Clothianidin appears in Scotland

As most of you who have been following the pesticide issues know by now, Graham White of Scotland has been very active in efforts over there to bring some sanity to the pesticide environment that has been thrust upon us. I am posting an e-mail I received from Graham.

Dear all,

Until recently most beekeepers in the UK had never heard of Clothianidin being used on arable crops here in the UK; it was wall-to-wall Imidacloprid and that was bad enough. Last winter I noticed three attached crop labels posted at the end of field-rows on a farm which adjoins my apiary, (well it’s a couple of hundred yards away). I did not understand what the labels meant until I looked them up on Google:

‘Gallant’, ‘Solstice’ and ‘Cordiale’ it turns out are specific ‘brands’ or varieties of wheat-seed marketed by ‘Master Seeds’. What is disturbing is that all of them are coated with ‘Redigo Twin plus Deter’ – which is a combination of ‘DETER’ (Clothianidin ) and ‘REDIGO’ fiungicide (REDIGO TWIN TXC Contains 112.5 g/L (9.83% w/w) prothioconazole and 112.5 g/L (10.14% w/w) fluoxastrobin)

My bees are unlikely to come into contact with Clothianidin from the wheat, but the quarry where I keep my bees is well below the water-table for the surrounding fields and has a sizeable pond about a hundred feet wide in the bottom. This is the drinking place of choice for my bees as I have observed, so if Clothianidin and these various fungicides are leaching from the surrounding fields, they will end up in this water supply.

I will keep looking for information on ‘Pristine’ but at present it seems like we are simply on the receiving-end of wave after wave after wave of toxic pesticides that are simply rubber-stamped and waved through by our so-called ‘regulatory agency’ over here; a mirror image of what is going on with the EPA in America.

I found the this text, Insecticidal Seed Treatment for Use in Wheat, in the UK’s ‘Farmer’s Guardian’ newspaper.

Regards

Graham White

This is a global assault on the environment by the multi-national chemical companies. The article from Australia on the neonic problems there is another example. Despite all the serious questions surrounding these new technologies, the EPA has just recently approved yet another neonicotinoid, dinotefuran.

Shotgun brood in Minnesota

This link will take you to an audio interview of Minnesota commercial beekeeper Jeff Anderson, the first of a series we hope. Jeff gives some insight into the day to day challenges being faced by commercial beekeepers all across the U.S.

Look at the series of six still photos and pay particular attention to the shot of the two brood combs side by side. The one on the left is what beekeepers refer to as “shotgun brood,” and we are seeing a lot of it here in Colorado and you may be seeing it in your own bees. We suspect that it is related to chemical exposure, and the leading suspect is systemic pesticides, but there may be other causes. Shotgun brood can also be a sign of other brood diseases like American and European Foulbrood, but in the cases being seen there is no evidence of foulbrood.

The Buzz

A pithy interview with Tom Theobald in Denver’s 5280 magazine.

5280: In an ideal world, what would the solution be? Theobald: The immediate removal of products like clothianidin, which are causing widespread environmental damage that goes far beyond the bees.

Neonicotinoids in Australia

Neonicotinoids in Australia was written by Australian beekeeper Jeffrey Gibbs. Jeffrey and I have been in perodic communication on the subject and he has been a subscriber to the BCBA list serve, listening mostly, but chiming in on occassion. He goes into considerable detail on the problems neonicotinoids are presenting in Australia, and toward the end is a view from our own Tom Haefeli. As you read, you will see strong parallels to what we are fighting against over here.

Celebrating National Pollinator Week

See how we do it in Boulder, Colorado.

Watch Tom Theobald leading the Pollinator Parade around the corner of Broadway and Canyon in downtown Boulder.

A collaboration between Sister Bee director, Laura Tyler, Coalition4Bees and Alchemy of Movement Dance Studio.

Being Kind to Bees

A nice article about local beekeeping and the honeybee crisis in Boulder’s Daily Camera.

Tom Theobald, owner of Niwot Honey Farn, fits a lid back onto a hive after checking it
(MARTY CAIVANO for the Daily Camera )

Defending the Bee Hive, Bee Experts Speak Out

In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, host, June Stoyer will speak to beekeeping experts and activists, Tom Theobald, author, Graham White and Phil Chandler, who is also the host of The Barefoot Beekeeper.

Neonicotinoids continue to contribute to the rapid decline in the honeybee population. The agencies designated to protect our honeybees seem confused as to their role. During a time when there should be solidarity between the two groups, there is a huge divide. It is now up to the leadership within the beekeeping community to take a stand and act.

Rejected Knowledge 39

A one hour interview with Tom Theobald.

Excuses and evasion – who do they really work for?

AAPCO is the American Association of Pesticide Control Officers, mainly state personnel charged with overseeing pesticide laws. This is what they are getting from Tom Moriarty, leader of the EPA’s “Bee Team.”

At the March 14 AAPCO meeting, Moriarty reiterated that the agency has found little evidence that a group of systemic pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, have directly caused population decline among bees. While the populations are shrinking, that process started occurring after the chemicals were released, and “that correlation is not nearly as close as some would believe,” Moriarty said.
Moriarty also rejected claims from activists that EPA studies of bees are invalid because they fail to examine the long term effects of the pesticides, among other things. The agency has trouble doing studies on the pollinators because of the cost of field space and the range of the animals. “It’s almost impossible” to have a control environment for a 10 mile radius, which would be needed for a completely controlled study, he said. Moriarty also dissmissed calls to throw out all of the information collected in those studies, arguing that much of it is still relevant.

Thank you, Western Farm Press.

The USDA’s top bee scientist talks pesticides and colony collapse at a D.C. luncheon

Jeff Pettis has been cast in the impossible role of defending the indefensible.

Two of the factors used to excuse away the effect of pesticides – monoculture and habitat destruction – are not a problem here in Boulder County. We still have an environment of mixed crops and ample wild areas along streams and ditch banks, that hasn’t changed in the past 30 years and yet we are still seeing the high mortalities that the USDA and EPA are trying so desperately to spin away from pesticides. What has changed is that GM crops and systemic pesticides have flooded our environment and made it toxic to bees and many other life forms, and when researchers like Pettis begin to get close to the truth they are throttled.

One of the messages that Pettis took to Parliament was that we can’t draw conclusions from laboratory studies. At the same time, Tom Moriarty, the leader of the EPA Bee Team, made the rediculous pronouncement that we can’t rely on field studies because it is too expensive and we would have to have control over a 10 mile radius. And yet junk science falling in those two categories is perfectly acceptable to get these chemcials on the market.