Bees and Pesticides

[The Helpful Gardener]

Boy, we gotta be careful with bees, people. Even our organic stuff can be harmful if we aren't careful, and the other stuff, well it appears to be taking it''s toll. [url=https://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/bad-winter-and-pesticides-spell-trouble-honeybees.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher]New studies[/url] are showing stronger ties to pesticide build-ups in honey and wax.

The pesticide companies and the government agencies that oversee them ( ) have been talking about the mites, and the viruses, and these are certainly issues that need discussion but pesticides like Sevin are still on the shelf despite the known harms to both humans and bees. It is clear we cannot expect to get a good control on Isreali Acute Paralysis Virus or any of the other virals attacks, though I know an organic beekeeper doing very nicely at keeping varroa mites out of his colony with open bottomed hives (the mites simply fall through in droves and can't restablish themselves), this other assault on bees is stoppable, unnecessary, and dangerous to us to boot.

We can do better...

HG

[Ozark Lady]

Speaking of bees, there isn't much in bloom here about this early in the year, it was nice and warm today.

My aprictot tree is in full bloom, and the peach tree is opening blossoms. Just walking by the trees today, it was like a mini-airport, bzzzzz.

Then just as the sun set, out came the bats, I am serious, we were sitting here watching them circle.

The bees do get home and into bed before the bats get out, don't they?

[cynthia_h]

I'm pretty sure that bees are diurnal and bats are nocturnal, so they never see one another. *Thank goodness!*

I almost never see honeybees on my roses or lavender or any of the other plants they like until 10:00 or later, no matter what month it is, so I don't think it's a specific angle of the sun they're waiting for or temperature, although I've read (somewhere...) that bees won't leave the hive until the temp is maybe 55 deg F (approx. 12 deg C). Nor do they fly in the rain.

They disappear in the late afternoon. *This is the time* to apply neem oil, if it needs to be applied for any reason. Keep watch, and when the bees have left for the day and the coast is clear, then the neem oil can be applied where needed.

I would extend this advice a little further and suggest that the insecticidal soap sprays be applied after the bees have gone home for the evening as well.

Better safe than...not pollinated.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[Ozark Lady]

Our nighttime low temps are 50+ for the next week. So, it will not be based on the temperature. It just seemed to me that the bats were out early, it was not dark, it was sunset, still twilight, and that is what concerned me.

The bees were having a blast at 6:30pm. When we were digging some strawberry plants up. I bet they aren't on daylight savings time! ha ha.

[rainbowgardener]

I was just reading something a few days ago (that unfortunately I can't seem to track down again right now) that said so far 2010 seems to be much worse than 2009 for colony collapse disorder. Commercial beekeepers that ship hives to pollinate, e.g., almond groves are finding very high percentages of abandoned hives. And when they check out the hives they find high levels of pesticides ... not so much a super high level of any one pesticide, but significant levels of 20 or 30 or more. ...

[Ozark Lady]

The poor honeybees, they are weakened by all the pesticide exposure, then they have mites that have been getting on them, much like dog ticks.

Then they have beetles that are getting into their hives and laying eggs, and the larvae are destroying the honey, making it ferment, and the adult beetles are feeding on baby bees.

With all this going on, bees are still being imported that have disease!

Oh I didn't even mention the africanized bees that simply outcompete with the European bees and soon the European bees are simply losing the battle all the way around. Folks are learning to deal with the africanized bees, and learning to spot the problem, and requeening with a non-african queen. But, it is a process, takes time.

I can't help what other folks do, as far as, importing sick bees, using pesticides in commercial areas etc. All I can do is make my little piece of the world a honeybee oasis, offering pesticide free blooms, all kinds of grasses that bloom for bee forage, and bird baths containing clean water for my little friends. And spread the world... bees need help, plant flowering plants, even grasses like clover, no pesticides, clean water available to them, and make folks aware.