The chemical behind the great bee dieoff

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / ^ | Wednesday, December 30, 2015 | Heather Leibowitz

[presidio9]

During these hectic weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, many of us think a lot not only about family, but about food. As we gather around tables to talk, so many of our holiday rituals centers around eating: cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, applesauce for Chanukah latkes, honey-glazed ham for Christmas and — especially in the South — black-eyed peas and greens for good luck on New Year’s Day. Kwanzaa literally translates to “first fruits.”

Yet many of these holiday favorites are endangered, because the bees they depend upon are dying by the millions.

You may have heard about this crisis years ago and filed it away in your mind as probably another hysterical overreaction by environmentalists.

Not so. The threat is real and present. We all know bees make honey, and are therefore critical to the honey-baked ham and baklava that many of us have recently been enjoying. What everyone may not know is that in the process of making honey, bees pollinate more than 70% of the world’s most common crops, from fruits and nuts to the alfalfa eaten by dairy cows.

All told, bees are responsible for one in three forkfuls of the foods we love , from pumpkin pie and cheesecake to collards and Brussels sprouts; from chocolate and coffee to apples and strawberries. And here in New York, bees pollinate more than $300 million worth of crops such as apples, grapes and pumpkins.

But across the world, bees are dying at unprecedented rates, and beekeepers, farmers and scientists are sounding the alarm. U.S. bee populations have reached historic lows, and we’re losing nearly a third of our bee colonies each year — a rate that more than triples what was once considered normal.

Scientists point to a complex web of factors, including climate change and habitat destruction, to explain the massive collapse of colonies here and across the world.

But a certain class of insecticides, used on three-quarters of U.S. farms each year — and on about 140 different crops, including corn, canola and soy — has emerged as a clear culprit in the dieoff.

Sharing the same chemical properties as nicotine, neonicotinoids are neurotoxins that can kill bees off directly. These chemicals can also disorient bees and make it harder for them to pollinate and get back to their hives.

We need more bees

The insecticides may actually be addictive to bees, just like nicotine in tobacco is addictive to humans. Bees have been shown to actually prefer food sources treated with these pesticides to natural alternatives like sugar water.

Numerous lab studies have shown that these pesticides are a danger to bees, and last month the journal Nature published the first study to establish a direct causal link between neonic exposure and bees’ ability to do their job as pollinators.

By one estimate, these chemicals are 6,000 times more toxic to bees than DDT, which was banned in the United States in the 1970s over concerns that the common pesticide was poisoning wildlife and the environment, and endangering human health.

Based on this mounting science indicating the danger of neonics, the European Union has already banned the three most widely used neonicotinoids.

There’s been no equivalently bold action here, as pesticide manufacturers have managed to derail regulatory efforts.

The fact that our government is failing doesn’t mean the rest of us are powerless.

Major garden retailers like Lowe’s and Home Depot are already beginning to phase out the sales of neonics and plants treated with them. Some grocers like Whole Foods are beginning to label appropriate foods “bee friendly.” And some U.S. cities and states are limiting the use of neonicotinoids.

As consumers, we can plant gardens full of native, flowering herbs and vegetables, and decline to use bee-killing pesticides. As chefs, we can use produce grown on bee-friendly farms and use our menus to educate customers.

As citizens, we can and must pressure our leaders to get far, far tougher on a chemical that is imperiling the very future of an insect that is vital to the food we eat.

[TigersEye]

Scientists point to a complex web of factors, including climate change...

If they're looking at "climate change" as a factor they will never figure out the problem.

[Timpanagos1]

Through my experience and reading records of other beekeepers, a 33% loss is rather consistent and was not the case even ten years ago. For the most part, the failure of colonies is due to varroa mites which were not in North America until the late 1980’s. The pesticides contribute to the failure of colonies.

Remember, bees are insects and pesticides kill insects.

[Yosemitest]

I don;t know about North Dakota and bees, but here in the southeast U.S.there's a definite and noticeable reduction of honey bees in the woods and in the fields.
You can find wasp and bumble bees and a few black, small wasp and yellow jackets, but honey bees are far and few in between.

