Friday, 50,000 Bumblebees, Over 300 Colonies Killed In Oregon

(Beyond Pesticides, June 24, 2013) Just as Pollinator Week began last week, an estimated 50,000 bumblebees, likely representing over 300 colonies, were found dead or dying in a shopping mall parking lot in Wilsonville, Oregon. Authorities confirmed  Friday that the massive bee die-off was caused by the use of a neonicotinoid pesticide, dinotefuran, on nearby trees. Then on Saturday, it was reported by The Oregonian that what could be hundreds of bees were found dead after a similar pesticide use in the neighboring town of Hillsboro.  According to the Xerces Society, this is the largest known incident of bumblebee deaths ever recorded in the country. Bumblebees, which are crucial to pollination of multiple berry and seed crops grown in the Willamette valley, have recently experienced dramatic population declines, a fate that is similar to other pollinators. Dan Hilburn, Director of plant programs at the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), told Oregon Live that he's "never encountered anything quite like it in 30 years in the business." The incident highlights the difficulty of permitting in commerce such a highly toxic material that indiscriminately kills beneficial insects.  A recent study, An overview of the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoid insecticides, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, documents that neonicotinoid persistence in soil and water can cause broad and far-reaching impacts on ecosystem health, much of which have undergone little scientific scrutiny. The author asserts that world leaders have failed to meet their commitment made at the 2002 Convention on Biological Diversity – to achieve a significant reduction in the rate biodiversity loss. He points to neonicotinoids as a potential cause of this failure, due to their long-term persistence in soil and water. He specifically points to soil dwelling insects, benthic aquatic insects, grain-eating vertebrates, and pollinators as being in particular danger from the use of these chemicals.   The ODA and Xerces Society had been working together to investigate the pesticide poisoning. After interviewing the landscaping company that maintains dozens of ornamental trees around the parking lot, ODA investigators learned that Safari, a pesticide product with the active ingredient dinotefuran, had recently been applied on Saturday, June 15 to control aphids.Dinotefuran is a neonicotinoid pesticide that is highly toxic to bees; the product's label strictly forbids its use if bees are in the area.  Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society, noted that the pesticide was applied to the tree while it was flowering, an action that violates the product's instructions. "Beyond the fact that a pesticide was applied to plants while they were attracting large numbers of bees, in this case the pesticide was applied for purely cosmetic reasons. There was no threat to human health or the protection of farm crops that even factored into this decision."  Neonicotinoids, including dinotefuran, can be broadly applied as a spray, soil drench, or seed treatment, however, the ability of these chemicals to translocate through a plant as it grows has led to the creation of a large market within chemical-intensive landscaping and agriculture. Once these systemic pesticides are taken up by a plant's vascular system, they are expressed through pollen, nectar and guttation droplets from which pollinators such as bees then forage and drink. Neonicotinoids kill sucking and chewing insects by disrupting their nervous systems. Beginning in the late 1990s, these systemic insecticides also began to take over the seed treatment market. Clothianidin and imidacloprid are two of the most commonly used neonicotinoid pesticides. Both are known to be toxic to insect pollinators, and are lead suspects as causal factors in honey bee colony collapse disorder. An extensive overview of the major studies showing the effects of neonicotiniods on pollinator health can be found on Beyond Pesticides' What the Science Shows webpage.  Several different crops in the Willamette valley of Oregon rely heavily on the pollination services provided by bumblebees. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and crop seed production, which are grown in Oregon, all rely on bumblebees for pollination. Mace Vaughn, pollinator conservation program director with the Xerces Society, told Oregon Live, "Bumblebees are the single most important natural pollinator in Oregon." source: via email Insecticide temporarily banned by Oregon Department of Agriculture after 50,000 bumblebees die in Wilsonville WILSONVILLE, OREGON -- June 18, 2013 -- A bumblebee dies after falling off a Landen tree at Town Loop Shopping Center parking lot. An estimated 25,000 bumblebees were found dead beginning Saturday, the largest known incident in the United States. (Motoya Nakamura) In response to a massive bumblebee die-off blamed on pesticides, the Oregon Department of Agriculture issued a temporary restriction Thursday on 18 insecticides with the active ingredient dinotefuran.  An estimated 50,000 bees and other insects died in a Wilsonville shopping center parking lot last week. A landscaper sprayed 55 flowering European linden trees with Safari pesticide on June 15. State officials confirmed the dinotefuran insecticide was responsible for the deaths. Hundreds of dead bees in Hillsboro are also being investigated.  "We're not trying to get it off the shelves, or trying to tell people to dispose of it, we're just telling people not to use it," said Bruce Pokarney, a spokesperson for the department of agriculture.  While Pokarney acknowledged it would be difficult to cite individual homeowners, he said licensed pesticide applicators would be violating Oregon regulations if they use dinotefuran-based insecticides on plants in the next 180 days. The temporary ban only affects pesticide use that might harm pollinators, like bumblebees. Safari is one of the insecticides restricted by the Agriculture Department. Most of the restricted insecticides are used primarily for ornamental, not agricultural, pest control.  Dinotefuran use in flea collars, and ant and roach control will still be allowed.  The Department of Agriculture will reassess the temporary restriction after officials finish their investigation into the pesticide applications in Wilsonville and Hillsboro. These inquiries could take up to four months.  The Valent U.S.A. Corporation, which distributes Safari, could not be reached for comment, but the company released a statement earlier this week about the bee deaths.  "We are actively conducting outreach with our customers and industry partners to reinforce the importance of responsible use according to label guidelines," the statement said.  Dinotefuran is a member of a type of insecticides called neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids can be broken down into two groups: the nitro-group and the cyano-group. Dinotefuran is a member of the nitro-group, which has been shown to be more poisonous to pollinators. The European Union issued a temporarily ban earlier this year on three other nitro-group neonicotinoids, which goes into effect this December.  The Washington state Department of Agriculture decided against banning the ornamental use of neonicotinoids earlier this month. Instead, the Washington department will "urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to consider whether additional use restrictions are needed when the products are applied to ornamental plants."  The EPA is currently reviewing the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators, since research and beekills incidents highlight "the potential direct and/or indirect effects of neonicotinic pesticides," its website said.  The Portland-based Xerces Society, who originally reported the Wilsonville bee deaths to the Department of Agriculture, is working with a congressional office on legislation about pollinators and pesticide use, said Scott Black, Xerces' executive director.  "We hope that this is just the start, that now we can take a look at this entire class of pesticides called neonicotiniods and really scrutinize them for their potential impact on these beneficial insects," Black said.  --Elizabeth Case source: OregonLive

