Brian Romberg loves his bees. And the owner of Brian’s Live Bee Removal Services shared some of that enthusiasm with almost 80 people who attended the March meeting of the Redlands Horticultural and Improvement Society Thursday night at the Church of the Nazarene.
Calling his talk, “The Importance of Bees and Their Challenges,” the white-haired Romberg addressed his audience while wearing his full beekeeper outfit, including the screened hood, which he pulled over his head at one point.
Romberg, who’s been a beekeeper for 25 years, began on an ominous note that sent a hush through his audience. “Bees are in danger. We’ve lost 50 percent of our bees in the last 25 years,” he said, a statistic he said came from the United States Department of Agriculture.
“Honey bees pollinate between 75 and 90 percent of all crops,” he continued, while some crops, such as “almonds are 100 percent.”
Beyond that, though, Romberg is convinced that bees are essential to our very survival.
“Without the honey bee,” he said unequivocally, “we wouldn’t be here. That’s just the bottom line, and they’re in trouble for a lot of reasons.”
Romberg was alluding to a syndrome known as colony collapse, which has been the subject of much speculation in recent years. Although many theories have been offered to explain the phenomenon, from electronic transmissions emitted by cell phone towers, to a shift in the Earth’s magnetic field, for Romberg the culprits are clear and most likely involve pesticides, and the widespread development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
“Monsanto is not our friend,” he said, referring to a company that manufactures many pesticide products, and is behind a number of GMO plants. “And I see it in many, many areas.” There are also GMO plants that “kill the bees, and aren’t healthy for us either. We found that out.”
Romberg also points to the Bayer Corp., who was “banned from France with some of their systemic insecticides for the vegetables. You cannot wash that off your vegetables either … so there are lots of health issues. But Bayer has been a terrible thing for beekeepers.”
As a result, Romberg said, vast areas of the country are simply devoid of bees.
“You can travel for miles and see that the bees are gone. There’s no trace of them. So that’s where we are with bees and we have to try to protect them. We have other varieties than honey bees that pollinate, but nothing as well as honey bees. Beekeepers are struggling. Commercial bee keepers are getting out of the business because they’ve lost so many hives.”
Romberg went on to describe other types of bees in our area, and ways to control bee predators such as ants. There are also various medicinal uses for honey, which can be used in treating wounds, and as a natural source of energy as an alternative to energy drinks that can harm kidneys in large quantities. Honey may also relieve some allergies.
In addition, the sting of the honey bee has been found useful in reducing the effects of arthritis, multiple sclerosis and allergies, he said. There are even studies under way that may indicate some applications in preventing HIV.
As his talk wrapped up, Romberg returned to the topic of pesticides, and explained that he has some strong reservations with the Environmental Protection Agency.
“I’m not very happy with our EPA,” he said, “because they allow bee-toxic pesticides despite scientists’ red flags. The EPA is bought off too, by big business, of course,” and allows many pesticides that “kill my bees. So that’s our EPA, which is supposed to be protecting us. But I wanted to let you know that.”
During the closing questions and answers, Romberg addressed reports beginning some 30 to 40 years ago, which painted a grim picture of what might happen after Africanized bees, popularly known as killer bees in the media, and the subject of such 70s disaster films as “The Swarm,” reached America.
Although reports of widespread human fatalities have proven vastly exaggerated, Romberg’s advice is not to take them lightly.
“I will tell you what I feel if you have a swarm of bees coming after you. If you’re near a car, jump in a car. You’re going to get stung a few times,” he said, but that’s better than the alternatives.
As for reports that Africanized bees would take over completely, and either kill or drive out European bees, it seems there’s a stand-off for now.
“We have certain areas that I can tell you will be most likely Africanized than not. In Palm Desert they have a high percentage of Africanized.”
Other areas are not, and he continues his efforts to keep the Africanized bees in check.
Although Romberg clearly loves his work, he concluded his talk by observing that beekeeping is “not an easy life, like people think.”