skippy the bush kangaroo: da buzz on da buzzing off bees

Friday, May 23, 2008

da buzz on da buzzing off bees

pesticides: germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation. the german federal office of consumer protection and food safety has suspended the registration for eight pesticide seed treatment products used in rapeseed oil and sweetcorn. - london guardian

honeybee loss. a few weeks after honeybee keepers in the southern german state of baden württemberg reported a wave of sudden honeybee deaths, federal authorities have ordered a suspension on the sale and trafficking of clothianidin-based pesticides. - chemical & engineering news.

germany suspends pesticide approvals after mass death of bees. the german office for consumer protection and food safety (bvl) has reportedly suspended the approval for eight pesticides after the mass death of bees in one state. - all headline news

the mystery of b.c.'s dying bees. something unknown killed 30 per cent of british columbia's bees over the winter, throwing fruit production into turmoil. - toronto globe & mail

Labels: bees, canada, environment, germany

posted by Cookie Jill at 3:48 PM |

2 Comments:

Pesticides and herbicides, unless they and their breakdown products can be clearly shown to be harmless to the environment, should all be banned. Recently there is one called "Image" that promises to eliminate all plant growth for a year in the area to which it is applied. This is insanity. A recent article in Discover deals with the pollution caused by breakdown of various plastics which create hormone-like compounds that appear to be damaging the development of children. An analogous development is that many medicines given in various combinations to older adults result in decreased mobility and more rapid aging. We need to learn how to live with nature, not battle with it.

commented by

James38, 6:06 PM PDT

The bees in B.C. are being killed by greed and long cool winters: nothing mysterious about it, I'm afraid. There is a large market for pollen, especially among the New-Agers who are touting it as (yet another) pancea, and many keepers are taking that out of the hive along with the supers of honey: unfortunately, pollen is the bees' only source of protien, so if the winter is long (or early Spring is particularly wet) then the bees can only take what is in their hive for food. Less pollen = starvation.

What isn't mentioned in the Globe & Mail is that one of the largest keepers predicted the wet Spring, and harvested less honey from the bees than he would normally (and no pollen). End result: he didn't lose a single one of his hundreds of hives.

The worst weather for bees is a blast of warm (bringing them out of their dormant state) followed by cold and rain; we've been getting this pattern more frequently in recent years. Heavy rain does two things: it stops bees from flying and it knocks blooms off of trees and plants, lessening access to what bees normally eat.

There is the usual biological warfare going on between bees and bee keepers and infestations of varroa, nosema, and other nasty stuff, and this could be another stage in that battle. That's a little doubtful because of the inconsistency of the hive loss/disease relation, but it's still possible.

I live on Vancouver Island, quoted in the story as having been hardest hit by this "mystery", and just wrapped up a bee keeping course, so I've been talking to a number of apiarists recently. The images that I've seen in print and television of keepers holding up a comb with dead bees on it certainly looks like starvation - spread bodies, many head-down into chambers. Can't speak to what's happening in Germany, of course.

I certainly agree that herbicides and pesticides need to have strong controls on them, but around here the so called Colony Collapse Disorder isn't evidence of anything more than careless bee keepers, bad weather, and an overly exciteable media.

commented by

Thursday, 10:16 PM PDT

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