Beekeepers suspect neonicotinoids,

[lovuian]

Run time: 01:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH9mpHNawSs   Posted on YouTube: June 17, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 17, 2007 By DU Member: lovuian Views on DU: 2471

 
Scientists Examine Cause of Bee Die-Off
snip...

Scientists from Penn State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are leading the research into colony-collapse disorder, including study of the yet-to-be identified pathogen, a microorganism capable of causing disease.

But commercial beekeeper David Hackenberg isn't waiting to take action. He's asking growers whether they use pesticides on fields before bringing his bees for pollination.

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 tasty flowering crops, including apples, nuts and citrus fruit.

Hackenberg, 58, trucks his bees around the country for pollination -- from oranges in Florida to blueberries in Maine. He was the first beekeeper to report the disorder to Penn State researchers last fall, having lost nearly 75 percent of his 3,200 colonies.

He said he is convinced pesticides, and in particular a kind of pesticide called neonicotinoids, were harming his bees.

"I'm quizzing every farmer around," Hackenberg said. "If you're going to use that stuff, then you're going to have go to somebody else."
more...
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12961&ref=rss

WARNING DUERS
Check the pesticide you buy at the store some do not have the warnings commercial sprayers have Why FREAKIN NOT I have no idea but bayer is looking into that ....About time maybe the little bee is saving our butts

[whistle]

1. This neonicotinoid stuff is lethal...artificial nicotine,.. why not use real

...nictine? And, is this shit being added to tobacco for human consumption?

<snip>
Neonicotinoids
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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In 2001, the US Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of Syngenta when the company filed suit against Bayer to protect its patent on a class of neonicotinoid insecticides.

Neonicotinoids have been strictly limited in France since the 1990s, when they were implicated in a mass die-off of the bee population.

Neonicotinoids are artificial forms of nicotine that act as neurotoxins to insects, entomologists say. That may account for worker bees neglecting to provide food for eggs and larvae, and for a breakdown of the bees' navigational abilities.
Extensive testing, however, has never proven these concentrations are high enough to harm bees, said Chris Mullin, a Penn State entomologist.

Contents
1 Imidacloprid
2 Confused and disoriented bees
3 Related
4 References
5 External Links



Imidacloprid
The neonicotinoid insecticides include imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin, and several others. Imidacloprid is used extensively in seed dressing for field and horticultural crops, and particularly for maize, sunflower and rapeseed (canola). Imidacloprid was detected in soils, plant tissues and pollen using HPLC coupled to a mass spectrometer. The levels of the insecticide found in pollen suggested probable delirious effects on honeybees <3>. For several years since 2000, French and Italian beekeepers have been noticing that imidacloprid is lethal to bees, and the insecticide is suspected to be causing the decline of hive populations by affecting the bee’s orientation and ability to return to the hive.


Confused and disoriented bees
A team of scientist led by the National Institute of Beekeeping in Bologna, Italy, found that pollen obtained from seeds dressed with imidacloprid contains significant levels of the insesticide, and suggested that the polluted pollen was one of the main causes of honeybee colony collapse <4>. Analysis of maize and sunflower crops originating from seeds dressed with imidacloprid indicated that large amounts of the insecticide will be carried back to honey bee colonies <5>. Sub-lethal doses of imidacloprid in sucrose solution affected homing and foraging activity of honeybees. Bees fed with 500 or 1,000 ppb (parts per billion) of the insecticide in sucrose solutions failed to return to the hive and disappeared altogether, while bees that had imbibed 100 ppb solutions were delayed for 24 h compared with controls <6>. Imidacloprid in sucrose solution fed to the bees in the laboratory impaired their communication for a few hours <7>. Sub-lethal doses of imidacloprid in laboratory and field experiment decreased flight activity and olfactory discrimination, and olfactory learning performance was impaired <8>.

Bayer corporation scientists reported that neither honeybees exposed to imidacloprid in sunflower seeds dressed with the insecticide <9> nor maize seeds dressed with the insecticide or released from the seeds during planting <10> were detrimental to honeybees. The Bayer studies did not deal with sub-lethal behaviour of intoxicated bees. An independent study found that imidacloprid was released to the environment from treated maize seeds during seed planting <11>. Bayer eco-toxicologists directed harsh criticisms at reports showing lethal or sub-lethal toxic effects of imidicloprid seed dressing and concluded that imidacloprid does not pose any significant risk to honeybees in the field <12>, without, however, disproving the findings. It is simply yet another case of the anti-precaution principle being applied <13> (Use and Abuse of the Precautionary Principle, ISIS News 6)

Turning to GM crops such as maize, canola, cotton and soybean it is clear that all of these GM crops, with or without Bt genes, use seeds most of which are coated with neonicotinoid pesticides highly toxic to honey bees. For example, Herculex maize with Bt genes to control rootworm, like Yieldgard corn borer resistant maize, is planted with seeds dressed with a neonicotinoid insecticide and a fungicide. Furthermore, the GM planting requires setting aside plots of non-GM maize making up 20 percent of the planted area as a “refuge” to discourage the evolution of resistant insects. But the “refuge” is sprayed with neonicotinoid pesticide to protect its yield <14>, and is more like a death camp for insects. Monsanto’s US Patent 6,660,690 provides for coating GM seeds with chemical pesticides <15>.

<link> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoids

[emilyg]

2. We don't need to use pesticides.

[Mark D.]

3. Elephants

(Pun INTENDED) in the room many refuse to see:

1) Pesticides kill insects. Bees are insects.

2) This particular pesticide was already once
banned for doing what? Killing honeybees...

3) What we need is to get 'Bush's people on it'.
They'll deny there is a problem for a few years,
saying we need more research, and not action...

[lovuian]

4. Bee are going on strike

if you spray with this pesticides they aren't going to pollinate your crops

looking in crystal ball
I see Bayer's profits dropping like a sledge hammer

[lovuian]

5. I wonder if they ever solved this problem

I haven't heard anything lately