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Popular Pesticides Keep Bumblebees From Laying Eggs (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Wild bees, such as bumblebees, don't get as much love as honeybees, but they should. They play just as crucial a role in pollinating many fruits, vegetables and wildflowers, and compared to managed colonies of honeybees, they're in much greater jeopardy. A group of scientists in the United Kingdom decided to look at how bumblebee queens are affected by some widely used and highly controversial pesticides known as neonicotinoids. What they found isn't pretty. Neonics, as they're often called, are applied as a coating on the seeds of some of the most widely grown crops in the country, including corn, soybeans and canola. These pesticides are "systemic" -- they move throughout the growing plants. Traces of them end up in pollen, which bees consume. Neonicotinoid residues also have been found in the pollen of wildflowers growing near fields and in nearby streams. The scientists, based at Royal Holloway University of London, set up a laboratory experiment with bumblebee queens. They fed those queens a syrup containing traces of a neonicotinoid pesticide called thiamethoxam, and the amount of the pesticide, they say, was similar to what bees living near fields of neonic-treated canola might be exposed to. Bumblebee queens exposed to the pesticide were 26 percent less likely to lay eggs, compared to queens that weren't exposed to the pesticide. The team published their findings in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Farmers don't operate in a market.
Corn, Soy and canola are all heavily subsidised in both Europe and the US.
Interestingly the Shorthaired Bumblebee was extinct in the UK, but because it had been introduced to New Zealand in the 1880's a new population could be started.
That might not be that interesting actually.
But the plants most homeowners use pesticides on are not the flowering kinds that most bees go for. Lawn grass is rarely, if ever, allowed to flower because it is mowed (save maybe some low-growing clover... which is not grass anyway).
I know in my yard, the ONLY thing I use neonicotinoids on are my non-flowering ornamental bushes (which are trimmed enough to keep from flowering). Without it, unfortunately most would all be dead due to scale. Yes, I tried everything else and nothing worked until I applied Merit and that stuff is magic. Applied only once a year and the problem is gone.
I don't think the casual use by homeowners seeking protection of some established ornamentals is much (if any) exposure to bees. Its use is relatively infinitesimal (and the price extremely steep... one treatment for 20 bushes in my yard is about $50 for a single application). The wide-spread use on huge agricultural farms, however, could be significant (if neonicotinoids really are the main problem with harm to bees).
I would not be in favor of any type of across-the-board ban of neonicotinoids if it would mean taking it out of the hands of responsible use in ways that can't possibly be much danger.
No bees means no pollination.
Wrong. Many crops don't require bees for pollination. For instance, corn pollen is carried in the wind. Other crops, such as alfalfa are pollinated by bees, but don't need pollination to produce the crop (the leaves and stems) and may produce more foliage without pollination. So why should these farmers give a crap about a beekeeper a mile away that they don't even know? Hint: They don't.
It is already ILLEGAL to spray these pesticides without notifying the beekeepers, but enforcement is lax, and when a beekeeper finds a million dead bees in her hives, it is almost impossible to find out which farmer was responsible.
These pesticides should be banned except for some very narrow uses.
Disclaimer: My mom is a beekeeper. I help her with her hives, so I know a bit about these issues.
Nicotine has been shown to have a similar effect on mammals.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...
I know its not the same, but they are part of the same family of chemicals, this should really have been investigated before they were approved for wider use.
You REALLY need to re-do your research. Neonics are synthetic and NOT used by organic farmers. You might be thinking of nicotine.
I know in my yard, the ONLY thing I use neonicotinoids on are my non-flowering ornamental bushes (which are trimmed enough to keep from flowering). Without it, unfortunately most would all be dead due to scale. Yes, I tried everything else and nothing worked until I applied Merit and that stuff is magic. Applied only once a year and the problem is gone.
Maybe the fact that they cannot survive without putting toxic chemicals on them is a hint you should take. How about planting something that doesn't require special toxins to survive. Native plants are usually a good start.
I don't think the casual use by homeowners seeking protection of some established ornamentals is much (if any) exposure to bees.
Based on what evidence? You "don't think" it is a problem why exactly? And we're not talking about one or two homeowners. We're talking about millions of them all across the country using quite a lot of the stuff. Furthermore the chemicals don't just stay were you spray them and they don't magically disappear.
I would not be in favor of any type of across-the-board ban of neonicotinoids if it would mean taking it out of the hands of responsible use in ways that can't possibly be much danger.
Given that there appears to be substantial evidence of important negative effects on critical pollinators, exactly what is the basis of your argument? Because you think your are being "responsible" with them? Particularly in regards to plants that are purely ornamental. There is such a thing a responsible use in the food supply but no such thing exists for ornamental plants including lawn grass. If your lawn requires even occasional spraying then you are Doing It Wrong.
The investigation of pesticides is more driven at colony collapse which is the sudden disappearance of the workers leaving the queen and a few nurses the reasoning for it are still misunderstood. This research at least provides some path to explain why the bees disappeared. If the queen is producing fewer eggs, the workers may be able to sense that is occurring and leave the hive either going feral, dying, or attempting to merge with another colony with a healthy queen because it is very rare that the bees in a hive will leave while there's still brood in cells.
When the colony dies, a bunch of dead bees in the hive, it's far easier to autopsy the hive and determine a cause. You could find the presence of varroa mites, indicators that the bees are suffering from dysentery or nosema, American/European foulbrood, starvation, or a loss of a queen which could not be replaced. There's numerous other reasons as well but unless you perform the autopsy on what you find you can't determine the cause. Blindly blaming pesticides for a bunch of dead bees is pointless when you have the option to find the cause of the colony death.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
One of the problems with residential use is all the idiots who can't follow directions. Label says 50:1 mixture, they say that 10:1 must be better. Don't know much about neonicotinoids but do know that with most systematic herbicides, it's actually self defeating as it kills the tops before it transfers to the roots.
Took a pesticide applicators course a long time ago and it was consistently stressed that pesticides are a last resort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism