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.

[Seaplaner]

The Monsanto GMO ‘seeds’ already have insecticide in them.

THAT is what is killing the bees.

That's the "buzz", anyhoo.

Kidding aside, this is a big worry;.

[Mase]

Monsanto’s Aspartame was “great” too.

For Monsanto and its bank account.

Not so much for those poisoned by it.

If you believe that Aspartame is poisonous, then you'd also have to believe that bananas are poisonous. Yeah, it's crazy....but not uncommon for those suffering from Monsanto Derangement Syndrome.

[Mase]

Your link and reference do not produce the information you cite. Is this the Seralini study you’re trying to reference?

[MarvinStinson]

What about those working hard as PR men for Monsanto?

You don’t have a clue about the damage Aspartame has done.

[MarvinStinson]

http://www.academia.edu/3138607/Morphological_and_Biochemical_Changes_in_Male_Rats_Fed_on_Genetically_Modified_Corn_Ajeeb_YG_

Conclusion

The results of this study showed several changes in organs/body weight and serum biochemistry in the rats fed on GM corn. These findings indicate potential adverse health/toxic effects of GM corn and further investigations still needed.

[redfreedom]

OK, now you have be believing. The honey bee population up here is managed by people who are very good at what they do. If they want more bees, they get them. That’s why our be hive count has literally doubled in about 5 years or so.

But we live in a forest. There’s nothing worse than going to the garage and find a hornet or wasp infestation in the woodwork. Or have a hive hanging under the deck, or go ATV’ing through the forest and run in to a hive on a tree. Now days this seems to be the opposite of the honey bees as they appear to be much less.

I used to carry a shotgun. We have many trails in the forest. Whenever we’d see one of those big hives, or get attacked before we even see them, I’d just blow them away with a shot gun, very effective. I have not done that in about 6 years now.

[Wissa]

How does this work. Do you buy them from a distributor?

I'm getting my bees and nesting materials from crownbees.com. There are other sellers on the internet.

Honeybees are good for making honey, but they don't do near as well as pollinators as mason bees do. At least according to the people selling mason bees. :)

I've noticed a significant decline in honeybees on my fruit trees the past few years, and a related decline in fruit production. I'm pretty sure that any bees that ever came to my trees in the past twenty plus years that I've lived here have been wild bees and not bees from hives brought in in man-made hives. Whatever the cause of the decline of the honeybees, it looks like it's showing up in the wild honeybee population too, and not just in populations kept by bee-keepers.

[bert]

tobacco

[Hot Tabasco]

Well, I’ve got no shortage of European honeybees and monarch butterflies here.

A friend of mine's wife has a lovely little back yard with a small patch of milkweeds. For the past two summers she's provided me monarch caterpillars she harvested from her milkweeds and I would raise them in my bug cage until they became butterflies...........

She's done the same with black swallowtails too........

It's weird because where I live, there's a street that borders my sub and it's filled with milkweeds. I keep searching for the monarch caterpillars but I've never found any....

[Hot Tabasco]

Very few monarchs this year

They didn't start arriving here in Michigan until early July. It was strange, the caterpillars I had seemed to know that they were the ones destined to fly south and they were ravenous in their feeding cycle......

[Mase]

Let's start with some basics....first, Monsanto didn't develop Aspartame. GD Searle did 20 years before Monsanto bought them. Aspartame is made up of three components including two amino acids (phenylalanine (50%), aspartic acid (39%) and methanol (11%).

All three of these are commonly found in foods you eat every day. For example, when compared to one packet of Nutra Sweet, a banana contains 3 times the amount of phenylalanine; 9 times the amount of aspartic acid and 6 times the amount of methanol.

No sane person believes that a medium sized banana is many times more poisonous to humans than a packet of Aspartame. That would be loony tunes. But here you are.

Now tell me about all the "damage" Aspartame (and bananas) have done to us. LOL

[Mase]

These findings indicate potential adverse health/toxic effects of GM corn and further investigations still needed.

Yet you ignore the multitude of studies showing that GM foods are perfectly safe for consumption. Moreover, we are living longer and healthier lives than at any other time in our history. People used to die from consuming the mycotoxins produced by corn borers. Today, people don't die from eating the GM corn that prevents corn borers.

Corn has been genetically modified for thousands of years. All agricultural products have been genetically modified over time. Just about everything you eat has been genetically modified in some way. Yet, again, we're still living longer and healthier lives......and millions are no longer starving to death for lack of food. Go figure. Damn scientists...things were so much better when few people lived longer than 30 years.

[MarvinStinson]

Let’s start with some basics.

PR men for huge drug and chemical companies work hard to sell their employers’ products—no matter what carnage these products cause.

Ciba-Geigys Schedule Two stimulant Ritalin (methylphenidate hydrochloride) stunts kids growth, gives them irreversible Tourettes syndrome and harms the development of their hearts and nervous systems.

Mercks Gardasil paralyzes and kills little girls all over the world.

Eli Lillys Prozac has more Adverse Reaction reports from doctors, more suicides than all other drugs of its type combined.

Monsantos poison Aspartame is the subject of endless lawsuits.

