Hubby and our choirmaster (and apprentice beekeeper!) moving new bees from nuc to hive . . . .
Posted on 10/01/2008 1:47:28 PM PDT by Scythian
(NaturalNews) German government researchers have concluded that a bestselling Bayer pesticide is responsible for the recent massive die-off of honeybees across the country's Baden-Württemberg region. In response, the government has banned an entire family of pesticides, fueling accusations that pesticides may be responsible for the current worldwide epidemic of honeybee die-offs.
Researchers found buildup of the pesticide clothianidin in the tissues of 99 percent of dead bees in Baden-Württemberg state. The German Research Center for Cultivated Plants concluded that nearly 97 percent of honeybee deaths had been caused directly by contact with the insecticide.
"It can unequivocally be concluded that a poisoning of the bees is due to the rub-off of the pesticide ingredient clothianidin from corn seeds," said the federal agricultural research agency, the Julius Kuehn Institute.
The pesticide was applied to rapeseed and sweet corn seeds along the Rhine River Valley, which borders Baden-Württemberg to the west and south.
"Beekeepers in the region started finding piles of dead bees at the entrance of hives in early May, right around the time corn seeding takes place," said Walter Haefeker, president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association.
A total of two-thirds of all bees in the entire state are believed to have been killed by the chemical.
"It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers' Association. "Fifty to 60 percent of the bees have died on average, and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."
Clothianidin, marketed in Europe under the brand name Poncho, is a widely used insecticide in the neonicotinoid family. Like all neonicotinoids, it is a systemic pesticide that is applied to the seeds of plants and then spreads itself throughout all plant tissues. Based on nicotine, the neonicotinoids function as neurotoxins that attack the nervous systems of insects such as honeybees.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified clothianidin as "highly toxic" to honeybees. The chemical was approved for U.S. use in 2003 and German use in 2004.
Clothianidin manufacturer Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of chemical giant Bayer, blamed the honeybee deaths on incorrect application of the pesticide. Before seeds are sprayed, a fixative should be applied to keep the poison from spreading into the rest of the environment. In the current situation, Bayer says, the fixative was not applied and clothianidin spread into the air.
But beekeepers and pesticide critics rejected this explanation, calling for Germany to follow France's footsteps in banning the chemical - and indeed, all neonicotinoids.
"We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now," said Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers. "This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn't be on the market."
While stopping short of a total ban, the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety acted quickly upon release of the study data, placing a provisional ban upon all seven pesticides in the neonicotinoid family. These chemicals may not be used in Germany until the manufacturers can supply enough data to convince the government that they are safe.
The seven provisionally banned pesticides are the clothianidin-based brands Poncho and Elado; the imidacloprid-based brands Antarc, Chinook and Faibell; methiocarb-based Mesurol; and thiamethoxam-based Cruiser
Six of the seven products are made by Bayer, while Mesurol is manufactured by Syngenta.
Bayer's neonicotinoids have been blamed for killing honeybees before, most notably in France. There the company's best-selling pesticide, imidacloprid, was banned from use on sunflower seeds in 1999 after being blamed for killing off a third of the country's honeybees. In 2004, France extended the ban to sweet corn seeds. The government rejected Bayer's application for clothianidin use in France only a few months ago.
In North Dakota, a group of beekeepers is suing Bayer, alleging that imidacloprid was responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in that state in 1995. One-third of North Dakota honeybees died that year after imidacloprid was applied to rapeseed there.
Imidacloprid is marketed in France under the brand name Gaucho, but is also sold as Admire, Advantage, Confidor, Hachikusan, Kohinor, Merit, Premise, Prothor, and Winner.
Around the world, honeybee stocks are in decline, which scientists have warned could have devastating impacts on global food supplies. A total of 80 percent of world food crops are primarily or exclusively pollinated by honeybees, amounting to 130 crops and $15 billion worth of food each year in the United States alone.
Yet two million honeybee colonies have been lost in the United States in recent years, with massive dieoffs also reported across Europe and in Taiwan, where 10 million bees recently disappeared over the course of only two weeks.
"If nothing is done about it, the [British] honeybee population could be wiped out in 10 years," warned U.K. Farming Minister Lord Rooker in 2007.
While in many cases bees have actually been found dead, as in the Baden-Württemberg incident, beekeepers have been particularly alarmed by CCD, in which the bees simply vanish, leaving empty hives behind them.
