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Colony Collapse Disorder Linked To Pesticide, High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Posted by timothy on from the eat-your-vegetables-honey dept.

hondo77 writes "Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health '...have re-created the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder in several honeybee hives simply by giving them small doses of a popular pesticide, imidacloprid.' This follows recently-reported studies also linked the disorder to neonicotinoid pesticides. What is really interesting is the link to when the disorder started appearing, 2006. 'That mechanism? High-fructose corn syrup. Many bee-keepers have turned to high-fructose corn syrup to feed their bees, which the researchers say did not imperil bees until U.S. corn began to be sprayed with imidacloprid in 2004-2005. A year later was the first outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder.'"

7 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. This 'science' is for the bees! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    - Big Corn

  2. Re:Tangential Jab by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    For the benefit of those of us unaware of any controversy, what kind of emotional response could be triggered by mentioning high-fructose corn syrup?

    Disgust.

    A shudder of disgust runs through me when I see a 400 pounder sucking on a Coca-Cola (basically a mixture of high-fructose corn syrup and water).

  3. Re:Still needs more research by haruchai · · Score: 2, Funny

    Looks like Fred Singer, Steven Milloy and the CEI / Heartland folks will have something to distract them from denying global warming for a bit.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  4. Re:Still needs more research by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    My guess is that he's a Ruby on Rails programmer. That clearly makes him qualified to hold an authoritative opinion on any matter in any field.

  5. Re:Still needs more research by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, I didn't realize we were calling ROR kids "programmers" now.

  6. Re:Explained in Article! by kimvette · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a neurotoxin that causes paralysis by disrupting a neurotransmitter that's present in insects but not in warm-blooded animals. It acts on contact.

    Does it also affect reptiles and other cold-blooded animals, or just the insect world? I'm just curious because I wonder if we feed this to politicians and lawyers it might solve all the world's problems and result in world peace.

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  7. Re:Still needs more research by martin-boundary · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, since HTML codemonkeys are now called app developers, why not?