Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Wildflowers Give Bees a Dose of Pesticides

Posted by timothy on from the bzzt-pass-it-on dept.

JMarshall writes: Wildflowers growing near fields sown with pesticide-treated seeds can be reservoirs of bee-harming neonicotinoid compounds, according to new research. The study suggests bees get most of their exposure to these pesticides from wildflowers, rather than from the crops the pesticides are designed to protect. At the peak of flowering season, 97% of the pollen brought back to beehives tested in the UK came from wildflowers, not the canola crops they were growing alongside.

2 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Bad reporters, no science for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Let's completely ignore that the large scale data shows that banning neonicotonoids didn't have ANY affect on the bee population in Europe. Though there's a huge amount of media-induced blame, a continent-wide experiment demonstrated that they aren't a significant factor, after much smaller scale studies showed the same thing. Now Europeans are using pesticides that are worse for the environment because they are less specific to the particular pests.

    1. Re:Bad reporters, no science for you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Since it persists in the environment, banning neonicotonoids isn't going to have an effect for many years.