Culprit found for honeybee deaths in almond groves

The Ohio State University ^ | February 04, 2019 Culprit f | Misti Crane

[BenLurkin]

“Fungicides, often needed for crop protection, are routinely used during almond bloom, but in many cases growers were also adding insecticides to the mix. Our research shows that some combinations are deadly to the bees, and the simplest thing is to just take the insecticide out of the equation during almond bloom,” he said.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to use an insecticide when you have 80 percent of the nation’s honeybees sitting there exposed to it.”

The recommendation is already catching on and has been promoted through a wide array of presentations by almond industry leaders, beekeepers and other experts and has been included in the Almond Board’s honeybee management practices. Many almond growers are rethinking their previous practices and are backing off insecticide use during almond bloom, Johnson said.

That’s good news for bees, and doesn’t appear to be harming the crops either, he said, because there are better opportunities to control problematic insects when almonds are not in bloom.

“I was surprised – even the experts in California were surprised – that they were using insecticides during pollination,” Johnson said.

While these products were considered “bee-safe,” that was based on tests with adult bees that hadn’t looked into the impact they had on larvae.

“I think it was a situation where it wasn’t disallowed. The products were thought to be bee-safe and you’ve got to spray a fungicide during bloom anyway, so why not put an insecticide in the tank, too?”

[Seaplaner]

“I was surprised – even the experts in California were surprised – that they were using insecticides during pollination,” Johnson said.

Hmmm, not keeping up with the latest buzz.

We need to bee more aware of the hazards to our pollinating friends.

[snuffy smiff]

My parents used to winter down below Tampa where a lot of the fruits and veggies are grown. My mom told me how one day they were traveling somewhere in the orange growing area when all of a sudden their entire windshield was covered in dead honey bees! Seems an orange grower had had a bunch of beehives brought in to pollinate the orange trees and whomever had brought the hives had sat them out along a major highway! About the dumbest thing I’ve heard of in years!

[TigersEye]

Bee safe out there!

[dsrtsage]

This is only believable if the insectisides were caused by global warming

[dead]

Liberals have been basically calling for an end to civilization in response to the inexplicable dying off of honeybees. They had an actual problem identified, but not a cause, so the solution they were hoping for was a shut down all industry and a return to teepee living in a nation of 12,000 people and 8,000 acoustic guitars coast-to-coast.

It would be nice if the actual culprit is identified and the practiced stopped.

We need honeybees to pollinate and we need liberals to shut up.

[Saltmeat]

If the entire windshield of your parents car was suddenly covered with dead bees, then it is most likely that they drove through a swarm of bees. If so, this had nothing to do with the placement of the hives along a busy highway. The swarm could have traveled a good distance before flying into the car.

When a hive becomes to populated a second queen is established, and part of the hive (swarm) follows her to establish a new hive at another location. Nature has a way of taking care of itself until insecticides and cars happen on the scene.

[bioqubit]

fungicide laced honey. Something we can all enjoy.

[snuffy smiff]

Nope, Dad is still alive and said there must have been over 100 beehives there-the largest collection of hives were set out at a corner of the grove but the rest were scattered in bunches of 5-10 hives all alongside the highway. As he used keep bees I tend to think he knew what he was talking about. He was rather angry about the situation...