More Damning Evidence Points to Pesticide as Cause of Mass Bee Deaths

A new study published in Naturwissenschaften - The Science of Nature by a leading bee expert provides damning evidence that a widely used pesticide, even at low levels, is responsible for the recent catastrophic decline in honey bees. Dr. Jeff Pettis of the USDA's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, MD led the study.

Colony collapse disorder, as this phenomenon is known, has been getting worse since 2006.

The news has brought renewed calls for these pesticides, which only became widely used in the 1990s, to be banned as honey bees are key to human’s survival – pollinating 70 per cent of the crops which produce most of the world’s food.

The pesticide that the study (pdf) looked at was imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides worldwide. It is neonicotinoid insecticide produced by Bayer CropScience.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/30-9

Honeybee Deaths Linked to Seed Insecticide Exposure

Honeybee populations have been in serious decline for years, and Purdue University scientists may have identified one of the factors that cause bee deaths around agricultural fields.

Analyses of bees found dead in and around hives from several apiaries over two years in Indiana showed the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds before planting. The research showed that those insecticides were present at high concentrations in waste talc that is exhausted from farm machinery during planting.

The insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam were also consistently found at low levels in soil -- up to two years after treated seed was planted -- on nearby dandelion flowers and in corn pollen gathered by the bees, according to the findings released in the journal PLoS One this month.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120112112722.htm

Genetically modified mosquitoes' survival rate concealed

A confidential internal document obtained by civil society groups shows genetically modified mosquitoes described by their manufacturer, UK company Oxitec, as “sterile” are in fact not sterile and their offspring have a 15 percent survival rate in the presence of the common antibiotic tetracycline.

In the study described in this document, the genetically modified mosquitoes were fed cat food containing chicken contaminated with low levels of tetracycline and many of the mosquitoes were able to reproduce, with their offspring surviving to adulthood (1).

A redacted version of the document, released to GeneWatch UK under freedom of information laws, shows that the company tried to hide the evidence that its technology will fail to prevent reproduction in the presence of low levels of tetracycline contamination (2).

Read More:

http://www.foe.org/news/news-releases/2012-01-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-survival-rate

Tom Philpott - Are Pesticides Behind Massive Bee Die-Offs?

For the German chemical giant Bayer, neonicotinoid pesticides—synthetic derivatives of nicotine that attack insects' nervous systems—are big business. In 2010, the company reeled in 789 million euros (more than $1 billion) in revenue from its flagship neonic products imidacloprid and clothianidin. The company's latest quarterly report shows that its "seed treatment" segment—the one that includes neonics—is booming. In the quarter that ended on September 30, sales for the company's seed treatments jumped 28 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

Such results no doubt bring cheer to Bayer's shareholders. But for honeybees—whose population has come under severe pressure from a mysterious condition called colony collapse disorder—the news is decidedly less welcome. A year ago on Grist, I told the story of how this class of pesticides had gained approval from the EPA in a twisted process based on deeply flawed (by the EPA's own account) Bayer-funded science. A little later, I reported that research by the USDA's top bee scientist, Jeff Pettis, suggests that even tiny exposure to neonics can seriously harm honeybees.

Now a study from Purdue University researchers casts further suspicion on Bayer's money-minting concoctions. To understand the new paper—published in the peer-reviewed journal Plos One—it's important to know how seed treatments work, which is like this: The pesticides are applied directly to seeds before planting, and then get absorbed by the plant's vascular system. They are "expressed" in the pollen and nectar, where they attack the nervous systems of insects. Bayer targeted its treatments at the most prolific US crop—corn—and since 2003, corn farmers have been blanketing millions of acres of farmland with neonic-treated seeds.

Read More:

http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/purdue-study-implicates-bayer-pesticide-bee-die-offs?

David Atkins - More proof the system is broken, bee colony collapse edition

That the panicked news stories about it have died down doesn\'t mean that the honeybee die-offs due to "colony collapse disorder" have gone away. It\'s still happening with a vengeance, and it\'s almost certain that pesticides are to blame:

Although news about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has died down, commercial beekeepers have seen average population losses of about 30 percent each year since 2006, said Paul Towers, of the Pesticide Action Network. Towers was one of the organizers of a conference that brought together beekeepers and environmental groups this week to tackle the challenges facing the beekeeping industry and the agricultural economy by proxy.

"We are inching our way toward a critical tipping point," said Steve Ellis, secretary of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board (NHBAB) and a beekeeper for 35 years. Last year he had so many abnormal bee die-offs that he\'ll qualify for disaster relief from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In addition to continued reports of CCD -- a still somewhat mysterious phenomenon in which entire bee colonies literally disappear, alien-abduction style, leaving not even their dead bodies behind -- bee populations are suffering poor health in general, and experiencing shorter life spans and diminished vitality. And while parasites, pathogens, and habitat loss can deal blows to bee health, research increasingly points to pesticides as the primary culprit.

Read More:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-proof-system-is-broken-bee-colony.html

Terra Daily - Fate of bees worries Europe's parliament

by Staff Writers, Terra Daily
Brussels (AFP) Nov 15, 2011

Bothered by spiking mortality rates for bees, Europe's parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to urge the EU to provide more funding for the beekeeping sector.

MEPs voted 534 in favour, with 16 against and 92 abstentions, to support research and development in veterinary medecine to save the declining bee population, while also enforcing legislation on killer pesticides.

"Beekeeping is crucial for our society as pollination plays an essential role in preserving biodiversity and maintaining sustainable European agriculture and food security," said Hungarian Socialist Csaba Tabajdi, who drafted the resolution.

"Albert Einstein once said that without bees, man would live no more than four years," he added.

Better data on hives and bee losses were needed as well as funding for medicines because pharmaceutical firms were reluctant to invest in a relatively small market.

The European Commission also needed to issue legislative proposals to turn recommendations on pesticides into law, parliamentarians said.

Some 84 percent of Europe's fauna and 76 percent of agriculture depend on pollination from bees.