Bee Colony Collapse Disorder Linked to Pesticides

[webmaster]

An article in USA Today reports that [url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/story/2012-03-28/pesticide-bee-navigation-colony-collapse-disorder/53868646/1]scientists have found a link to colony collapse disorder[/url] with a common agricultural pesticide.

Colony collapse disorder is marked by bees emptying out of hives and not returning. Bee colony losses have alarmed U.S. farmers, who rely on about 2.68 million managed bee colonies to pollinate crops, a $15 billion industry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Ironically, we have moved to neonicotinoids because they are safer for people. We may be seeing unintended consequences of solution to an earlier problem," says entomologist James Frazier of Penn State University in State College, Pa.

[lily51]

CCD is a problem which will continue to be studied. When this problem hit hard in the U.S. my Environmental science students investigated it and found 27 possible causes being scientifically tested..and that's just what they found.
Nicotine-based anything seems like it could be toxic to animals since nicotine is a poison produced by plants to deter predators.

A professional apiarist, who also served as pres of the national organization and is an organic gardener, spoke in our county this spring. He mentioned this pesticide, but said it didn't seem to be the cause. He said the official word they had was that a fungal-bacterial combination disease was being recognized as the culprit.
He also mentioned contaminated stock having been brought into this country.
Investigation is ongoing. Since there are so many variables, the cause could be causes, with several acting at the same time causing the mass impact.
Theories are subject to testing and change, so it will be interesting to follow this situation.

[webmaster]

Theories are subject to testing and change, so it will be interesting to follow this situation.

True, I agree. But it's a good first step for finding out more or developing different ways of protecting the bees. It could be a combination of things for all we know.

[GardenGnome]

I just started seeing bee's in my yard I have (english leather hedges?) That bring 1000's of bee's to my yard when they bloom you can hear the buzz across the yard. Ill have to look and see if there's still 1000's this year.