Bee Pollen And Hives Laden With Pesticides,

[caseymoz]

Source: AP via Huffington Post

The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides.

Two federal agencies along with regulators in California and Canada are scrambling to figure out what is behind this relatively recent threat, ordering new research on pesticides used in fields and orchards. Federal courts are even weighing in this month, ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overlooked a requirement when allowing a pesticide on the market.

And on Thursday, chemists at a scientific conference in San Francisco will tackle the issue of chemicals and dwindling bees in response to the new study.

Scientists are concerned because of the vital role bees play in our food supply. About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/bee-pollen-and-hives-lade_n_511361.html

---

Not extremely surprising to say the least. I'm just a little surprised to see that it took four years before our government determined this. Like, let's look at the chemical industry last. It seems that the pesticides meant to protect agriculture are threatening to kill it.

Now, it's not the only culprit, the article also mentions viruses and of course, there are those nasty mites, but this is shocking in the extent that so many pesticides were allowed to poison bees before anybody comes close to admitting it might be part of the problem. Might the insects be able to fight off viruses better if they weren't poisoned.

Either way, the losses among bees this year look like they might be worse.

And if the bees are poisoned with pesticides, what about us?

[SpiralHawk]

1. D'oh

The wholesale onslaught of genetically mutant corporate crops -- and the occult unlabeled food-facsimile products they yield - ain't doing the bees any favors either. But we'll have corporate sockpuppets on this thread in no time making 'claims' about how 'safe' and 'necessary' they are...

[mariawr]

5. Sock puppets. So true. nt

[crikkett]

10. If the hives are poisoned, imagine the honey.

I'm buying organic honey this season.
Yikes.

[DeSwiss]

2. K&R

- Unchecked, capitalism rots from within.....

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. there's a bee hive in our walls...

once it warms up, I'm going to have the bee expert guy come and cut out a hole so he can save them and give 'em a new home.

A lot of them came in the living room last fall and I took them back outside one by one, carrying them on my finger. They're very gentle.

[tama]

13. I've startet to slowly realize

that bees - and even angry earth wasps - give plenty of warnings before they really attack a stupid insensitive human that threatens their home.

Yes, I'm a stupid wannabe gardener that has blindly tried to weed earth wasps home - the fastest and most painfull run in my life. And yes, they gave me plenty of warnings that I was too insensitive to notice in my weeding frenzy.

Last summer we had very peacefull coexistance with a wasp nest at our front door. Never no problem.

[FedUpWithIt All]

4. The chemicals beekeepers are using to fight the increasingly resistant mites and parasites

have been really irresponsibly used.

The good thing is that many of the small scale and hobby keepers seem to be catching onto the problems and the need for changes. I was just reading a beekeepers magazine and they were lamenting the shortsightedness of the commercial beekeepers who jump on and overuse, detrimentally, any new chemical treatment that comes along usually rendering the treatment useless in a fairly short amount of time.

There are alternative things being discussed. Things like naturally resistant breed intensive production, allowing natural cell sizing in the brood and freezing drone brood frames but these methods simply don't allow for the production results that commercial keepers prefer to see. They want an unnaturally high production level from severely overstressed bees. And it is a recipe for disaster for everyone.

Edited to add that a large number of the chemicals found in beeswax may be due to frame reuse. The chemical levels are increased by the repeated use of built comb. Old wax absorbs chemicals over each successive year leading to increasingly unsafe levels.

[troubledamerican]

6. Does Monsanto own a market for Roundup-resistant bees? Would they

have a dog in this fight? Like they do with their plans to monopolize the seed market by eliminating all seeds except their trademarked "Terminator" seeds?

[hollowdweller]

7. I miss my bees

I used to keep bees for years. Make mead.

Beekeeping used to be one of the easiest things to do.

Then the various mites took all the fun out of it.

They killed all my bees and several times over the years I tried the various chemicals and resistant strains without success.

Even commercial guys still experience really high mortality despite using all the chemicals.

I keep hoping there will be some sort of resistant strain or breakthru but haven't seen it yet.

They were cool. Loved hearing them, watching them, the smell of the hives when there was a lot of pollen being taken in.

