Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides, which now coat upwards of 90 percent of US corn seeds and seeds of increasing portions of other major crops like soy, have emerged as a likely trigger for colony collapse disorder.
Meanwhile, the Columbus Dispatch reports similar bee die-offs in Ohio farm country, with beekeepers there, too, pointing the finger at Bayer.
I figured it was barefoot kids walking in the clover and stepping on them.
Boy that smarts.
While neonicotiniods can and will kill bees, bees are not interested in Corn as it is wind pollinated. Also there are other problems with miticides and mites in hives along with a parasitic wasp.
I’m aware of the role of neonicotinoid pesticides in colony collapse disorder, and find it interesting that lately I’ve seen a number of articles on bee disappearance, that have made no mention of those pesticides. Monsanto and Bayer are fighting desperately to keep the public from finding out about neonicotinoids. Monsanto went so far as to buy Bee Logic, the principal bee research outfit, in order to quash investigation into the role of those pesticides in CCD (and those pesticides are now used as coatings on nearly all of the GMO crop seeds).