Fipronil, made by Bayer. It's the ingredient in Frontline flea/tick control, and ...
Fipronil is implicated in European bee problems.
Posted on 02/18/2007 9:23:50 PM PST by fishhound
Something is killing the nation's honeybees.
Dave Hackenberg of central Pennsylvania had 3,000 hives and figures he has lost all but about 800 of them.
In labs at Pennsylvania State University, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and elsewhere in the nation, researchers have been stunned by the number of calls about the mysterious losses.
"Every day, you hear of another operator," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "It's just causing so much death so quickly that it's startling."
At stake is the work the honeybees do, pollinating more than $15 billion worth of U.S. crops, including Pennsylvania's apple harvest, the fourth-largest in the nation, worth $45 million, and New Jersey's cranberries and blueberries.
While a few crops, such as corn and wheat, are pollinated by the wind, most need bees. Without these insects, crop yields would fall dramatically. Agronomists estimate Americans owe one in three bites of food to bees.
The problem caps 20 years of honeybee woes, including two mites that killed the valuable insect and a predatory beetle that attacked the honeycombs of weak or dead colonies.
"This is by far the most alarming," said Maryann Frazier, an apiculture - or beekeeping - expert at Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Here is more info from Penn State.
http://aginfo.psu.edu/news/07Jan/HoneyBees.htm
> This does not look good.
In all seriousness, this could be a freakin' disaster in the making. Honeybees have been in trouble for years, but this kind of falloff is really quite worrisome. It could also be an indicator of something larger, where the bees' trouble is only one symptom, and more are to follow. Worth keeping an eye on.
At Thanksgiving I always give thanks to the honeybees and most people around me look as if I've gone insane-- a few a get it.
Without honeybees, many people would starve. Hope this doesn't get out of control.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_483406.html
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/index.html
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/pressReleases/ColonyCollapseDisorderWG.html
Pesticides soaked up by the plants, applied by the farmers, to control aphids, scales, and other parasites is a possible cause. Given the recent banning of popular, proven pesticides, the newer ones may have the side effect of killing bees. Systemic ones, which would get into the plant's nectar, have become popular.
I raise a few cherry trees, and bees coming to them have all but disappeared.
That happened out here in the PNW about 5 years ago. I think they tracked the die off to a virus or parasite if I recall. It healed itself after decimating many bees.
Fipronil, made by Bayer. It's the ingredient in Frontline flea/tick control, and ...
Fipronil is implicated in European bee problems.
I garden and this year I was going to have a bee hive.
I am thinking some food comodities people will make a lot of money and all of us may be adjusting our habits in some damn unpleasant way.
I do think that there were always a lot more bees around when i was a kid. ( Course I was a kid and it was sort of an antagonistic relationship...vengeful little bastards! lol)
http://www.rense.com/health/madbee.htm
old article but is this the same stuff?
At issue is what the Ministry of Environment reports may be the insecticide, Gaucho, produced by the German agrochemical company Bayer SA. It is used to protect sunflowers from parasites.
Here is was a similar alamr of dyoff in 2005. But the one this year must be different.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2005/03/28/m1a_honeybees_0328.html
Under attack from a Southeast Asian parasite, vast numbers of the creatures are dying off, worried industry experts say. More than 50 percent of the bees in California, critical to the success of the Golden State's almond crop, have died during the past six months. Frantic growers there have sent out the call around the world, including Florida, for hives.
honey bee ping
We live in Western Riverside County, California. We have many Eucalyptus trees as well Citrus and volumes of other species of plants and shrubs on our property. We have bee's by the...uncountable thousands maybe millions of them here. The trees, shrubs and groundcover are crawling with bees.
>> Gaucho, produced by the German agrochemical
The active ingredient is imidacloprid
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1785723/posts?page=41#41
Thanks for the ping. This is a serious problem.
I wonder if the genetically modified crops have had any negative influence on bees?
I read several places that the Monarch Butterflies are decreasing greatly because of the GM corn crops. This website talks mentions the honey bees: http://dnawiz.com/dna-research/genetically-modified-foods-and-biosafety.html
Genetically modified products such as canola have been reported to kill beneficial insects such as the Monarch Butterfly larvae and honey bees.
A little late....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1783102/posts
I tried the search by title and did not find anything.
Here is a page for a book i bought...it will turn your stomach if you get a chance to read it. I don't know about the CD's on the right they are new.
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/Home/index.cfm
I do know that wherever this author goes to speak and sign books, Monsanto sends lawyers to hand out papers in opposition. He writes about it in the Preface.
I cant help but wonder if this started out being something to use against killer bees, and it got out of control?
Dunno, but so far, my eurobees have been immune. Time will tell.
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