Feds won't ban pesticides said to kill honeybees, despite 800 studies

The Washington Examiner ^ | November 26, 2014 | Paul Bedard

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Over 100 scientists worldwide, citing 800 studies, are demanding that the Obama administration follow Europe’s lead and put a moratorium on the use of a new-style pesticide blamed for the deaths of 30 percent of American honeybees every year.

In a letter to the EPA and Agriculture Department, the scientists said there is overwhelming evidence from 800 studies that the pesticide family called neonicotinoids are to blame for the substantial declines in honeybees, bumblebees and butterflies, all pollinators needed to help farmers produce billions of dollars worth of food every year.

“The 108 signers of this letter therefore urge you to take immediate action to protect bees and other pollinators, particularly from pesticides known to be harmful,” said the letter provided to Secrets.

Despite actions by the European Union and some U.S. cities and states to limit use of the “neonics,” the administration is taking a go-slow approach.

“We share concerns about the decrease in the honeybee population, without question,” EPA Director Gina McCarthy told Secrets during a recent media roundtable sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

She seemed to blame the decade-long die-off of bees on development. “There are a number of factors that need to be considered, a lot of it could be attributable to habitat loss, and much of it might be,” she said.

McCarthy added that the EPA, under President Obama’s direction, is looking into the issue and holding listening sessions around the nation, but is not ready to act until the agency has thoroughly studied the science of the pesticides.

“There is no resolution off the table,” she said. But, she added, the agency won’t be “quick to judge.”

The scientists, from schools such as Harvard University and University of California, and as far away as Germany, however, said the issue has already been studied. They cited a June 2014 worldwide review of 800 studies by 29 independent researches that blamed the bee kills on neonics, which are typically treated on seeds and can stay in the ground for years.

They are blamed for disrupting the homing ability of bees heading back to the hive, a key issue on Colony Collapse Disorder.

[piasa]

I’d be interested in knowing if any of these “scientists” have anything to do with Fenton Communication’s war on American business.

[gusopol3]

The die off of the wild honey bees was noticeable 20 years ago; at the time, the only explanation I saw for it was tracheal mites

[Arthur McGowan]

America doesn’t deserve to be able to grow crops. America must be punished.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/colony-collapse-disorder-fraud-pesticides-cause-bee-die-offs

[Cicero]

Obama wants to see more people starving.

[Caipirabob]

Less food, less people. Brought to you by the EPA...

[huldah1776]

Sounds like the bees are suffering from severe dementia.

[marktwain]

“Also, they monitored any diseases or parasites and dealt with those problems. “

Yes, I read another source that said the decline was due the spread of a particular parasite.

It would have to be a pretty good study to be able to discover the inability of bees to find their way back to the hive.

It is possible, I suppose. I have become skeptical of “group think” ever since we have been manipulated on “climate science” that is anything but.

[blackdog]

I was 18, away at school in Florida when I was caught stealing oranges from my 84 year old neighbor's yard. As punishment he made me help him with his bees. He had gotten too old and frail for the heavy lifting.

I got more education from my neighbor than I did with my degree.

I have had anywhere from 2 to 30 hives over the past 32 years. Most of my hive losses are from Veroa Mites than anything else.

[jy8z]

I need to know how to displace a hive without harming the bees and not costing me any money. They're being a major problem but I don't want to kill them.

Anyone with ideas?

[marktwain]

There are often people in an area who will take a hive. A hive can be placed in another location by moving the queen, I believe.

[blackdog]

First of all, the honey bee is not indigenous to North America. It is an introduced species of bee which was brought here from European settlers.

Second of all, I place swarm bait hives out every spring, sprayed with queen pheromone. I have never not had a swarm colonize the hive set out. I do not see a drop in feral bee colonies. There is no such thing as wild bees, because they are not native in the first place.

The only real threat I've had to deal with has been the municipal mosquito spraying done at nights from the back of trucks. They get real ambitious over West Nile virus and I've had them kill off a few hives from spraying the ones I have in residential areas.

The most healthy and heavy producing hives are always ones I place in forested areas which are vacationer hot spots. No agricultural activity in the area. I have gotten honey flows from those areas so heavy that I can't even keep up with it.

[jy8z]

I’ve called every number I can find that is advertised for that. They have all wanted money.

[blackdog]

Place a conical queen excluding cone in the hive entrance. The bees can leave, but not re-enter. The queen cannot squeeze out.

Place another hive on the ground below the existing hive with a caged queen inside. Each night the bees will accept the new hive over the old one. In a week, take away the new hive of which 95% of the bees will have relocated to. Then spray hive freeze into the old one to instantly kill off the few remaining bees and caulk up the hole.

[Ouderkirk]

In light of the ongoing fraud that is global warming/climate change forgive me for not jumping on the bandwagon with this.

I would like to see the complete raw data released in its entirety and verify with a certain level of confidence in the conclusions presented

[BBell]

A lot of people here are ignorant when it comes to bees.

[palmer]

I’m pretty sure that trucking bee colonies across the country and back to pollinate crops doesn’t do them any good.

[hinckley buzzard]

People want money to take bees off your hands? Doesn't sound like much of a shortage to me. I know little of beekeeping but I know a little more about economics.

[blackdog]

As a bee keeper, I can tell you that nothing takes you out of a social conversation at a gathering faster then the discussion of your interest in bees.

I can also tell you that your local post office will not like you very much. I've shown up to pick up my bees several times at the post office. All the employees are standing out in the parking lot and refuse to enter the building until you get them out of there.

[familyop]

"She seemed to blame the decade-long die-off of bees on development."

So with her favored constituents' obsessive/compulsive overpopulation phobia in mind, she blamed it on the small, private productive activities of lowly common people on their own private properties. That's funny, seeing as the big ag executives are slowly killing their own production off, while we permaculture folks have ways of ensuring pollination without bees if necessary.