Massive Honeybee Colony Die-Off

Updated 6-5-2013

The World Impact Of The Bee Die-Off

The trouble with bees.  Their die-off is now global.  We follow the bee problem around the world.

If bees go, we all know, humans are in trouble.  And a lot of bees have been going lately.  Huge die-offs.  Colony collapse.  All over.

The bottom line issue, of course, is that bees pollinate a big chunk of the crops that feed us.  In China now it’s gotten so bad they are hand-pollinating blossoms in orchards.  Doing by human hand what billions of bees once did.  Talk about unsustainable.

New or old  breeds of bees may save the day, but the biggest of those are killer bees.

This hour, On Point:  the latest on the lives and deaths of bees.

- Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Markus Imhoof, Academy-Award-nominated director and screenwriter of the new documentary, “More Than Honey.”

Eric Mussen, extension apiculturist at the University of California Davis.

From Tom’s Reading List

USA Today: Scientists Take Swat at Honeybee Loss — “Paul Campanis lost half of his beehives on his 16-acre Nashville farm this winter. Nashville gardener David Davies has seen so little honeybee activity this spring that he’s resorted to using a paintbrush to pollinate his tomato and squash plants. The nation’s honeybees are dying off in record numbers and researchers, including at the University of Tennessee, are scrambling to figure out why.”

