Here is a good article on the neonicotinoid issue in The Scientific American, no less, It’s Time for a Neonicotinoid Time Out. Jeff Pettis who will be speaking in Denver this Saturday, March 16th at 7:00 pm is quoted in the article commenting on the recent bumblebee studies:
“In honey bee colonies the large worker force gives the colony a buffer and while we have shown effects of neonics on individual bees, at the colony level we normally have not seen them,” wrote Jeff Pettis, an entomologist and researcher with the USDA, in an email. “The bumblebee studies do show a clear effect at the colony level.”
This seems odd, coming from the lead researcher for the USDA, given the abundance of scientific evidence to the contrary (effects at the colony level). Some of you who plan to attend Dr. Pettis’s talk might ask if this accurately reflects his view on the effect of the neonicotinoids.