[Canuckistanian]

8. I think DUer hatrack still keeps bees

You should talk to him.

[catgirl]

9. The EPA approved a pesticide from a lobbyists OWN STUDIES!

"Despite EPA assurances, environmental groups don't think the EPA is doing enough on pesticides.
Bayer Crop Science started petitioning the agency to approve a new pesticide for sale in 2006. After reviewing the company's studies of its effects on bees, the EPA gave Bayer conditional approval to sell the product two years later, but said it had to carry a label warning that it was "potentially toxic to honey bee larvae through residues in pollen and nectar."
The Natural Resources Defense Council sued, saying the agency failed to give the public timely notice for the new pesticide application. In December, a federal judge in New York agreed, banning the pesticide's sale and earlier this month, two more judges upheld the ruling."

This occurred in 2006 under the watch of George Bush. These so-called studies by the companies THEMSELVES are bullshit. And where was the media? Shouldn't there be AHA! moments when crap like this occurs?

[tom_paine]

18. Corporate-controlled M$M doesn't bite the hand that feeds it

Advertising revenues might go down! Angry teabaggers may write nasty e-mails!

Oh my!

[crikkett]

11. You know what's awful? The pesticides in question are never named!

What a horrible reporting job.

[happyslug]

12. Because is it a Bayer Product and the # 1 Pesticide in use today

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid_effects_on_bee_population

List of Insecticides harmful to bees:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide_toxicity_to_bees

Wikipedia article of the Insecticide in question (I believe the Wikipedia Article was written by a pro-Bayer person so read it with that understanding):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid_effects_on_bee_population

Please note, insecticides may be only one portion of the problem. The other portion is that bees are moved around to pollinate crops and thus intermix extensively throughout the year. This brings with it an increase exposure to mites and other biological problems for each bee hive (i.e. such biological problem is spread faster among bees do to the fact bees are being shipped all over the country).

It is believe this one, two punch (Extensive movement AND the new pesticides) are what is leading to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The best solution would be to ban this type of Chemicals (based to Nicotine) AND put restrictions on the movement of bees. The former is going to be opposed by Farmers who sees this new type of insecticide as necessary to keep lost to insects down, while the latter is going to be opposed by farmers who want to grow only one crop in an area.

Lets remember Bees need various crops to gather pollen with very few exceptions, plants only come into pollen for a few weeks a year. Thus bees can only pollinate that crop for the few weeks it is in pollen. Afterward the bee must find another plant that is coming into pollen. In olden days farmers would plant various crops so that the bees had a different plant coming into pollen throughout the year (including flowers and other plants planted just to give the bees something to pollinate between crops coming into season). With modern huge farms, generally only one crop is grown so the bees must be moved in during the flowering stage and then moved out afterward. This is the reason bees are being moved around do to mono-culture. Bees are surviving in areas where mono-culture is NOT in use, but not elsewhere (Mostly deep woods away from domestic bees that are being moved around, please note "wild" bees are also disappearing but mostly in areas where they come into contact with bees that are being moved around).

A complication in this debate is that the latest insecticide tends to be "ejected" into the ground along with the seed it is suppose to protect. This "Ejection" is believe to cause some of the insecticide to separate from the plant and stay active for up to two years afterward (The "half-life" for the insecticide is given at 90 days, but bees are one of those insects that gather more of this type of insecticide up then other insects, mostly do to moving from flower to flower and each time getting more and more of the insecticide). A further complication may be the the insecticide works by making the insect disorientated, and this disorientation would affect a bee colony at much lower levels then solitary insects.

The solution appears to be one that is unacceptable to farmers. Banning this type of insecticide AND restricting the movement of bees (i.e. restrict such movements to clear farming districts, no East coast to West Coast movement, the great plains are used for grain crops that do NOT depend on bees, just prohibit any movement of bees over the grain belt would be a start.

Please note, they are other insects (Bumble bees for one) that can pollinate these crops, but they are NOT movable like the honey bee and thus NOT an acceptable substitute (The honey crop is minor part of raising bees in the US, China dominates the production of honey and undercuts any domestic production, thus most bee keepers main form of income is moving their bees to pollinate crops).

[tama]

14. Monoculture = suicide

Didn't we learn anything from Irish Famine?

