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Wildflowers Give Bees a Dose of Pesticides
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.
Since it persists in the environment, banning neonicotonoids isn't going to have an effect for many years.
Let's completely ignore that the large scale data shows that banning neonicotonoids didn't have ANY affect on the bee population in Europe.
Neonicotinoids are not banned in Europe, so this data does not exist.
Monsanto has demanded licensing payments for every jar sold of Pesticide Honey (TM).
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
I think that one lesson of this research is that since bees get their honey not just from the targeted crops it's generally worth to try and contain the pesticides better. That means taking in account wind, drop size, delivery method. In fact it could mean that the pesticides on the targeted crops are the least of your concerns. Which is interesting.
IIRC, it took something like 20 years before the effects of DDT were removed enough from the environment to be measured. Just because you sat in the bottom of the latrine for years doesn't mean 1 shower washes the stink off of you.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
At least one expert disagrees with you.
"Dr Lynn Dicks, a biodiversity and ecosystem services research fellow at the University of Cambridge, told the Science Media Centre: "We now have robust evidence that neonicotinoids have a serious impact on free-living bumblebee colonies in real farmed landscapes."
http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...
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