Harvard Study Links Neonicotinoid Pesticide To Colony Collapse Disorder

walterbyrd (182728) writes in with news about a new study from Harvard School of Public Health that links two widely used neonicotinoids to Colony Collapse Disorder. "Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), or the widespread population loss of honeybees, may have been caused by the use of neonicotinoids, according to a new study out of Harvard University. Neonicotinoids are a class of pesticides, chemically similar to nicotine. They were first developed for agricultural use in the 1980's by petroleum giant Shell. The pesticides were refined by Bayer the following decade. Two of these chemicals are now believed to be the cause of CCD, according to the new study from the School of Public Health at the university. This study replicated their own research performed in 2012."

Comments

The 111th explanation...

[pigiron]

for colony collapse. Stay tuned next week for the 112th.

The answer is in marketing

[jrumney]

Pesticides need to come with graphic images of deformed bee larvae covering at least 50% of the packaging. And we need to ban pesticide company sponsorship from gardening events (except lawnmower races, they can go a few more years before we ban it from there).

Re:Nice, but not everywhere neonicotinoids are use

[ArcherB]

Different bees, no winter to contend with, different ecosystem around the bees
Did you not read the part about Canada? I believe they have a winter on occasion.

Re:It must be bad!

[dimko]

Not sure if we on same boat with captain Obvious or we are rolling with captain Trolling.

Re:Doesn't that put the cat among the pigeons,

[fahrbot-bot]

I wonder how Bayer is going to keep this new study out of their court case where they're suing the EU for banning neonicotinoid pesticides.

Lawyers.

Do these neonicotinoid pesticides work on them too?

Re: Who would have guessed?

[AthanasiusKircher]

Enough neonicotionoid progress and you might have nothing left to eat. Or take turns pollinating the plants that will become your food with a brush.

Some plants -- particularly some that humans have bred for food, selecting bigger tastier food over reproduction potential -- already have impaired pollination features. Thus, pollination is already accomplished manually for some crops.

There are some ways to handle this on an industrial scale, but gardeners often do it by hand with certain plants. All it takes is a little stroll in the garden and some wrist action. Seriously. Years ago my neighbor always did this with his sweet corn plants and referred to it as "having sex with his corn."

Re: Who would have guessed?

[orangesquid]

Oh, my favorite pesticide to use is ricin, a natural component of the castor bean plant! ;)