Bee Hive Colony Collapse Disorder linked to Pesticide, beware of corn-syrup
Wired reports yet another tragic use for tabaco is the manufacture of neonicotinoids like Imidacloprid. This popular toxic pesticide, imidacloprid, is a systemic insecticide which acts as an insect neurotoxin and belongs to a class of chemicals called the neonicotinoids which act on the central nervous system of insects.
"Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health '...have re-created the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder in several honeybee hives simply by giving them small doses of a popular pesticide, imidacloprid.' This follows recently-reported studies also linked the disorder to neonicotinoid pesticides. What is really interesting is the link to when the disorder started appearing, 2006. 'That mech...anism? High-fructose corn syrup. Many bee-keepers have turned to high-fructose corn syrup to feed their bees, which the researchers say did not imperil bees until U.S. corn began to be sprayed with imidacloprid in 2004-2005. A year later was the first outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder.'"
Now off patent, you can buy imidacloprid under many trade names: Admire, Advantage (Advocate) (flea killer for pets), Gaucho, Merit, Nuprid, Prothor, Turfthor, Confidor, Conguard, Hachikusan, Kohinor, Optrol, Premise, Prothor, Provado, Intercept, Winner, and Xytect.
(Note: You may want to sell your stock in Bayer, the Aspirin pharmaceutical company that created imidacloprid neurotoxin pesticides, they will likely be sued for all the damage to food crops, cooperate farms, and by starving nations for loss of production.)
"Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health '...have re-created the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder in several honeybee hives simply by giving them small doses of a popular pesticide, imidacloprid.' This follows recently-reported studies also linked the disorder to neonicotinoid pesticides. What is really interesting is the link to when the disorder started appearing, 2006. 'That mech...anism? High-fructose corn syrup. Many bee-keepers have turned to high-fructose corn syrup to feed their bees, which the researchers say did not imperil bees until U.S. corn began to be sprayed with imidacloprid in 2004-2005. A year later was the first outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder.'"
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/neonicotinoids-colony-collapse/
ReplyDeleteAnother major route of exposure is through dust emitted by air-powered seed planters. Several years before the emergence of colony collapse disorder, neonicotinoid manufacturers started to coat seeds in the pesticides, vastly increasing the amount used in fields. The coatings are partially pulverized inside seed planters and emitted in plumes that appear to be highly toxic. Neonicotinoids also remain biologically active in soil for years and perhaps decades, and it’s possible that they seep into roots and throughout plants in ways that haven’t yet been measured, said Krupke.
The Environmental Protection Agency is currently evaluating the safety of neonicotinoids, and more than 1.25 million people have signed petitions requesting a ban. In parts of Europe that have already banned neonicotinoids, colony collapse disorder may have slowed, though Krupke said these reports are too anecdotal to consider scientifically reliable.
“If the relationship was as easy as that, we’d have noticed it long ago. There are areas where neonicotinoids are used, but you don’t have colony loss,” Krupke said. “But what these studies are showing is that because neonicotinoids are absolutely ubiquitous, and we’re seeing sub-lethal effects, is that they’re stressors. They’ve softened up the bees for other parasites.”
Pesticide risk analysis in the United States has focused too much on whether chemicals are immediately, obviously toxic, said Krupke. “Our way of thinking is fundamentally flawed,” he said. “We need to look at sub-lethal effects, and for a longer time period. These pesticides are everywhere, every year. We’ve never used pesticides in the way we’re using them now, where we charge up a plant and it expresses pesticides all year long.”
Jan 2013, Update
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/16/insecticide-unacceptable-danger-bees
conclusion by the European Food Safety Authority is a 'death knell' for neonicotinoid pesticides
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/
EFSA identifies risks to bees from neonicotinoids
EFSA scientists have identified a number of risks posed to bees by three neonicotinoid pesticides. The Authority was asked by the European Commission to assess the risks associated with the use of clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, with particular regard to their acute and chronic effects on bee colony survival and development; their effects on bee larvae and bee behaviour; and the risks posed by sub-lethal doses of the three substances.
Conclusion on the risk assessment for bees for the active substance:
Clothianidin
Imidacloprid
Thiamethoxam
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/130116.htm?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=infocus&utm_campaign=beehealth
The world's most widely used insecticide has for the first time been officially labelled an "unacceptable" danger to bees feeding on flowering crops. Environmental campaigners say the conclusion, by Europe's leading food safety authority, sounds the "death knell" for the insect nerve agent.
The chemical's manufacturer, Bayer,