Monsantos genetically modified seeds are banned in a number of countries around the world because of the havoc they cause.

The US FDA approves all of this crap because the FDA staff is made up of drug company executives who leave the private sector temporarily to work at the FDA
and then return to their drug company positions.

This has been going on for years.

.........................................................

http://www.academia.edu/3138607/Morphological_and_Biochemical_Changes_in_Male_Rats_Fed_on_Genetically_Modified_Corn_Ajeeb_YG_

Conclusion

The results of this study showed several changes in organs/body weight and serum biochemistry in the rats fed on GM corn. These findings indicate potential adverse health/toxic effects of GM corn and further investigations still needed.

[Mase]

Science is hard......

Let's stick with Aspartame if you don't mind. Given what I told you is a fact - and it is - please tell us how a banana is poisonous when consumed by humans. Can you explain to us the biochemistry of the poisonous banana?

While you're at it, can you also explain how eating a 4 oz. piece of grilled chicken with a cup of tomato juice is more than 10 times as poisonous as drinking a diet coke that uses Aspartame as a sweetener?

You're the one who claimed to know so much about Aspartame, but it looks like you don't even possess a basic understanding of chemistry. Standing by....

[MarvinStinson]

Your confusing the Monsantos poison Aspartame with bananas is as far from ‘science’ as one can get.

[Mase]

Ah, now I understand. I gave you the opportunity to school me but you can't because you've never bothered to learn anything about the life or physical sciences.

There must be someone you can ping to help you out. Let me know if you can ever manage to figure out why the three components of Aspartame are dangerous when bonded together as a sweetener, but not when they are consumed in much larger quantities in the foods we eat every day. Logic and common sense don't require a background in science.

[MarvinStinson]

Mase ‘science’ Aspartame = a banana.

[MarchonDC09122009]

Excellent post that bears repeating.
We citizens are being screwed over by incestuous fascist relation between big business and gov’t.
The corruption stinks to high heaven and results in calls for more gov’t regulation.
The only way we can obtain conservative minimalist gov’t is to strictly forbid gov’t - big business collusion.
No more lobbying as its currently done.
No more shielding industries from liability.
Full transparency and disclosure.
Period.

If conservatives don’t pick up this mantle and fix what’s wrong, you can be sure progressive leftists will frame the issues and solutions in a way that we will loathe.
Just like Healthcare reform affordabilty.
Republicans kicked the can on that for eight years, and that created an opening liberals seized to push Obolacare on us, furthering their goal for single payer.

We get the sh1tty gov’t we deserve due to our collective apathy, and Soros leftists end up controlling our political and economic destiny.

RE:
“Let’s start with some basics.

PR men for huge drug and chemical companies work hard to sell their employers’ products—no matter what carnage these products cause.

Ciba-Geigys Schedule Two stimulant Ritalin (methylphenidate hydrochloride) stunts kids growth, gives them irreversible Tourettes syndrome and harms the development of their hearts and nervous systems.

Mercks Gardasil paralyzes and kills little girls all over the world.

Eli Lillys Prozac has more Adverse Reaction reports from doctors, more suicides than all other drugs of its type combined.

Monsantos poison Aspartame is the subject of endless lawsuits.

Monsantos genetically modified seeds are banned in a number of countries around the world because of the havoc they cause.

The US FDA approves all of this crap because the FDA staff is made up of drug company executives who leave the private sector temporarily to work at the FDA
and then return to their drug company positions.

This has been going on for years.

.........................................................

http://www.academia.edu/3138607/Morphological_and_Biochemical_Changes_in_Male_Rats_Fed_on_Genetically_Modified_Corn_Ajeeb_YG_

Conclusion

The results of this study showed several changes in organs/body weight and serum biochemistry in the rats fed on GM corn. These findings indicate potential adverse health/toxic effects of GM corn and further investigations still needed.”

[MarchonDC09122009]

FR poster Diagnosis: acute normalcy bias due to misplaced trust in gov’t-agri-pharma-medicine cartel.

Lose the smug normalcy bias, and do the research
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16129618

*One of dozens of studies implicating aspartame’s harmful health effects.
That’s why the food industry rushed promote Splenda (the Chlorinated sugar your body can’t process), and now
has moved to promote more benign natural sourced Stevia-sucrose blends.
For the record, the best sweetner is sparsely applied bee honey.
If the populace made huge reductions in sweetner use, there would be a dramatic fall in diabetes, obesity and cardio-vacular disease. People and society would reap a windfall of improved health and Healthcare savings.

For the thousand that strike at branches of evil, only one strikes at its root.

[Yosemitest]

It's not wise to shoot hornets' nest.
They can chase you for miles.
Leave them to the raccoons and to the possums.
Now if for some reason you do fin yourself being chased by a swarm of hornets, while you're running take off an article of clothing, a jacket or a shirt and throw it down.
The hornets, or bees will go after the scent in jacket and that will give you time to get farther away.
Don't mess with hornets, yellow jackets (nest in a hole in the ground), our other wasps/bees, including the wingless cow ant.

Cow Killer Ant or Velvet Ant