In the county of Song, Luoyang City, Henan Province, beekeepers have been experiencing a devastating loss as their bees continue to die, with the total number reaching 3 million. This news has caught the attention of netizens as it trended on Baidu on September 27th.
According to Da Wan News on September 26th, Wang Genfa, a 73-year-old beekeeper from Song County, Luoyang City, shared with the media that since September 14th, a large number of bees have been dying day by day. This situation persisted for about 10 days, with over 500,000 bees dead. Wang expressed, “This time, the bees that died accounted for about two-fifths, something I haven’t encountered in decades.” Helpless as he watched the bees rotting, he felt deeply distressed.
Another beekeeper, Zhang Xicheng from Daping Township in Song County, faced a similar plight. Sharing the same pollen source with Wang, within 10 days, around 2 million of his bees perished, resulting in a loss exceeding 40,000 Chinese Yuan.
Three other bee farms also reported instances of bee fatalities. Although two beekeepers swiftly relocated their hives upon discovering mass bee deaths, they still couldn’t escape the tragedy.
Regarding the cause of the bee deaths, Zhang Xicheng believes it is “100% poisoning.”
Speaking to Da Wan News on September 26th, Zhang Xicheng stated, “I can recognize 90% of the symptoms of bee diseases, but this time it’s definitely poisoning.”
Similarly, Wang Genfa holds the same view, attributing the bee deaths to consuming pollen and honey contaminated with pesticides. There are people leasing land near the bee farms for growing peppers.
Wang Genfa remarked, “They don’t understand that using pesticides can easily lead to bee poisoning. They should inform us in advance so we can move the hives.”
According to Zhang Xicheng’s estimation, each box of bees roughly lost 4 kilograms, with approximately 50 boxes impacted. Calculated at a market value of 200 Yuan per kilogram of bees, his losses in this regard alone amounted to around 40,000 Yuan, not accounting for the decreased honey production in the coming year. Moreover, Zhang Xicheng also mentioned that one kilogram of bees equates to around 10,000 bees, indicating that the 200 kilograms of dead bees translate to nearly 2 million bees.
As reported by Wang Genfa, Zhang Xicheng, and other beekeepers, the combined bee mortality in this incident is approximately 3 million bees.
Following the events, Wang Genfa reached out through calls to emergency services and citizen hotlines to report the situation, to little avail.
In response, netizen “ccciyt” remarked, “Each faces their own challenges. If crop residue burning is forbidden and insects run rampant, pesticides become necessary for agricultural production, else there might be a drastic drop in yield!”
However, netizen “y666666sD” pointed out, “There are laws regulating pesticide use when plants are in bloom. Bees will die even with low pesticide levels.”
“Guangmang Huangbo” disclosed, “There were deaths last year too, but not as severe. Last year, less than one-fifth of bees died among four households, whereas this year, it reached three-fifths among the same households.”