Mass Honeybee Deaths Linked to Insecticide

[The Straight Story]

Mass Honeybee Deaths Linked to Insecticide

Agricultural chemicals may be partly responsible for the massive die-off of honeybees in the U.S., according to researchers at Purdue University. Entomologists have found the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are used on corn and soybean seeds and are known to be “highly toxic to bees; we found them in each sample of dead and dying bees,” Christian Krupke, associate professor of entomology, told Purdue Daily. Except for organically grown crops, almost all corn seeds planted in the United States are coated with neonicotinoid insecticides, leading to exposure to honeybees foraging near corn fields.

Honeybees pollinate about 30% of all food consumed and contribute $15-20 billion a year in agriculture revenue for the U.S. The U.S. is currently losing about one-third of its honeybee hives each year. Some researchers (and pesticide manufacturers, such as Bayer) have maintained that the die-offs have been caused not by pesticides, but by viruses and fungi.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Mass_Honeybee_Deaths_Linked_to_Insecticide_120131

[BeHereNow]

1. The Agra-Cartel will never admit to their connection, if one is proved.

Sounds very likely though based on the Purdue researchers-
What ever the cause, the bee die off is pretty serious stuff.
BHN

[BeHereNow]

3. Glitch in the system- thought I had to repost, but it came up a dupe- self deleted. n/t

bhn

[Pisces]

4. Of course it is. I don't need to be a scientist to link the two. We are killing ourselves.

[HopeHoops]

5. It's true even at the local level. We have one of the few non-poisoned lawns.

We easily have more honeybees (and many other kinds) than all of the neighbors within half a mile combined. They don't have any dandylions, but we have bees and our crops get pollinated.

[MadHound]

6. That is indeed part of the problem

But the biggest part of the problem is the monodiet that we feed our domesticated bees. Out in nature, bees take pollen from corn one day, marigolds the next day, and ragweed the next, depending upon what dietary requirements are needed in the hive. This balanced diet provides strong immunity and good health for the hive. Strong enough to withstand a lot of mankind throws at them.

But domesticated bees don't get that balanced diet. They are trucked from place to place, spending a couple of weeks in the apple orchards of the Midwest, being fed only apple pollen during that time. Then trucked out to California to spend three weeks eating only almond pollen, then trucked somewhere else, on and on. This sort of diet depletes their immune systems, leaving them susceptible to all sorts of diseases, parasites and other problems.

If we want to keep domesticated bees, we have got to stop feeding them a monodiet for weeks on end, and let them choose what they need to eat. Of course that means that Big Agra won't make as much money, but it's better than having no crops at all.

[originalpckelly]

9. Indeed.

We need to have varied farm production. People could probably figure out a smart way to interleave the various things being grown and do it so that it's fairly efficient to harvest.

[riverwalker]

7. Lead investigator recieved a grant from Bayer

What a scientist didn't tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.fortune/index.htm

[originalpckelly]

8. Yeah, this is in the Vanishing of the Bees.

The french banned this shit in the '90s after they noticed the same shit happening there.

The problem with America is that instead of relying on the precautionary principle, we simply allow things to be on the market for extended periods of time without much worry, until there is an absolutely ironclad proof the chemical is dangerous. In France and other European countries, you only have to show that there is some evidence that it is true and raise a suspicion.

[MagickMuffin]

10. You can also blame ignorant people as well

Let me explain. Here in Texas there is a large honeybee population occupying various landscapes.

I had a huge hive living under our storage building. At the time it was no big deal. But then we brought home to live with us two of my deceased FIL's goats. Since we had to build a pen to keep them in it ended up close to where the honeybees had made their hive. Being concerned about my goats getting stung or for that matter that we would get stung, I searched for someone to come and remove them.

I found someone to come and take them away. This woman lives on a farm and has hives on her property. So, she smoked them out and collected them and took them home with her.

While she was here we discussed the alarming rate in which honeybees are disappearing. She said that the scouter bees will travel up to ten miles in search of a new home for the queen and therefore the hive. Then they settle in to their new digs.

She mentioned that they are finding new places to settle into, like under our building. Unconcerned people will often poison the hive thinking that will be the end of their problem. However, there are "raider" bees who will raid abandoned hives, then go back to their own hives. When these raider bees go back home they are carrying the poison with them and hence they are now killing off their hive in the process.

I see several ads on Craigslist offering "free honey and the bees to go along with it" which is not a good idea to eat honey from a wild environment. When I have run across these ads, I email them and inform them not to poison the hive. I never hear back so I have no idea if they heed my warning. I did have my SIL call this lady to remove the bees from her home that she isn't living in anymore. Once again the BeeCharmer saved a colony of honeybees.

This is not to imply that the AG-Biz isn't poisoning the bees as well, but that we need to relazie the problem goes even beyond them.

[bvar22]

13. The recommended proceedure for dealing with Wild Bees...

...behind the Africanized line is the elimination of those bees.

"...Furthermore, experience in Latin America has shown that wild African honey bee reproductive swarms, although naturally gentle themselves, can develop into large colonies of extremely defensive bees when a nest site is selected and actively used. Thus, the common and rewarding practice of capturing and maintaining wild swarms (those from unmanaged apiaries) by beekeepers is now discouraged by state personnel, and swarm/wild colony removal should be performed only by a Pest Control Operator certified in stinging insect colony removal/eradication.

The reason wild colonies removed by PCOs are eradicated is because a wild colony can become a liability issue for the property owner should any stinging incident involving the bees occur and the bees be shown to be African. Even if the colony was not Africanized, it is always possible that the colony will become Africanized through hybridization in the future. Therefore, it is safest to eradicate the colony.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg113

Texas is behind the Africanized line, as well as Arkansas where we live.
As BeeKeepers, we are very careful with our colonies of European Bees,
and won't take the risk of introducing any wild bees to our colonies.

We are occasionally asked to remove spring swarms or unwanted colonies.
We politely decline, thank the caller,
and refer them to the Police or Fire Dept.

[bvar22]

11. Our Honey Bees thank you.

We Keep Bees, and one of the reasons we moved to this area (Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas) was the distance from Factory Farms and toxic Suburbs.

We are also curious as to what percentage of these toxins find their way into Corn Syrup.
Many BeeKeepers feed their bees Corn Syrup,
especially the commercial "Honey" operations whose Bee Yards are so crowded that there is not near enough natural forage to sustain them.

Corn Syrup ]could be a vector for introducing these toxins these hives.
We have absolutely no evidence of this happening,
and it is possible that the refining process for Corn Syrup eliminates 100.00% of them,
but as a precaution, we use pure cane sugar when it is necessary to feed our bees.
Besides, we don't eat corn syrup, and don't expect our bees to eat it either.

[3waygeek]

12. An insecticide killing insects?

Gee, who'd have thunk it?