go up in price dramatically.

There's a quote somewhere that the when bee's disappear, the human race would follow in less than 5 years.

I think that was from Einstein. Apparently though, honey bees were not in North America when the white man arrived but one has to suspect there were other pollinators at work.