Posted on 02/07/2014 5:21:27 PM PST by Sir Napsalot
If the Environmental Protection Agency moves to restrict neonicotinoid pesticides, often called neonics, because of fears that they are causing bee deaths, it will happen in spite of the mounting empirical evidence rather than because of it.
Last December, in response to fevered political pressure, the European Commission banned the use of neonics for two years. The moratorium, guided by the precautionary politics that now dominate science-based regulation in Europe, took effect just as a number of new studies shed increasing doubt on the belief that neonics play a key role in bee health.
(snip)
The “crisis” prompting this handwringing is an age-old problem in the bee world: unpredictable bee deaths. They’ve occurred periodically for more than a century, but remerged with a vengeance in 2004 in the California almond fields, where casualty rates briefly approached 60 percent. Beekeepers called it the ‘vampire mite scare’ because of its likely link to varroa mites —parasites that feed on the bodily fluid of bees—and on miticides used to combat them.
In 2006, there were fresh reports of unexplained bee deaths in what was known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, in which all the worker bees from a colony abruptly disappeared without a trace—no dead bodies to be found.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Here is some more relevant excerpt -
PMRA could also have drawn upon previous studies, including three major field investigations on neonicotinoid pesticides in 2002, 2005 and 2012 by environmental biologist Cynthia Scott-Dupree of the University of Guelph and entomologist Chris Cutler of Dalhousie University. The researchers noted residues of neonics in ailing bee hives, but at levels hundreds of times lower than scientists believe would have any impact on bees. Their conclusion echoed recent findings by DEFRA, USDA and EPA: many factors contribute to bee deaths, but neonics in particular had “no effects” on their poor performance. (end excerpt)
I remember the European groups against the pesticides argued that residual pesticides even at such low level weakened the bees so much that they eventually succumbed to other factors (fungus, mites, other environmental factors, etc.)
My former boss is into bee keeping and specifically sending SE Idaho bees to Cali almond groves. No crop insurance down thee unless they have bees on site.
He reports mite infestation as their main problem.
Hey, Napper,
The older I got, the longer the nap.
OTH, been an apiary guy since I was a kid, and that was a LONG time ago.
I will read the article. I’m deeply concerned about the plight of the honey bee.
They ARE integral to the health of agriculture and orchards.
Hey, YO! SWAMPY,
REALLY NICE PIC!
Oh yea, I get up close and cuddly with my hives.
They really are like friends to me.
Wear white cotton, they will crawl ALL OVER you, and won’t bite, not even once.
BTW, my grandmother had severe RH. Bee sting poison RELIEVES the symptoms.
She would go out and separate the supers, pull out the frames, NO SMOKER, NO NET! You think those little buggers would bite her?
She did get ONE hit, on the tip of her nose, and for about 2 days, she was a happy camper. RH pain just wasn’t there.
The rest of us?
HooBoi, did we take it on the chin.
"Was you ever bit by a dead bee?"
so much of science has been perverted by the mindset in “sociology” and its related “social sciences” and their “studies” and in that genre of what I will call “soft” science an increasing tendency to accept correlation as though it was causation
and so, in keeping with an anti-scientific attitude, among some of the scientists studying the issues with bees, it was not a stretch for them to conclude - pesticide bad, pesticide levels “high” when adverse beehive conditions found, ergo the pesticide is the cause
yet true science knows that correlation is not causation, no matter what the heavily politicized fields of science today say
What is RH?
Nice bees. Healthy
all the worker bees from a colony abruptly disappeared without a trace—no dead bodies to be found.
who is John Galt
Rheumatoid Arthritis. As opposed to Osteoarthritis. Large amounts of information on LifeExtension - www.lef.com, and also Earthclinic - www.earthclinic.com. As it turns out, they seem to be more closely related than originally thought. In addition, there may be a parasite connection, but this will take more work by a person interested to research. Start at www.huldaclark.com or on Youtube - “parasite-cancer connection”. Have fun. Oh, BTW, there appears to be a MS (multiple sclerosis) connection as well.
Thanks Sir Napsalot.
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