Are neonicotionoid pesticides responsible for the demise of bees?

A very good summary of the neonic situation by Dr. Rosemary Mason and Dr. Derek Thomas, “long standing environmentalists” from the U.K.

One of us has just returned from Orkney, where for the first time, we found the rare great yellow bumble bee (Bombus distinguendus), now restricted to Northern Scotland and the offshore islands. She was leisurely foraging on red clover and garden knapweed on a track at the edge of Kirkwall, the biggest town on Mainland.

I had been to Orkney some 25 years before to see the hen harriers. They had been studied by Eddie Balfour until his death in 1974 and later described by Donald Watson in ‘The Hen Harrier’, his impressive monograph about this iconic bird published in1977. However, over the last 20 years or so, the massive decline in invertebrates (animals without backbones) is a much more terrifying prospect than loss of a single rare species. Of course, many people don’t care much about invertebrates and would say “so what?” But all higher species (including humans) are completely dependent on them. Birds, amphibians and bats feed on insects, most crops depend on their pollination services and microbes recycle nutrients in soil and aquatic ecosystems.

What is most worrying is that many modern scientists seem to have little understanding of the environment. In 2006 the Government closed almost all of the Wildlife Research Stations, made 200 field scientists redundant and transferred the money into universities where it could be used for “hard” science; computer-driven population ecology and statistics. It is no longer fashionable to look at the environment …

Hop on over to Mark Avery’s blog to read the full article.

Death of the birds and bees across America

An article by F. William Engdahl for GlobalResearch:

“Available data indicate that clothianidin on corn and canola should result in minimal acute toxic risk to birds. However, assessments show that exposure to treated seeds through ingestion may result in chronic toxic risk to non-endangered and endangered small birds (e.g., songbirds) and acute/chronic toxicity risk to non-endangered and endangered mammals.”

– EPA Fact Sheet, “Clothianidin a Neonicotinoid Pesticide Highly Toxic to Honeybees and Other Pollinators,” quoted by F. William Engdahl

A play-by-play repeat of the mishandling of clothianidin

Far from removing clothianidin from the market, the EPA seems to be poised to lead us into the next chapter of this environmental disaster.

Google sulfoxaflor, then next sulfoxaflor Section 18. The Section 18 was granted with no risk assessment completed, but with the knowledge that it is highly toxic to pollinators. If this goes unchallenged they will proceed quietly until it is a done deal and we will suffer the consequences and will spend more years trying to dilsodge it from the market.. It is a play-by-play repeat of the mishandling of clothianidin.

France bans a neonic

The French Ministry of Agriculture has issued a ban on the neonicotinoid pesticide thiamethoxam due to concerns over the chemical’s impacts on pollinators, especially honey bees. The pesticide product containing thiamethoxam, Cruiser OSR, is manufactured by Swiss chemical giant Syngenta and has been used as a seed treatment on canola seed.

Tom Theobald’s LinkTV appearance

Look for a full program on neonicotinoids at the end of July on LinkTV

New chemical, Sulfoxaflor, approved for “emergency” use in Southeast

Untested, unregistered, the EPA has granted several southeastern states “emergency” approval to use Sulfoxaflor on cotton on up to 1.4 million acres. The emergency seems to be that resistance to neonicotinoids requires that another chemical be piled on top, just like 2,4-D on top of glyphosate.

The chemical spiral continues.

More Zombie Fly nonsense

The reason the so-called Zombie Flies are being found in larger numbers in honey bee colonies, if indeed they even are, is likely a direct consequence of the widespread environmental damage being caused by the systemic pesticides. The primary host for the Phorid fly is bumblebees, and there has been a precipitous decline in bumblebee populations with the advent of the systemics, for some species of bumblebees, approaching extinction. As I said when this story originally broke, we have a parasitic fly that has lost its primary host and is struggling to survive, and what is left out there for it? Why the honey bee of course, and the only reason they remain is because of the efforts of beekeepers, otherwise they would be gone too. The Phorid fly is not a cause of honey bee losses as the megacorps tried to spin it, but one more symptom of an environmental collapse.that is still going unadressed.

Terry Ingram roundup

Terry Ingram, 58 year beekeeper and publisher of the Small Beekeepers Journal is back in the news, this time over the alleged theft of his colonies by the Illinois Department of Agriculture. For some time Terry has been concerned that glyphosate, RoundUp, is killing his bees. Two years ago I circulated an article he had written explaining those concerns. If this subject interests you, read the article on Blue Planet Almanac and watch the video.

My question is whether we’re in a police state. I hope we’re not going that way but sometimes I wonder. That’s the first time I feel my rights have really been violated. As a citizen of this state I am not pleased. – Terry Ingram

Ingram, who believes his bees were illegally confiscated by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, was interviewed last week on The Organic View Radio Show.

Update… Here are the links to the original four part article:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Pettis and van Engelsdorp speaking quite clearly

While looking for something else I came across this YouTube of a year ago on neonics. One of the more interesting parts is footage of an interview with Jeff Pettis and Dennis van Engelsdorp on their study of neonics and Nosema ceranae. I believe this interview was done in Paris by the French film company that was working on the video, The Disappearing Bees. What I find interesting is that the two are actually speaking quite clearly on their findings. This was prior to being subjected to career counseling and re-education. Subsequently their comments have become much more guarded and circumspect.

van Engelsdorp: We’re finding that virus levels are much higher in CCD bees. But since we’re not finding a consistent virus, or a consistent pathogen, that implies that something else then is happening underneath it. Something is breaking down their immune system or somehow challenging them so that they’re more susceptible to disease.

Pettis: I’ve done a recent study, actually in collaboration with Dennis and some others, where we exposed whole colonies to very low levels of neonicotinoids … and then challenged the bees from those colonies with nosema, a gut pathogen, and we saw an increase. Even if we fed the pesticide at very low levels we saw an increase in nosema levels in direct response to the low level feeding of neonicotinoids as compared to the ones who were fed normal protein.

van Engelsdorp: … The only reason that we knew the bees had exposure is because we exposed them. Otherwise you would never have known they were exposed.

Pettis: The take-home message is that interactions may be key. Bee health is very complex and these interactions are often … overlooked and/or hard to tease apart. In this case we’re manipulating one pesticide, and one pathogen, and we’re clearly seeing the interactions.

The State of the Science

For those of you who are planning to go to the State Beekeepers Meeting in Silt on June 16, there is undoubtedly going to be a lot of discussion about bee losses. Go prepared with knowledge. This link will take you to Pesticides and Honey Bees: State of the Science (PDF), released two weeks ago by the Pesticide Action Network, complied by co-director Heather Pilatic. And for those who don’t plan to go, this is still a must-read document if these losses concern you and you are trying to understand what we do and do not know up to this point.