This suicidal mania is most frustrating, as there's no good reason for it.

[happyslug]

15. So what else is new?

When Small farmers were the rule of the land they rarely practiced mono-culture, they could NOT afford it. Even in the 1950s it was noted that if you look at TOTAL production per acre, small farmers who mixed crops were more productive then large single crop farmers (Through on a per crop per acre basis the later looked more productive). The small farmers then (Organic farmers or Farmettes now) would mix crops in the same acre. The classic is the Native American three sisters, pumpkins, corn and beans. These three crops would grow together, the beans (what is now called "Pole Beans" would climb up the corn stocks and the pumpkins would take cover in between the corn stocks. This required more human input to pick the beans by hand, the Corn by hand and the Pumpkins by hand then mono-culture methods but it worked. Furthermore since it was restricted to what a family could pick, the farms tended to be under 50 acres with hedgerows between the fields. In those hedgerows other plants would thrive, thus giving native bees multiple flowers to go after during the year (Corn like other grains do NOT need insect pollination, but beans and pumpkins do much better with honey bees).

Hopefully the Honey bee survives and thus we do NOT have to go back completely to small farms for out non-grain crops, but unless something is done to save the Honey Bees farmers will have to go to multiple crops per farm for any crops that needs insect pollination.

[tama]

16. Yield per acre

I just saw an English document on "permaculture" forest gardens. One forest garden produced "only" two thirds of coffee beans compared to monoculture coffee plantation. But in addition to coffee the forest garden produced also about 100 other crops! :)

It is fascinating to realize that there is really no upper limit except imagination to what a forest garden can produce. And to realize that it takes a huge amount of time and energy to keep land unnaturally at succession stage 1 from year to year (not to mention causing erosion and poisoning the soil etc.). Fighting nature instead of working with nature is indeed extremely inefficient.

[arachadillo]

17. Honey Bee News

Keeping Track of the honey bee update, I noticed three interrelated causes cited for CCD: Pesticides, Mites and Environmental Stresses

caseymoz reported: The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides.

"Not extremely surprising to say the least. I'm just a little surprised to see that it took four years before our government determined this. Like, let's look at the chemical industry last. It seems that the pesticides meant to protect agriculture are threatening to kill it."

Source of some chemicals: "The good thing is that many of the small scale and hobby keepers seem to be catching onto the problems and the need for changes. I was just reading a beekeepers magazine and they were lamenting the shortsightedness of the commercial beekeepers who jump on and overuse, detrimentally, any new chemical treatment that comes along usually rendering the treatment useless in a fairly short amount of time.

There are alternative things being discussed. Things like naturally resistant breed intensive production, allowing natural cell sizing in the brood and freezing drone brood frames but these methods simply don't allow for the production results that commercial keepers prefer to see. They want an unnaturally high production level from severely overstressed bees. And it is a recipe for disaster for everyone.

Edited to add that a large number of the chemicals found in beeswax may be due to frame reuse. The chemical levels are increased by the repeated use of built comb. Old wax absorbs chemicals over each successive year leading to increasingly unsafe levels."

The mite factor: "Beekeeping used to be one of the easiest things to do.

Then the various mites took all the fun out of it.

They killed all my bees and several times over the years I tried the various chemicals and resistant strains without success.

Even commercial guys still experience really high mortality despite using all the chemicals."

Environmental Stresses Such As Overwork: "Please note, insecticides may be only one portion of the problem. The other portion is that bees are moved around to pollinate crops and thus intermix extensively throughout the year. This brings with it an increase exposure to mites and other biological problems for each bee hive (i.e. such biological problem is spread faster among bees do to the fact bees are being shipped all over the country).

It is believe this one, two punch (Extensive movement AND the new pesticides) are what is leading to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The best solution would be to ban this type of Chemicals (based to Nicotine) AND put restrictions on the movement of bees. The former is going to be opposed by Farmers who sees this new type of insecticide as necessary to keep lost to insects down, while the latter is going to be opposed by farmers who want to grow only one crop in an area."

[tama]

19. Just like our corporate masters

"They want an unnaturally high production level from severely overstressed bees. And it is a recipe for disaster for everyone."