But between the loss of bees and the hybrid seeds, the real future is in heirloom seeds, and learning how to take care of your own hives of bees.

[piytar]

Not this sh!t again.

Colony Collapse Dosorder is caused by a parasitic mite. Turns out many bees prefer the food that has this pesticide because it kills the mite! (Ones who like the “flavor” survived, those who didn’t were less likely to do so, so now more do.)

Just sheesh.

[Wissa]

Good point.

FWIW, I'm going to give mason bees a try for pollinating my fruit trees.

[piytar]

BTW, this means “evil big USA business” Monsanto may have quite by accident largely ended Colony Collapse Disorder. How’s that for irony?

[piasa]

The ecowackoes always list treated corn in these bee articles but corn is wind pollinated. The bees don’t have much interaction at all with corn.

[MarchonDC09122009]

Your post on this important environmental issue affecting our food-supply is appreciated.
However you do a disservice to muddy the bee colony collapse “crisis” as a smoke screen for environmentalists opposition to GMOs.
I am against genetically modified crops that feature bio-chemical genes that produce BT caterpillar killing poison in corn, and other crops my family and I consume.
GMO tampering is a Terrible idea, and Monsanto - Cargill scientists are not to be trusted judged on lack of rigorous independent food safety studies, and previous mistakes.
Starlink corn, and GMO rapeseed contamination of organic neighboring crops.
Europeans have it right, as do other food purists.
Selective breeding of crops is one thing.
Genetic tinkering with our food supply using ever cheap n dirty methods, like: CRISPR gene splicing technology will cause disaster that will cause us to rue the day.

Those here that adore the agri-”progress” of industry men in white lab coats may not have ability to see that our present day agricultural system creates as many problems as it provides crop yield solutions,ie:
increasing crop mono culture diseases,
insecticide resistant insects,
super weeds resistant to herbicides,
soil sterility caused by salinity,
herbicide build up,
roundup residue in food has been determined to be carcinogenic,
mineral deficient soil affects food nutritional value, etc.

A truly conservative critical thinkers insist on informed consent for knowing what’s in our food and if it’s safe and efficiently produced in the LONG run.

[mylife]

[Moonman62]

Great article on this at Junk Science. Canadian bee keepers are so severely hit THEY HAD A RECORD CROP THIS YEAR.

...

Probably due to global warming.

[piasa]

Well, I’ve got no shortage of European honeybees and monarch butterflies here...though longwings and drittilaries are much more numerous owing to their plant preferences.

[MarchonDC09122009]

Bingo - BT gut paralysing insect killing bacteria bio-chemical poison has been cleverly genetically engineered into food crops.
Medical researchers are now finding that it’s poisonous to not only the caterpillars it was designed to kill, but also has adverse affects on the human GI tract.
GMOs are a very bad idea.
We find adverse effects Afterward.

[rockinqsranch]

Agree with ifinnegan.

Probably want to pull the thread, and start again as too many don’t read the articles in depth to get to know what your point is.

[onona]

“There is some speculation......”

[rlmorel]

Me too. Hard to take seriously. And so it goes.

[piasa]

Maybe the problem is in the big bee companies that transport huge numbers of hives on trucks place to place... packed that close there is bound to be a greater risk of pests from one infested hive getting into the others. Are truckloads of bees quarantined crossing Intl borders or are they allowed to cross? Has the US bee industry been bought out by foreigners and sanitary practices changed? Or is this a one-time outbreak that is being hyped like a extra warm day as proof of global warming?

[samtheman]

#BeeLivesMatter

[Timpanagos1]

Transportation of bees has spread varroa.

[MSF BU]

So the hype regarding no bees being left to accomplish pollination is overblown?

[piasa]

True, but there are numerous bee species native to the Americas...and which pollinated everything here, native crops like squash, peppers, beans, tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, sumpweed, sunflower, lambsquarters, and quinoa before any honeybees arrived.