Reuters: Honeybee food may contribute to U.S. colony collapse -study — “Bee keepers’ use of corn syrup and other honey substitutes as bee feed may be contributing to colony collapse by depriving the insects of compounds that strengthen their immune systems, according to a study released on Monday.”

NBC News: ‘Killer bees’ leave Texas man dead, woman in serious condition— “A Texas man was stung to death after he drove his tractor into a pile of wood that concealed a hive of 40,000 “killer bees,” authorities and family members said Sunday. Every inch of exposed skin was covered with stings on the body of Larry Goodwin, 62, of Moody, Texas, family members told NBC station KCEN of Waco.”

source: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/06/05/bee-die-off

Updated 6-5-2013

1,500 Colonies of Honeybees Die in Campeche

1,500 colonies of honeybees, from a community in Hopelchen, Campeche, died this February 6 from the fumigation of Monsanto’s GMO’s in a nearby area.

This has directly impacted more than 50 impoverished families, who recently suffered a poor corn crop due to drought. The community was relying on their sale of organic honey to compensate for the lack of maize. The current honey left by the bees is also lost due to the contamination of pesticides and transgenic pollen.

Alvaro Mena, a mayan farmer from Hopelchen and member of the Network in Defense of Maize, estimated losses at nearly 10 million pesos and is the equivalent of one year’s worth of corn and honey production for the community.

Fumigation has intensified where GM crops have been planted in Mexico. GMO’s are known to be resistant to pesticides and are planted in large monocultures, applying huge amounts of Roundup. It is no accident says Mena: it is the toxic onslaught that comes with GM crops and the threat of allowing millions of acres of GM Maize to be planted.

Mena attended the debate at which officials failed to attend and began with his witness of GMO’s. Thousands showed up to participate in the debate on GM maize on Thursday, February 7, in a packed auditorium of the Faculty of Science, organized by several networks, including #YoSoy132 Environmental Via Campesina Popular Urban Movement, and the Network in Defense of Maize.

The officials were called to discuss the authorities of Agriculture, Environment and the Interministerial Commission on Biosafety and Genetically Modified Organisms (Cibiogem), but did not attend the meeting of social organizations and visiting scientists. The two secretariats claimed that they had no position on the issue. Currently, there are thousands of hectares of experimental and pilot fields in Mexico contaminating transgenic maize fields. Cibiogem, is reported to have had a busy schedule and could not attend.

Semarnat’s response, sent the day of the debate, stated that the “reports that are pending will not go away because of a think tank debate.”  The debate was composed of academics from UNAM, CINVESTAV, Colpi, Conacyt UAAAN and was meant to determine a “public policy on GM corn.”

Several opinions are not in favor of GMOs, and many scientific recommendations have been given to the recently elected Mexico Government from the first day they took office. They have received a solid flow of documents signed by researchers from the above mentioned institutions and others (over 3,000 scientists and experts, who have a high number of national and international awards) calling to cancel transgenic maize crops in centers of origin for the risks involved, and to establish “an immediate review of the environmental and social aspects that would be impacted by planting transgenic maize in Mexico, based on rigorous science and broad public participation (…) for the consideration of the best technological options to address food production in our country. ”

read more at: http://www.theyucatantimes.com/2013/02/1500-colonies-of-honeybees-die-in-campeche/

Nick The Beekeeper

Montecito Bees A Signal of Things to Come?

Household Use of Pesticides Potential Threat to Local Bee Populations

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Sunday, February 3, 2013

by RAY FORD (CONTACT)

Montecito — When Santa Barbara Beekeeper’s Association (SBBA) President Paul Cronshaw received a call from one of the local beekeepers that he mentors on October 8, 2012, the news was not good. Carrie Kappel, a marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara, is one of about 20 backyard beekeepers that Cronshaw mentors as a part of his efforts to support the growth of what he calls the “backyard beekeeper” movement.

