It's the little things that'll kill you

Seems the bee problem hasn't gone away.
Didn't know there was a bee problem? Rico didn't either.
But it appears that there are mysterious bee viruses killing off hives all across the planet.
Seems there's Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus and Kashmir Bee Virus and various funguses and other pathogens causing CCD (colony collapse disorder).
Don't think it's a problem? "Bees, via pollination, are responsible for 15 to 30 percent of the food U.S. consumers eat. But in the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population, which most farmers depend on for pollination, has declined by about 50 percent, scientists say."

Do you like eating? Do you like flowers? Do you like fruit? Do you like honey?
Then you like bees.
The whole Africanized (killer) bee thing seems to have died down, but it'll probably be back.
Let's hope they figure it out. Rico likes his honey...

History, for those of us who like that:
"The sub-species Apis mellifera mellifera was brought to the Americas with the first colonists to Virginia in 1622, and numerous other occasions later. Many of the crops that depend on honeybees for pollination have also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms spread rapidly as far as the Great Plains, usually preceding the colonists. The Native Americans called the honeybee 'the white man's fly'. Honeybees did not naturally cross the Rockies; they were carried by ship to California in the early 1850s."