Does anyone have any bees? (Orlando, Naples: neighborhood, tax, living)

[TheYogi]

I live in Golden Gate Estates and have over 200 fruit trees on my property. None of what is currently flowering is setting fruit right now because there are ZERO bees on my land. NONE. There are TONS of flowers but no bees. Their numbers began to dwindle when this year's mosquito spraying started and the last round completely decimated them.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

[tmozer]

I think that honey bees are more-or-less history. As a kid growing up in NJ honey bees were all over the place. You could not walk on a lawn in the summer barefoot without the risk of getting stung. We had three honey bee hives in our back yard in Cherry Hill and my father and I would harvest the honey. I would pull my wagon around the neighborhood selling the honey in jam jars. Great memories.....

I see no honey bees in NJ. I see few, if any in SC. Naples was the last place I noticed honey bees (there was a wild hive in a tree I use to see last year on my morning walks along Livingston). But since I have not been back in SW Florida since March, maybe they are gone from Naples too...... Sad!

[motordavid]

It is a nationwide problem. GOOG 'where are the bees' etc. Pages of good links on the possible 'whys': bee mites, weather patterns, increased use of herbicides and pesticides, etc.

Pollinators of all species are 'down' per some of the serious bio and tech sites.

Anecdotally, many of our local farmers, growers and orchard people here in the Mtns of western NC, report the same lack of pollinators, which include literally hundreds of species.

Not tree hugging, but if the pollinators don't/can't do their job, many things we eat and take for granted, don't come to fruition.
GL, mD

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by TheYogi

I live in Golden Gate Estates and have over 200 fruit trees on my property. None of what is currently flowering is setting fruit right now because there are ZERO bees on my land. NONE. There are TONS of flowers but no bees. Their numbers began to dwindle when this year's mosquito spraying started and the last round completely decimated them.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

I saw them pollinating the cucumber vines over the summer but none of our fruit trees have been bearing much fruit. We thought it was just mybe not the right time of year.

I've also read where this my be starting to have some political ramifications

[TheYogi]

Originally Posted by MRG Dallas

I saw them pollinating the cucumber vines over the summer but none of our fruit trees have been bearing much fruit. We thought it was just mybe not the right time of year.

I've also read where this my be starting to have some political ramifications

I worked all day around my farm today and was excited to see two bees! Luckily the mosquito control is spraying in my area tonight (you can see it here: Google Tonight's Spray Area) to make sure those two bees don't get the wrong idea and start pollinating. Or living.

How many mosquitoes did I get bit by all day?

Zero.

Your tax dollars at work.

[FLBirdwatcher]

It is not the mosquito control that is destroying the bees. It is the citrus farmers with their pesticides. If you ride from Naples to Orlando through the back roads along the orange tree trail, you will see that citrus farmers have lots of bees in white boxes. You can see them along the road as you pass the groves. They have to have the bees, but yet they over spray which destroys them. See this article: Fla. Citrus Grower Fined for Killing Millions of Honeybees | NBC Southern California