“There’s something wrong with my bees,” Kappel told Cronshaw, who quickly rushed over to examine her hive. “It was like the bees were intoxicated,” Cronshaw related. “They were stumbling about and trying to fly but weren’t able to.”

“It was devastating to see the number of dead bees outside the hive, and watch those in their death throes, twitching and stumbling around in front of the hive, unable to fly,” Kappel added. Over the next few weeks she watched as her hive went from a healthy population of almost 70,000 bees to being completely empty in less than a month with dead bodies scattered everywhere.

Then came more reports of die-offs in other local hives — a total that would eventually increase to include sixteen backyard hives. Mysteriously, the die-offs all seemed to be coming from one small part of Montecito bounded by Olive Mill on the west, East Valley Road on the north, Ortega Ridge to the west and the ocean on the south.

read more at http://www.independent.com/news/2013/feb/03/montecito-bees-signal-things-come/

EPA Approved GMO Insecticide Responsible For Killing Off Bees & Puts Entire Food Chain at Risk

Posted by: The Liberty Beacon™ Staff
Published February 18, 2013, filed under ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH

New information has come out that links an insecticide approved by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to killing off millions of Bees and puts food chain at risk. In early 2011 several leaked documents obtained by a Colorado beekeeper brought light to the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) illegitimate approval of Clothianidin, an extremely toxic pesticide made by Bayer CropScience, came regardless of the fact the agency knew it was capable of killing off Bees. As a new study emerges from Purdue University, not only is it 100% confirmed that Clothianidin is killing bees, but also that Clothinaidin’s toxicity is now found throughout the entire food chain.

More from Natural News:

The study, which was published in the online journalPLoS ONE, investigated the various methods and routes by which a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which includes clothianidin, are harming honey bees. They discovered that both clothianidin and thiamethoxam, another component of neonicotinoid insecticides, persist in “extremely high levels” in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of crops treated with these insecticides, which runs contrary to industry claims that the chemicals biodegrade and are not a threat.

The research team also found neonicotinoid compounds in soil, including in fields where the chemicals were not even sprayed, as well as on various plants and flowers visited by bees. Based on their analysis, the researchers involved with the study determined that bees actively transfer contaminated pollen from primarily neonicotinoid-treated corn crops, and bring it back to their hives. The bees also transfer neonicotinoid compounds to other plants and crops not treated with the chemicals, which shows just how persistent these chemicals truly are in the environment.

You can read the entire report for yourself at the following link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250423/?tool=pubmed

“This research should nail the coffin lid shut on clothianidin,” said Laurel Hopwood, chairwoman of theSierra Club‘sGenetic Engineering Action Team, who is petitioning the EPA to finally ban these chemicals after years of needless delay. “Despite numerous attempts by the beekeeping industry and conservation organizations to persuade the EPA to ban clothianidin, the EPA has failed to protect the food supply for the American people.”

Without bees, which are now dying off at an alarming rate due to exposure to clothianidin and various other insecticides and fungicides, one third or more of the food supply will be destroyed, including at least 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables that rely on bees for pollination. This is why Dr. Neil Carman, Ph.D., scientific advisor toSierra Club, has put out a call for the EPA to immediately ban the use of clothianidin and the other neonicotinoid insecticides for the sake of protecting the food supply from irreversible destruction.

As we continue to take actions like this on the planet we continue to see that how we do things simply cannot sustain. This type of issue does not just reflect how we treat nature but also reflects how we operate as a whole. If money wasn’t so important, we wouldn’t be finding unnatural ways to do everything on this planet. If w weren’t so concerned with maintaing an economy an competition stuff like this wouldn’t affect us. This is all a perfect lesson for us to ask “What the heck are we doing to our planet?” We are at a point where our very survival is now threatened because w are fighting so hard to maintain a system we all don’t like anyway.

Read original here: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2012/04/09/epa-approved-gmo-insecticide-responsible-for-killing-off-bees-puts-entire-food-chain-at-risk/