Neonicotinoid pesticides have been suggested as a possible cause of CCD, with advocates of this theory noting that since the pesticide spreads through all plant tissues, bees might be exposed through the pollen of treated plants. At least one study concluded that neonicotinoids are likely to become concentrated in bee hives in high levels, transported by contaminated pollen.
A number of studies have found that in low doses, neonicotinoids produce symptoms consistent with CCD. Termites exposed to imidacloprid experienced disorientation and immune system failure, while bees exposed to low levels of the chemical experienced impaired communication, homing and foraging ability, flight activity, and olfactory discrimination and learning.
Sources for this story include: www.guardian.co.uk. pubs.acs.org, www.allheadlinenews.com.
As I understand it, the problem here in the United States is Colony Collapse Disorder where entire colonies of bees essentially abandon the hive. They leave and there are no dead bees to study or diagnose... so blaming pesticide without such testing is difficult. Cololnies lost to mites, waxmoths and other such things are far more easily diagnosed. That said, honeybees are vital to our food supply. I’m getting two hives and starting in the Spring. I’ve been studying up for a year now, and I can’t wait to get started.
Even thought they have an agenda, the possibility remains that this COULD be the problem. I won’t reject it until further research is done.
If you have problems with Japanese Beetles, try milky spore and the baited traps. They work...
We’ve had a request for a Bee ping list.
Who wants it?
:-)
And as TRUE Prophet explained also long ago: it’s not only one cause but ALL of them.
For example also this one:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Bees+among+the+first+victims+of+Gentechnology%22
Hubby and our choirmaster (and apprentice beekeeper!) moving new bees from nuc to hive . . . .
Could you say this for me again, in English?
TX we are going 24/7 trying to get more production.
If you have an actual argument to make, make it. Accusing the news source of being agenda driven does not win the point in the absence of a rational argument.
Did I say clothianidin was not the culprit?
No, I did not.
Did I say that we shouldn't trust news outlets with an agenda?
Yes, I did.
And I'll stand by that.
The fact that Bayer may have paid an expensive penalty doesn't change the equation, either. We all know companies that, for PR reasons, have chosen to settle a legal affair rather than defend themselves at trial.
By background, I am a one-time farmer whom so-called environmentalists accused of "polluting the environment" when nothing could have been further from the truth. Those were charges that were a.) baseless and b.) we successfully defended ourselves against. I've been there when the enviro-whackos brought out their long knives and I don't want to be lectured on the subject.
Most of what you read about the environment, most of what you hear, thru the media ain't true. Period.
I'll take a ball four on that one...
OK. What's mine, pray tell.
Thanks for posting this article. I pray this is what has caused the bee decline and now it can be fixed. It is just too important to do nothing. I did not have as many butterflies or bees this year and my garden is usually teaming with both every summer. The dragonfly population seemed a bit smaller as well.
One thing I have noticed over the last two years are bees dying in my swimming pool. I save the ones that I see in trouble, but it’s not always enough.
I have lots of containers of perennials around the pool and they like to land on top of the water all the time between feedings. Most of the time, they can fly right off the water, so I am not quite sure why so many of them end up dead in the water or in trouble. Any ideas?
3 years ago the bees were everywhere. This year, very few, but they came everyday while they were active. I do mostly organic gardening, but not always if there is a problem that is stubborn.
Anyway..will be checking my chems to make sure there is none of the mentioned chemical in them. Thanks again for posting this info.
Sign you up?
LOL, no, I wasn’t offering to run it.
I have the Canada ping list already.
How about you?
You raise bees.
It would be perfect!
That is a cool picture.
What is a nuc?
We're hanging tight here, being sensible about our driving and not getting all exercised.
A 'nuc' or nucleus is a mini-sized box (that's the little gray box to the right side of the picture) containing 3-4 frames (what my husband has in his hand). It's a slightly more expensive (but more reliable) way to purchase bees, instead of loose in a box with a queen in her own little separate box. The bees have comb and the queen starts laying while in the nuc, so you simply transfer the combs to the middle of a full size (9 frame) hive body (that's what's sitting to the left of the hive table) and fill out the sides with empty frames and foundation. The bees get right to work (the idea is to save time before your spring honeyflow comes in.)
If you can put a big dish or birdbath top full of pebbles out next to the pool, and just dip it full of water from the pool from time to time, they'll use that instead.
Obama’s role is to confirm voting machines count that Clinton’s votes correctly = Obama will soon be asking his crowd to “elect” Hillary next November 4.
AWE..love the hummingbird story! That is way cool.
Sounds to me like you will need to if you want pollination.
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