Posted on 05/11/2014 7:05:56 AM PDT by Renfield
The mysterious vanishing of honeybees from hives can be directly linked to insectcide use, according to new research from Harvard University. The scientists showed that exposure to two neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used class of insecticide, lead to half the colonies studied dying, while none of the untreated colonies saw their bees disappear.
"We demonstrated that neonicotinoids are highly likely to be responsible for triggering 'colony collapse disorder' in honeybee hives that were healthy prior to the arrival of winter," said Chensheng Lu, an expert on environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health and who led the work.
The loss of honeybees in many countries in the last decade has caused widespread concern because about three-quarters of the world's food crops require pollination. The decline has been linked to loss of habitat, disease and pesticide use. In December 2013, the European Union banned the use of three neonicotinoids for two years....
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
There have been lots of reports in the last 10 yrs or so of bee hives dieing out. However they are just studying DOMESTIC bees, not wild bees. I suspect that the inbreeding of the domestic bees is a large part of the problem as the wild bees all seem to be doing fine.
and they thought frogs were dying because of Global Warming(or some bull like that) and it turned out it was research frogs were released into the wild
It comes from Harvard.
Harvard physics & math...believable.
All else?
Beware...idiot alert.
I hadn’t heard about the dying frogs. What happened?
I highly recommend signing up with Arbor Day Foundation (http://www.arborday.org/) With each membership you get 10 free trees. I’ve been getting flowering trees. They arrive as 18” to 24” twigs, and over 90% of them take root. It takes a few years for them to bloom. Trees can also increase rainfall. We need to start planting trees in the borderlands between areas suitable for farming and dry areas to gradually increase arable land.
In addition trumpet vines and passionflower vines are great host plants for honeybees, butterflys and hummingbirds. They make great fence cover and bloom beautifully throughout most of the summer and fall.
The neurological poisons affect people too.
The trees are fine, its the weather that’s the problem this year.
I’ve become a regular Rose of Sharon Johnny Appleseed in my little town. Every year I start a bout a dozen from seed and give them away to neighbors the next spring. They’re great for late season flowers from mid to late July till the first good frost.
Agreed. Anything coming out of ANY Public School of Health ought to be carefully scrutinized. Those Schools are absolutely infested with do-gooders, socialists, Obama-lovers, anticapitalists, and freedom-haters.
“The neurological poisons affect people too.”
Maybe that would explain the rise of liberalism?
It is certainly a disorder!
Leaving the hives?
The workers are rebelling it would seem.
Down with the Queen!
Down with unfair work hours!
Down with poor retirement packages!!!
Is any of this killing the Africanized killer bees?
Are hostile invasive species responsible for some of the lowering numbers?
Once again, I read news I need to know, or should know, from a foreign media and in this case, a far left rag. Even so, this research confirms what many beekeepers already know.
I’ve lost my last two hives, partly due to the cold and partly due to the city’s truck driving around the streets spewing a chemical aerosol to kill mosquitoes. Hopefully, I will be able to get another package of bees tomorrow.
That is some dangerous stuff. On the farm were I use to work, the men were damn careful when working with it. You didn't even go into the field until 24 hours after it was sprayed.
It would not surprise me that in banning DDT, the Government has instead promoted a replacement insecticide with more problems. Yet another case of "unanticipated problems".
The loss of honeybees in many countries in the last decade has caused widespread concern because about three-quarters of the world’s food crops require pollination.
***
While I am in no position to dispute the findings reported here, the writer of the piece proves himself ignorant with that sentence.
Honey bees are not native to the United States, and there are many many species of wild bees as well as other insects and even some birds that can pollinate our crops.
Lest anyone brand me an apiphobe, one of my adult sons is a beginning beekeeper, so I have grandbees.
Bur many of my fellow Freepers will tell you that insecticide is what makes food good.
They want a higher minimum wage I guess
Coastal Oregon had beautiful weather and the flowerrs stayed on the trees, for a change. I saw no honeybees at all this year, ‘til I saw ONE yesterday. If the Miner bees did their job, maybe there will be a crop.
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